Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

[marcg71]

I grabbed an old nineties sg and have put two separate pickups in the guitar both sound terribly muddy (57 classic and Pearly gates) in the bridge position. Curious if anyone knows the value of the pot? If these are 500k, I'm thinking I am doing the install incorrectly?

440-70035A pot R1379120

[formula73]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Looks like CTS but unless it's got the value printed on it, it's impossible to tell without metering it, aside from Gibson has the penchant to put 300k volumes in everything.

[marcg71]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Looks like CTS but unless it's got the value printed on it, it's impossible to tell without metering it, aside from Gibson has the penchant to put 300k volumes in everything.

Thanks!

[blueman335]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Every pot I've seen has the value printed on it somewhere. You may have to look all over the pot to find it, as the location isn't standardized.

[Chocklit_Thunda]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Ask your dealer. *ba-dum tsss!!*
I'll be here all week

You'll have to use a multimeter on the middle and side lug and turn the shaft til you max out the reading. That's as accurate as you'll get it (e.g. Your 500k pot may read 493K or something. Small discrepancies like that don't make a huge difference)

Otherwise, wire in your humbucker and if its too bassy/woofy, assume its a 250 or 300k and get a 500k. If that's still too woofy then you had a 500k all along and you'll need a 1Meg pot

[ArtieToo]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Not to sound like a d**k, but short of living in bumf**k Egypt, you can snag a meter for like $3. (RS, Harbor Freight, etc.)

[ItsaBass]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

If it's THAT muddy, the pot value won't matter much anyhow. Yes, they have a noticeable effect, but not a huge effect between, say 250/300K and 500K, or even 1M. In other words, if your guitar is terribly muddy with a 300K pot, it will also most likely still be muddy even with a 1M pot. Not as muddy, but still muddy. I think that before worrying about what exact value your pots are, you should make sure that the guitar is wired properly, and the solder joints are all good. Also, look at the way your pickups are set up, and at the way your amp is set up.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

^+1.

A PG in the bridge of an SG should not sound "muddy" at all. And changing the pot is really not going to make much difference in correcting that. Going from a 250/300k pot to a 500k pot will brighten it up, but won't clear up the mud.

There is especially very little difference between a 500k and 1 meg pot, much less than the difference between a 250k and 500k pot. So if you have 500k pots in there now, going to 1 meg is not going to cure your ills.

[marcg71]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Not to sound like a d**k, but short of living in bumf**k Egypt, you can snag a meter for like $3. (RS, Harbor Freight, etc.)

Yeah, you do sound like a d**k. The point of my question was "without a meter". Did you read the title?

[marcg71]

Re: Muddy guitar - Any way to tell pot value without a meter

Thanks for the help! I am trying to learn how do some of these things myself, without going to the tech, the pickup install was an achievement. Thanks again.