1/4" TRS cable summing to 1/4" TS ie stereo to mono cable question...

[58Telecaster]

from the cable's point of view, i know there's supposed to be a resistor on both (tip/ring) leads from the trs cable if you want to sum a tip/ring (stereo) audio source to just the (mono) tip of the ts cable end.

assuming there are tip and ring potentiometer(s) attached to each signal on the source jack - outside the cable - would you not need a resistor in the cable for that to work properly?

isn't that what is being done when for instance, two pickups are being mixed to the output jack? i am assuming the pots serve that function to let the 2 signals mix.

and, why did i decide to make my own cables?

 

[Huddy]

I’m not 100% sure cause I’ve never done anything like this but it sounds like what needs to be added are mixing resistors. Otherwise the volumes would be coupled and affect one another. This is purely a guess though. If you were planning on using that cable with just that guitar you could put those resistors on the output jack of the guitar instead of inside the cable end.

 

[philosofriend]

Those resistors are so that if one of the pots from the source is turned all the way down it will still let the signal from the other pot get through. If in your application that situation will never arise you could leave the resistors out.

For passive guitar pickups you want to preserve as much signal as you can. With a Gibson selector switch in the middle, when you turn one volume pot all the way off it kills all the output. We are used to that.

When dealing with signals that have already been pre-amped those resistors make the pots work as you expect them to.

 

[YellowBoots]

I would think resistors or pots mounted on the amp side of the arrangement would be much better for tone.

I’m probably a little confused by your description. Could you more fully explain or draw what you intend to use the cable for? What will be driving the two signals? Any active circuitry?

 

[58Telecaster]

I got my cable stuff in today and built out a TRS to TS -> summing cable to start. No resistors - I'm pretty sure the volume pots cover us in this regard of added resistors - but this one is just for the guitar output, so it's fine in this case (tested). TRS - Tip, Ring, Shield > cable length > Tip and Ring to TIP on the TS and Shield to Shield. Works great. Now we have Humbucker to 500K Volume Pot to Stereo Output Jack Tip : Bridge Single Coil to 250k Volume Pot to same Stereo Output Jack Ring - everything's grounded to common ground.

Works great and now I can hear how each pickup sounds - there are some interesting things happening when you get near zero and ten on both volume pots in different combinations. Totally usable sounds though - with the humbucker, the bridge mixed in sounds like a tone ciruit but different - same the other way - the bridge single coil likes to be alone after a certain point in the volume knob.

 

[58Telecaster]

and yes, I intend to make stereo cables and keep the signals eq'd separately through gain/eq/mix. This was just the start.

 

[philosofriend]

Two pickups with each one going into a separate amp gives an amazing 3-D effect.
Mixing a recording with the pickups/amps panned hard left and right is a great effect.
These tricks work best in music that is not overloaded with sound.