Switching from 500k to 250k pots w/humbuckers

[BXN95]

I'm sure there are a ton of guys on the forum that have made this switch for one reason or another. Wondering what kind of results you found.

[mrbrown49]

I don't think many have made that switch. For most setups that would be mud city.

[SirJackdeFuzz]

I've noticed a lot of humbucker guitars come stock with 300K's.

 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/search.php?searchid=2485898

 

Open them up and have a look . . .

[SirJackdeFuzz]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/search.php?searchid=2485906

 

 

Some more 250K reading

[_pete_]

I did.

I have a Strat with a very old Lawrence L500 humbucker. It was way too bright with a 500K pot. A 250K tamed the top end a little.

[ballhawk]

It depends on the pups. Some Bill Lawrence humbuckers are meant to be used with 250k pots. It depends on inductance (measured in henries) and other things related to a pups resonant peak as well as the output. Lower output in Khz usually implies a little more high end but that's simplifying it. Since pots are relatively inexpensive you can buy some and give it a try if you are handy at soldering. Some of our resident pickup makers could answer this better than I could so maybe they will chime in.

[BXN95]

 

I did. I have a Strat with a very old Lawrence L500 humbucker. It was way too bright with a 500K pot. A 250K tamed the top end a little.

 

 

That is exactly what i was hoping to accomplish. Would still be curious to hear others opinions/findings though. Thanks for you response brother.

[Armitage]

 

Different pot values and how they affect you!

 

Humbucker graph shown.

 

Humbuckers traditionally come with 500k volume and tone pots, wth .022 caps. Single coils traditionally use 250k pots. Remember, pickups were voiced/made to run at these values, changing the value changes their intended tone, (good or bad is an opinion), as well as their output.

The top curve indicates virtually no load, the second curve down indicates a 1meg pot, the third down is a 500k pot, the fourth is a 250k pot and the bottom curve represents a 100k pot. As you can see, higher pots give you more output and raise the resonant peaks output. The resonant peak doesn't shift in frequency, but it does shift in amplitude. The resonant peak frequency of most HBs is around 5k to 7k.

With tone controls (they react differently then volume pots because of the way they're wired in the circuit), a 250k pot is the same as turning your 500k tone pot down to it's resistive mid point (5 on a linear taper pot). Even on 10, a tone pot bleeds high end to ground, but pickups were designed in this circuit in mind, and some people think they sound cold and glassy without a tone pot in the circuit.

 

If you want to see what it's like to use different value pots, without pulling breakable knobs and changing out your pots, here's a temporary way to see what it's like.

 

 

This is how you can hear what going from a 250k to 500k (or even 500k to 1 Meg) volume pot sounds like. Just disconnect the pickups output wire to the pot and put a 250k (or close 240k or 270k), (or to try 1 Meg, 500k or close), resistor in series. It'll sound the same, but you CAN'T turn the volume all the way off, remember this is just a test function. If you like it, go buy the pot.

You can also try doing it to your tone pot as shown. In many guitars with 250k tone pots, I've just left the resistor in permanently; you just can't turn it down as much.

 

 

 

 

This is how you can hear what going from a 500k pot down to a 250k volume and tone pot sounds like. Just put a 500k (or close, e.g. 510k or 470k) resistor in parallel with the pots outer lugs. You can actually even leave it this way, the only difference will be the volume and tone pots taper (i.e. 10 will be 10, 0 will be 0, but it'll be half as loud at a different place on the knob).

 

Most people prefer audio pots for volume, and linear pots for tone. Most manufacturers just use audio for all... You use an audio taper for volume because the ear isn't linear with volume.

 

Expensive pots sound the same as cheap pots as long as they're the correct value. The problem is, is cheap pots have a wider error tollerance then quality pots, and there's more of the bad ones, and cheap ones wear out quickly and get noisy.

 

P.S. if your "or close" value is slightly higher then the pot, the value will be slightly higher on 10 then the actual double, (or halved value) in these circuits. If lower, it'll be slightly lower.

 

 

This is how you can hear what going from a 500k pot down to a 250k volume and tone pot sounds like. Just put a 500k (or close, e.g. 510k or 470k) resistor in parallel with the pots outer lugs. You can even leave it this way, the only difference will be the volume and tone pots taper (i.e. 10 will be 10, 0 will be 0, but it'll be half as loud at a different place on the knob).

