Members hangwire Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 just wondering if there was a nice mix of bite and mellow, or is 250 and 500 what the ears want to hear and that is why those are the main ones used??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members erksin Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Every Gibson in the '70s used 300k pots. Great for certain things like minis and P-90s, not so good for humbuckers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted August 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Every Gibson in the '70s used 300k pots. Great for certain things like minis and P-90s, not so good for humbuckers. learn something new everyday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Philippe_CGC Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 My 71 Gibson has 500k with the P-90s. Considering how much inductance those have, I'd stay with 500k for those. There was a post on Kinman's site about why 250k and 500k became the standards. With the inductor (pickup), the volume pot creates a low-pass filter. With standard single coils and 250k, that shelf starts at about 15k, the upper range of human hearing. Same goes for the standard PAF humbucker and the 500k pot. If that volume pot is too low versus the inductance of the pickup, you will get some reduction of the highs. If you like using overwound single coils, or Jazzmaster pickups, a 333k for the volume can work pretty well. You can make one yourself by taking a 500k and running a 1meg resistor across the two outer lugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Faldoe Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Every Gibson in the '70s used 300k pots. Great for certain things like minis and P-90s, not so good for humbuckers. yep, my 79' LP (humbuckers) had 300ks in them, I put 500K in them and like it a lot better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reaganomics! Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Every Gibson in the '70s used 300k pots. Great for certain things like minis and P-90s, not so good for humbuckers. given part tolerances wouldn't a lot of those end up being 250k anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members erksin Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 given part tolerances wouldn't a lot of those end up being 250k anyway? They were CTS pots - excellent quality, though I suppose some could test out that low. Think about how many perfectly good T-Tops got pulled back then in favor of DiMarzio Super Distortions when all you needed to do was swap the pots for 500Ks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rich-96db Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 I put a 300k pot in my Charvel San Dimas reissue (SSH without a tone control). 500k was too harsh, 250k was too dull. The 300k pot is a nice compromise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woolyh Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Fender make/sell a 375k pot, they use it in Custom Shop Teles with humbuckers in the neck to bridge the gap between 500k and 250k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scr@tchy Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 I always change pots before pickups, especially if I think the tone is too dark compared to what the guitar is doing acoustically. I had some 500k pots that were reading more like 450 that I put in a friend's strat when was complaining it sounded too dark in relation to what it,sounded like unplugged and instantly the guitar was.sending a very honest signal to the amp. I wish I had known this back when I was switching pickups left and right, once you mess with the pots you can really hear the character of the pickups better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted August 9, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 So next question: if I am replacing a volume and tone which values for each to cause a change to mellow the brightness and audio or log taper? Do you need to change just the volume pot, or both? What about a single volume control guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 So next question: if I am replacing a volume and tone which values for each to cause a change to mellow the brightness and audio or log taper? Do you need to change just the volume pot, or both?What about a single volume control guitar? Generally the lower the pot value the darker the guitar is going to sound. For a single volume knob guitar I think 250k will sound good with single coils and pickups with similar frequency response/inductance. That's essentially what you've got when using a tele with a no load pot at max. I have also done 1M single volume knob which can get kind of briht so I ended up doing that one like a Jazzmaster (which is one of my favorite setups). Basically a JM has 1 Meg pots for both volume and tone but the tone knob uses a much lower value capacitor than usual (.03uF, I believe, vs .22uF in many guitars). It uses an audio/log pot for tone and a linear for volume. I find this combination does a really good job of improving the range of sounds you can get and makes the tone knob far more usable. You can get very bright but you can also get nice clear mellower sounds. Another trick I've used is to use a .1uF cap as the connection between the volume and tone knobs. I find this also makes the tone knob a bit gentler and can be good for retaining some clarity even when it's all the way down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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