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tone/gain

I'm very new to messing with electronics. I built a little amp with the Gitty/Artec board. It really needs a tone control. I've watched the video on adding a panel mount gain control to it. At the beginning they refer to adding a tone/gain control. Does that mean that adding either pot to the same place, in the same way, will produce either desired function?

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on June 8, 2018 at 7:50am

That may be a good answer, but it's not the question I asked.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on June 8, 2018 at 7:29pm

A Gain pot does effect the tone, but it isn't the same thing.

Gain adds mild distortion and overdrive to the output by adding more output level. Tone changes the sound from bright(setting of 10) to dark(setting of 1) changing the amounts of bass and treble.

Bigger and more expensive amps will have a Volume, Gain, Treble, Midrange and Bass control knobs.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on June 9, 2018 at 5:42am

I understand that. My question related to the fact that in the video on this site about adding an external gain pot to the Gitty amp it says (approximately) "adding a panel mount tone/gain control to this amp." Their use of the term "tone/gain" led me to wonder, as was not made clear in the video, whether wiring either in the manner shown would produce either result.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on June 9, 2018 at 7:12am

I think they where referring to the same thing because of some people calling it a tone.

The little Artec amps have a place to connect a Gain pot, some amp cards require the removal of a cube pot with a set amount of gain(has a little screw on top) and then using those pins to connect a adjustable Gain pot with a knob.

You can wire a tone pot off the volume pot if you want a tone, but it only does so much with these small output amps. I can post a pic of the layout for adding a tone pot off the volume pot if you want.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on June 9, 2018 at 10:17am

Sure I'd love to see it. I mostly play what amounts to a big steel string baritone uke. I love my little amp, but I'd like to be able to shave just a little off the top.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on June 10, 2018 at 8:01am

Just follow the diagram of the volume and tone controls at bottom center of this schematic for adding a tone pot to your volume pot. Be sure to add the cap to ground for the tone pot(100nf is equal to .1uf)