Anyone playing with 500k pots in a Telecaster?

[Loobs]

Did it make it noticeably brighter? I've heard various schools of thought on this, but I'm curious as to what it'd do to the sound of the guitar. Some say it really helps it twang more; others that the difference isnegligible.

[TravvyBear]

I used 500k pots on my Tele with Lace Senors. WAAAYYY bright.

[Ronsonic B]

I put 500s in my Tele back when it had a Duncan Hot Rails in the bridge. Kept them when I went to the Alnico II pro. THe A2pro is a pretty soft pickup so it didn't get excessively bright or anything.

[DylanWilde]

Are you changing just the tone pots or the volume pots also? With tone pots, from what I understand, the high-end becomes less apparent as you increase. Namely, jumping from 250k to 500k should be somewhat significant, while jumping from 500k to I Meg should be less overt, more subtle.

 

With volume pots, a totally different thing is happening. With higher valuse, more overall output and a greater increase at the peak resonance of the pickup happens, at the cost of a smooth volume taper. Again, though, the effect is more subtle as you increase the values, just as with the tone pots and how they affect high-end response.

[Crxsh]

I've got a 500k in mine because of the minihum... and yes

[six acre lake]

[Karma1]

My '69 Tele Thinline reissue came with 1 meg pots and it was way too bright. I don't know what they were thinking with that. Anyway, when I swapped out the stock pickups for a Lace Sensor Gold/neck and Duncan Little 59/bridge, I changed to 250k pots - much better tone, at least for my taste. Even thought the 59 is a single space humbucker, the tech support guy at Seymour Duncan recommended using 250k pots with it. I wouldn't want 500k pots in a Tele either.

[lolque?]

500 seems a little ridiculous, at least to my standards.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I'm running a 500k volume with a push / pull switch, and a TBX tone knob (stacked 250k / 1 Meg) in my Tele. The pickups are SCN's.

 

It is everything a good Telecaster should be in terms of sound IMO. :phil: If I was running stock pickups and a stock tone control, I'd probably opt for 250k on both pots.

 

As far as the difference in sound the pot impedance makes, it's interactive and depends on what pickups you have installed. In general, lower values are going to load down the pickups a bit and will reduce the brightness, even when set to full "up" or "on", because it's still resistive and some of the highs are being shunted to ground. Higher values are less so, and will allow more to pass through... but again, it really depends on what the pickups are doing too.

 

If you do decide to go to a higher value on your volume and tone pots, you might want to consider adding a treble bleed mod to your volume pot. It's a fairly straightforward mod that will help compensate for the tendency of higher value volume pots to roll off more of the guitar's treble as you turn the volume down. On my Tele, I have a a 0.002