"Stupidly Simple Gain Control" ( SSGC ) :D

[MartyMart]

OK, someone shoot me if this is just "TOO" obvious and has been done, but I can't
find anything that does this exactly the same way .....

Gain control's seem to always pose a problem for the guitarist, in that you turn it up on
your "Rat-808-Dist+Jfet superoverdiver" and you get ( almost always ) two things :

1 - an overdrive/distortion increase ( great )
2 - an overall "volume" increase      ( not always what you want )

... so you have to reach down and turn the volume pot down a bit to keep your level the same
as the previous "slightly cleaner" sound .

The "Stupidly Simple Gain Control" would use a dual ganged pot , lets say a dual 100k Log pot.
One half is wired into your circuit as a variable resistor or in the feedback loop of ( insert circuit here )
the other half is wired in reverse as a volume pot, possibly pre the "master out vol pot" and will then
"turn down" as you "turn up" the gain of the circuit.
Now you may need some tweaks, such as a "minimum" setting with a fixed resistor, so that at "full gain"
your volume doesn't go completely "off" and maybe even a switch to take it out of circuit, when you do
want full gain to = full volume, to kick the crap out of your valve amp for instance.

Does this seem like a useful control to you ?
and does it "make sense"  ... ?

Enjoy,
Marty.

[rockgardenlove]

Not bad, only its a bit unpractical to always use a dual ganged pot IMO. 

[smank]

It make sense, but technically it's not so easy in a lot of situations.
For example, if there is a diode clipping network (like RAT or similar), we can increase the gain and consequently the distortion increases, but when we reach a limit, the output level remains the same (just small variation). And the situation change with different pickups (single coil or humbucking...), because they have different output level.
With Tube Screamer like circuits, we can try to calculate the components, because the clipping limit is less defined.
Probably there is a better usage with circuits like BSIAB II, but when they reach the clipping limit, the situation is similar.

[puretube]

...Does this seem like a useful control to you ?
and does it "make sense"  ... ?

makes perfect sense, there are at least 2 commercial pedals
that use this kind of "anti-control"...

[petemoore]

  Sure...makes sense, and would be a great control to have on a knob I could twist with my foot or a treadle...rolling gain up for single notes and leads or whatever...similar to what a FF does with GuitVol from 5-10, but with a different circuit.
  FF is a 'bad' one to start with, uses a 1k special taper for gain, then 100k or so for output volume, no available DG pots for that...
  BMP is a 'good' one I think because you can make the Sustain [gain] pot the same value as the volume pot, then trim around or across the potlugs to 'align/misalign' the resistances into a ratio that makes gain rise, volume constant. Then have a mod so volume goes up, but only by a slight amount.
  I think starting with a smaller portion of relative gain levels [like Medium gain to high gain] might make it easier to keep the volume from changing much...attempting to get from very low gain to full gain...could require taperings not available on a 'altered' DG pot.
  I would start with a circuit that has a 'volume pot wiring' of the gain pot like the BMP uses. But of course that's just a guess.
  A Dist+ might do well with a DG 100k and some stop and trim resistors for gain/vol. matchings...with the bass rolloff w/gain drop being another thing to consider on the DIST+...