 

Most people prefer audio pots for volume, and linear pots for tone. Most manufacturers just use audio for all.

 

You use an audio for volume because the ear isn't linear with volume.

 

Expensive pots sound the same as cheap pots as long as they're the correct value. The problem is, is cheap pots have a wider error tollerance then quality pots though, and there's more of the bad ones, and they wear out quickly and get noisy.

 

P.S. if your "or close" value is slightly higher then the pot, the value will be slightly higher on 10 then the actual double, (or halved value) in these circuits. If lower, it'll be slightly lower.

[Mustaine-who?]

Different pot values and how they affect you! Humbucker graph shown. Humbuckers traditionally come with 500k volume and tone pots, wth .022 caps. Single coils traditionally use 250k pots. Remember, pickups were voiced/made to run at these values, changing the value changes their intended tone, (good or bad is an opinion), as well as their output. The top curve indicates virtually no load, the second curve down indicates a 1meg pot, the third down is a 500k pot, the fourth is a 250k pot and the bottom curve represents a 100k pot. As you can see, higher pots give you more output and raise the resonant peaks output. The resonant peak doesn't shift in frequency, but it does shift in amplitude. The resonant peak frequency of most HBs is around 5k to 7k. With tone controls (they react differently then volume pots because of the way they're wired in the circuit), a 250k pot is the same as turning your 500k tone pot down to it's resistive mid point (5 on a linear taper pot). Even on 10, a tone pot bleeds high end to ground, but pickups were designed in this circuit in mind, and some people think they sound cold and glassy without a tone pot in the circuit. If you want to see what it's like to use different value pots, without pulling breakable knobs and changing out your pots, here's a temporary way to see what it's like. This is how you can hear what going from a 250k to 500k (or even 500k to 1 Meg) volume pot sounds like. Just disconnect the pickups output wire to the pot and put a 250k (or close 240k or 270k), (or to try 1 Meg, 500k or close), resistor in series . It'll sound the same, but you CAN'T turn the volume all the way off, remember this is just a test function. If you like it, go buy the pot. You can also try doing it to your tone pot as shown. In many guitars with 250k tone pots, I've just left the resistor in permanently; you just can't turn it down as much. This is how you can hear what going from a 500k pot down to a 250k volume and tone pot sounds like. Just put a 500k (or close, e.g. 510k or 470k) resistor in parallel with the pots outer lugs. You can actually even leave it this way, the only difference will be the volume and tone pots taper (i.e. 10 will be 10, 0 will be 0, but it'll be half as loud at a different place on the knob). Most people prefer audio pots for volume, and linear pots for tone. Most manufacturers just use audio for all... You use an audio taper for volume because the ear isn't linear with volume. Expensive pots sound the same as cheap pots as long as they're the correct value. The problem is, is cheap pots have a wider error tollerance then quality pots, and there's more of the bad ones, and cheap ones wear out quickly and get noisy. P.S. if your "or close" value is slightly higher then the pot, the value will be slightly higher on 10 then the actual double, (or halved value) in these circuits. If lower, it'll be slightly lower. This is how you can hear what going from a 500k pot down to a 250k volume and tone pot sounds like. Just put a 500k (or close, e.g. 510k or 470k) resistor in parallel with the pots outer lugs. You can even leave it this way, the only difference will be the volume and tone pots taper (i.e. 10 will be 10, 0 will be 0, but it'll be half as loud at a different place on the knob). Most people prefer audio pots for volume, and linear pots for tone. Most manufacturers just use audio for all. You use an audio for volume because the ear isn't linear with volume. Expensive pots sound the same as cheap pots as long as they're the correct value. The problem is, is cheap pots have a wider error tollerance then quality pots though, and there's more of the bad ones, and they wear out quickly and get noisy. P.S. if your "or close" value is slightly higher then the pot, the value will be slightly higher on 10 then the actual double, (or halved value) in these circuits. If lower, it'll be slightly lower.

 

Yeow....mega-post!!

[Belva]

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/potm.htm

This is another option. I like to play around with resistors and end up with 300K for sc's. I know I can get 300K pots. But I have a veritable plethora of the 500K variety.