Adding an extra trim pot between pickups and preamp

[RRWesner]

Hi, I am having an issue with the output from my pickups clipping the preamp I just added to my bass. Everything sounds great when I lower the pickups but they are part of an integrated ramp so that defeats the purpose of having that.

My questions is, if I were to install a trim pot like the one found on preamps between the pickups and the preamp would that solve my problem? I could lower the volume coming from the pickups enough to not clip the preamp.

I'm thinking of ordering a set of trim pots and trying various values until I get the right one.

 

[MoireBass]

Sure, real easy. I'd use a current-divider connection instead of a voltage-divider or series connection.
That's the good thing about trimpots, you can adjust them to what you want with a screwdriver. I'd probably just start with a 500K unless that doesn't give fine enough control.

 

[iiipopes]

Actually, since it is only a trim pot, I would use a trim pot much lower in value. On a guitar I have where I wanted to lower the neck pickup output just a hair to match the bridge pickup, I only had to use a 500-ohm (not K-ohm) resister to get it to balance.

 

[RRWesner]

Sure, real easy. I'd use a current-divider connection instead of a voltage-divider or series connection.
That's the good thing about trimpots, you can adjust them to what you want with a screwdriver. I'd probably just start with a 500K unless that doesn't give fine enough control.

I think I'm a bit over my head here with the difference between a voltage divider vs current divider. Do you know of any resources to help with this?

I was thinking to wire the trim pot like a normal volume pot but that would be series making it a voltage divider instead of current divider, correct? Or am I totally off here?