Thor
is driving our product development. I am now considering adding a few CV Potentiometer variants.
What’s that, you say? The Nexus and Nu system, including the Infinity system in Thor, utilizes control voltages (CV) instead of direct control of the audio as most, if not all, guitars do. CV is converted to MIDI control messages which you can use to control parameters such as volume, EQ, and any effect parameter that your processor or DAW can recognize.
It’s time for an upgrade. That picture you see at the right has that big 24 mm Bourns PDB241 pot. The bigger pot is smoother compared to the smaller 17 mm Bourns PDB18 pot we normally use. The smoother travel is particularly preferable if you frequently use the control (e.g. for volume swells). This one and all CV pots in the future, also allow you to change the taper from linear to audio (log). This feature is actually already available starting from v2.5, but it was yet undocumented.
Apart from the bigger pot (which will be standard), I am unsure which variants will make it as standard, so do tell me what you want. I’ll make them standard if there’s sufficient interest. Here are some possibilities:
- Dual concentric CV pots. You want more controls, but you want to avoid cluttering the guitar top.
- Dual concentric CV/Audio pots. The top pot will have CV, the bottom pot will have direct audio control. This can be used for separate control of CV and audio from a monophonic pickup. Use this when you want independent control of the Nu Multi’s volume (via CV) and a monophonic pickup’s volume.
- Ganged dual CV/Audio pots. This can also be used for combined control of both CV and audio from a monophonic pickup. Use this when you want combined control of the Nu Multi’s volume (via CV) and a monophonic pickup’s volume.
Tell me what you think! Do you have other ideas?
I like the ideas, Joel! However, I’ve found large pots to be a problem in tight electronics cavities, where they interfere with the Nu Internal Breakout Board. For those situations the smaller pots are ideal. Perhaps you could offer both? The ganged CV/Audio control is a winner – however it needs to be wired as a Balance control, like you did for me years ago.
Yes, I’ll keep both. That’s the plan.
As for the ganged CV/Audio control, it’s up to the user to wire the audio part of the pot. I’ll just make the pins to it available for use via a 3-pin header.
Peter, how does the pot perform when it’s wired as a balance control?