Anyone run 500k pots on their single coils?

[elsupermanny14]

I have been on a pickup obsession lately. I have been playing my MIM a lot which has amazing pickups in it and now I'm turning my Squier to a back up guitar for cheap.

 

Anyways I have one of the GFS prewired pickguard they sell for $35 bucks. They came with 500k pots even though it has 3 single coils. I have yet to install them because I'm trying to figure out what bridge mini humbucker to put in them and I want to do one install. Does anyone have this prewired pickguard?

 

http://store.guitarfetish.com/topiwivicrpi.html

 

It's the older $35 dollar ones. Has anyone had any issues with the 500k pots? Do they sound decent? alright? possibly good? If anyone were to have a demo or a recording of them that would be the greatest thing in the world to post! haha.

[vintage clubber]

If my set up is a mix of single coils and a humbucker, I use 500K pots...

[Convert]

Set part way between 500K and 0K, the pots are going to pass through 250K, right? So at that mid-point, they should sound the same as 250K pots.

 

The real issue then is whether the add range is useful. Am I making sense?

[papaboom]

 

Set part way between 500K and 0K, the pots are going to pass through 250K, right? So at that mid-point, they should sound the same as 250K pots. The real issue then is whether the add range is useful. Am I making sense?

 

 

Is that really correct? Somehow that seems wrong. Half-volume of a 500K pot won't sound like full-out on a 250K.

[Belva]

I had a Hamer Slammer that came with 500k pots and sc's. I always wondered why they sounded harsh. I now use 500k's trimmed to around 300k with resistors on my sc guitar. But that's just the sound I like.

[docjeffrey]

My Jaguar has a 1 meg volume pot.

[elsupermanny14]

 

Is that really correct? Somehow that seems wrong. Half-volume of a 500K pot won't sound like full-out on a 250K.

 

 

Agreed. That does not sound right to me either...

[cratz2]

Set part way between 500K and 0K, the pots are going to pass through 250K, right? So at that mid-point, they should sound the same as 250K pots. The real issue then is whether the add range is useful. Am I making sense?

 

Maybe if you had an ultra mega treble bleed mod, but otherwise, no... that won't be the same thing.

 

To the OP, a lot of older Asian Squiers came with 500K mini pots. I've personally never really been blown away by the difference, but if you don't embrace a bright guitar, I'd probably swap in a couple 250K pots and an orange drop cap while I was at it. That's about $10 for everything.

 

[tlbonehead]

usually with my P90s.

[schiz]

Alright this peeks my interest...

 

Showing my ignorance here but...

 

Can someone explain to me what exactly the 500K, and 250K pot is supposed to do for you?

I am taking it from Cratz's post a 500K will brighten up your tone?

And these Orange drop capacitors... wtf do they do?

I have Blackouts in my main guitar and when I had them installed

I had an Orange drop cap suggested to me. For what I ask?

[koen77]

my mexican fat strat humbucker sounds muddy with a 250 k volume and the singles sound to thinny and bright with a 500k. I ordered a virtual vintage blues and heavy blues from dimarzio because they work with 500k pots.

[Convert]

 

Is that really correct? Somehow that seems wrong. Half-volume of a 500K pot won't sound like full-out on a 250K.

 

 

Having looked into it a little more, here's how I think it works:

 

For tone control, the pot's used as a variable resistor, so dialing down a 500K pot will sound the same as a 250K set on "10".

 

The volume control works as a voltage divider ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider). Here, dialing the 500K to 250K does not give the same result as starting with 250K. Using the 500K pot results in a higher cutoff frequency and hence a brighter tone.

[vexed73]

Nope I use 25Ks with my humbuckers and single coils.

[cratz2]

Nope I use 25Ks with my humbuckers and single coils.

 

That's because EMGs are only 1/10th as good as 'real' single coils.

[schiz]

Having looked into it a little more, here's how I think it works: For tone control, the pot's used as a variable resistor, so dialing down a 500K pot will sound the same as a 250K set on "10". The volume control works as a voltage divider ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider ). Here, dialing the 500K to 250K does not give the same result as starting with 250K. Using the 500K pot results in a higher cutoff frequency and hence a brighter tone.

So as to my question this morning in this thread:

These pots are used more for tonal/volume control?

[TomCray]

Set part way between 500K and 0K, the pots are going to pass through 250K, right? So at that mid-point, they should sound the same as 250K pots. The real issue then is whether the add range is useful. Am I making sense?

 

Guitars use audio taper pots, not linear. Audio is more gradual which works in our ears. So it isn't the same.

 

[vexed73]

That's because EMGs are only 1/10th as good as 'real' single coils.

 

Good one!

[schiz]

So how does one determine what kind of pots are in a guitar if they were in it factory? Or if bought used? They look different in some way? Bigger? Taller? Fatter?

[Elias Graves]

Alright this peeks my interest... Showing my ignorance here but... Can someone explain to me what exactly the 500K, and 250K pot is supposed to do for you? I am taking it from Cratz's post a 500K will brighten up your tone? And these Orange drop capacitors... wtf do they do? I have Blackouts in my main guitar and when I had them installed I had an Orange drop cap suggested to me. For what I ask?

 

A 500k pot lets more signal through. That's kind of oversimplified, but that's the gist of it. Humbuckers tend to run muddy and are more bass oriented. The higher value 500k pot lets more of the high end go through. Most single coil pickups sound harsh with 500k pots so using a 250 tames them down a lot.

 

The caps are used on your tone control. the higher the value (.047 vs .022) will cut more highs as you roll the tone back. A lot of humbucker guitars use .022 caps to keep them from getting too muddy, but it's preference.

 

EG

[Elias Graves]

So how does one determine what kind of pots are in a guitar if they were in it factory? Or if bought used? They look different in some way? Bigger? Taller? Fatter?

 

Most imports use mini pots and they are, obviously, smaller than a CTS. If you want to switch from a mini to a CTS, you'll have to enlarge the holes.

 

Most solid body guitars us short shaft, however a Les Paul requires a long shaft because of the thick maple top.

 

EG

[schiz]

A 500k pot lets more signal through. That's kind of oversimplified, but that's the gist of it. Humbuckers tend to run muddy and are more bass oriented. The higher value 500k pot lets more of the high end go through. Most single coil pickups sound harsh with 500k pots so using a 250 tames them down a lot. The caps are used on your tone control. the higher the value (.047 vs .022) will cut more highs as you roll the tone back. A lot of humbucker guitars use .022 caps to keep them from getting too muddy, but it's preference. EG

Thanks EG!

 

That sums it up beautifully. Perhaps that is why I had some 500k pots and an Orange Drop cap suggested to me when I put my SD Blackouts in my Ibanez. I'll look inot that.

[Elias Graves]

Thanks EG! That sums it up beautifully. Perhaps that is why I had some 500k pots and an Orange Drop cap suggested to me when I put my SD Blackouts in my Ibanez. I'll look inot that.

 

That is a pretty common setup for those pickups. The Orange Drop caps go on the tone control.

 

EG

[inkblot]

I had 500k pots in my strat for quite a while. Recently rewired with 250ks. Can't say it's really much different. I didn't bother with A/B clips but if someone had secretly changed the pots in my guitar without telling me, I don't think I would have noticed at all.