ES335 Wiring

[GourmetSaint]

Apologies if this has been raised before but I am confused.
Some diagrams have 500k audio pots for volume and 500k linear pots for tone. Others just use audio pots for both. Another used 300k linear for volume and 500k audio for tone.
There also seems to be a mix of .022 and .047 uF caps.
I have a matched pair of PAF clones and will be using SD Triple Shots for flexibility and due to fact the I won't fit push-pulls in my cavity and I don't want very visible switches elsewhere.
Help!

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: ES335 Wiring

It's all personal preference. Audio pots have their biggest volume increase towards the end of the sweep (as you turn the pot up closer to 10) from 0-7 there is little volume increase. these are great for volume pots as it gets louder as the human ear expects it to. With linear pots the level goes up more equally (0-1 is the same increase as 9-10)

The higher the pot value, the brighter it will be so 500k pots retain more treble than 250k pots. 250k pots are normally used on single coil pickups as they are brighter but a lot of people use them on bright bridge humbucker pickups to bleed some excess treble to ground.

With tone caps the higher the value, the more treble you will lose when you turn the tone pot down. .047 are normally used for single coils and .022 are normally used for humbuckers although there are no rules and like I said its all personal preference. Mix it up try .047 on the bridge and .022 on the neck? Or try .033 for a happy medium. I some times use .015 on the neck to retain top end when I use the tone pot.

Think of what you want to achieve and experiment. Is your bridge pickup too bright with 500k pots? Switch to 250k pots etc

[ItsaBass]

Re: ES335 Wiring

The pot values, tapers, and cap values used affect the tone and the way the knobs work. What values you pick are really up to you.

The quick way to think of it:

1. Pots:

- Higher resistance = slightly more treble when at 10. Good for pickups that seem "congested," i.e. lack high-end bite.

- Lower resistance = vice versa. Good for pickups that are tinny and metallic.

- Audio taper pots = "front-loaded" – most of the volume or tone change takes place from about 6 to 10. Good if you like a quick and dramatic response from your knobs, and don't spend a lot of time and energy trying to find "sweet spots."

- Linear taper pots = even – the volume or tone change takes place much more gradually throughout the sweep of the pot. Good if you like to finely nail "sweet spots" on the knobs, and tend to leave them set there.

2. Caps:

- Higher value = more frequencies are rolled off when you turn the pot down to the lower part of its range. This gives you a dramatic tone change, and leaves you with a bassy tone. Examples are .047, .05, .022 uF.

- Lower value = fewer frequencies are rolled off. Less dramatic change. Very small values (e.g. .00XX uF) can give you a sort of nasally, gnarly, cocked wah overdrive sound. Examples are .01, .0047, .0033, .0022 uF.

- Cap value only matters if you use the bottom portion of the tone pot's sweep, e.g. 0-4. Further up in the pots sweep, whatever tone changes you hear are caused more by plain-old resistance than they are by the cap.

- Cap type does not affect tone; actual measured value does. Tolerance tells you what range of values you can expect from a cap, so that is an important consideration. I don't pay extra for special cap materials (e.g. paper in oil or whatever), but I do pay extra to get 5% tolerance caps.

If everyone understood these few things, along with pickup setup, the aftermarket pickup industry would take a huge hit IMO. There is so much you can do with these simple concepts. By spending $5, $10, $20 per guitar on different value pots and caps, I've literally saved thousands on pickup changes.

If I was planning on wiring up a run-of-the-mill ES-335 without hearing the guitar first, I'd probably purchase four 500K linear taper pots and two .01 uF caps. That's my go-to setup for humbuckers and a Gibson scale. A more standard setup would be 500K audio tapers for volume, 500K linear tapers for tone, and .022 uF caps...or four 500K audio tapers and .022 caps.

[GourmetSaint]

Re: ES335 Wiring

Thanks for both helpful and comprehensive replies!!

[Chickenwings]

Re: ES335 Wiring

I like 500 Audio taper and .022uf pots.

http://bcsguitars.com/?page_id=2733

Audio or Linear taper for your volume controls? You can choose between Audio taper or Linear taper for the volume pots but the tone pots are Audio taper only. What’s the difference and which one should you use? That depends on you. The Audio taper falls off rather quickly as you volume down with a clean tone (i.e. your tone will drop about 50% from 10 to 8.5 and then smooth out from there) but when using overdrive you can “clean up” your tone without losing volume. As you decrease the volume the amount of drive from your guitar decreases so your overdrive breaks up a lot less and you end up with a much cleaner tone and no real volume loss until you get down to about 3. The Linear taper acts more like you would expect from a volume control giving you a much more even taper as you volume down with a clean tone. When using distortion or overdrive with a Linear taper there is no real discernable volume drop as you turn it down until you hit about 3 and the amount of drive pushing the distortion does not change very much which results with a small amount of change to your distortion. If you like to use your volume pots to clean up your distortion then the Audio taper is for you, but if you want smooth volume control with your clean tone and run your distortion full open, or don’t use distortion at all, then go for the Linear taper.

[blueman335]

Re: ES335 Wiring

If everyone understood these few things, along with pickup setup, the aftermarket pickup industry would take a huge hit IMO. There is so much you can do with these simple concepts.

Oh, I think that's a bit of an overstatement that many would take exception to, starting with Seymour.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: ES335 Wiring

It's true that very simple things can make such a difference as to make our tone quest a quick one. But sometimes there is no other option than to change pups. I don't have a great experience with many pup designers other than SD, Gibby, Fender, and Epi, but I'm glad they are all there in case I need them. Apparently there is a huge market for their products or there wouldn't be so many...I don't think that would ever change.

[ItsaBass]

Re: ES335 Wiring

It's true that very simple things can make such a difference as to make our tone quest a quick one. But sometimes there is no other option than to change pups. I don't have a great experience with many pup designers other than SD, Gibby, Fender, and Epi, but I'm glad they are all there in case I need them. Apparently there is a huge market for their products or there wouldn't be so many...I don't think that would ever change.

I agree, and I never said otherwise. I didn't say the aftermarket industry is useless. I just said that a huge amount of the pickup swaps that people do are probably unnecessary in order for them to get what they want.