Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

[spacewalk]

Hi. I'm building a Warmoth chambered Tele. Walnut chambered body, flame maple top, mahogany neck, rosewood board.

Using a Vintage stack in the neck and a Little '59 in the bridge. Standard Tele wiring.

I play blues with jazz in it and jazz with blues in it.

Was planning to use 500K CTS pots for both volume and tone, with either a .047uF or .022uF cap on the tone control, and a 150K-ohm 1/4-watt resistor in parallel with a .001uF cap on the volume control to keep the highs when volume is lowered.

Sound good? Or would you go with 250K pots for these pickups? Different cap ideas? Thanks.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

If you really like a lot of sparkle, go with 500k pots and .022uf cap. 500k pots are generally used with buckers. The treble bleed mod is a good idea. I always use .022-.010uf caps...can't stand the wet-blanket sound of .047uf caps.

That would be a good place to start. But if you find that it is too bright for you, then change the vol pot to a 250k and see how that sounds to you.

I personally find the '59 full sized bucker too bright for my taste and I would use a 250k vol pot with that. However, the Little '59 has different specs and probably doesn't sound the same (I haven't tried my new Little '59 yet so I can't speak with personal experience there).

[spacewalk]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

Thanks. Great reply. I tend to like a warm sound, not biting sharp, thus my choice of woods for this guitar. So I'm not sure how to respond to "sparkle" except to say that I like the potential for sparkle if I want it, particularly off the bridge pickup, and if the tone control works well, then I'm fine with using it to take the edge off for jazzier playing (which I would do with the neck pickup 90% of the time).

However, even though I like warm, I also completely agree about the wet-blanket effect of many tone circuits. I did buy particularly good orange-drop caps, and thought that maybe a .047uf value from that line might have better characteristics than cheaper caps. But I'll probably use the .022uf after hearing your thoughts.

Am I right in thinking that when the volume pot is 100% open it's effectively not in the circuit, and therefore 500k vs. 250k won't even be heard unless you start attenuating the volume?

Thanks.

If you really like a lot of sparkle, go with 500k pots and .022uf cap. 500k pots are generally used with buckers. The treble bleed mod is a good idea. I always use .022-.010uf caps...can't stand the wet-blanket sound of .047uf caps.

That would be a good place to start. But if you find that it is too bright for you, then change the vol pot to a 250k and see how that sounds to you.

I personally find the '59 full sized bucker too bright for my taste and I would use a 250k vol pot with that. However, the Little '59 has different specs and probably doesn't sound the same (I haven't tried my new Little '59 yet so I can't speak with personal experience there).

[jeremy]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

no, that is incorrect. the sound of the guitar with the volume on 10 will be different with 250k vs 500k pots. 500k will be brighter than 250k

I also would use a .02 cap or even a .015 cap for the tone circuit

[spacewalk]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

Thanks. I'm going to start with 500k pots and a .022uf cap for the tone circuit. The walnut body and mahogany neck/rosewood fingerboard ought to skew things toward warmth in the first place, plus the pickups are not single coils, even though they are standard Tele sizes, physically.

Great help here on the forum!

no, that is incorrect. the sound of the guitar with the volume on 10 will be different with 250k vs 500k pots. 500k will be brighter than 250k

I also would use a .02 cap or even a .015 cap for the tone circuit

[jeremy]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

let us know how you make out!

[njstoehr]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

I just went through the same ordeal with an American Standard Tele (ultimately traded the guitar because it just really wasn't what I wanted).

I initially used a 250k pot and a 0.022uf cap. The guitar came equipped with a "no load" 250k tone pot that I never changed out. From what you have said, this will probably be fine for you. I personally found the Little '59 to be too "dark" so I changed the volume pot to a 500k. It opened the Little '59 up a lot. Surprisingly, it didn't have a huge effect on the Vintage Stack in the neck. In the end it still wasn't what I wanted from the guitar. Ended up trading it for a Gibson SG.

All that said, I would start with the 250k pot and give it a go. If you want a little something more out of the bridge, swap it out later for a 500k. Fortunately this is really easy on a standard tele.

[spacewalk]

Re: Which pots/caps for Tele w/ Vintage Stack (neck) and Little '59 (bridge)?

Yes, I've gone back and forth on this. I'm still waiting for some parts to arrive before I actually wire this instrument. Since my last post here, I talked to a couple of players like me (people who tend toward jazzier tones on Teles) and they both suggested what you did: start with 250K pots and see. I've never been a big user of piercingly bright sounds. That said, if the Little 59 feels dark or throttled, I'll know what to do (500K).

Thanks.

I just went through the same ordeal with an American Standard Tele (ultimately traded the guitar because it just really wasn't what I wanted).

I initially used a 250k pot and a 0.022uf cap. The guitar came equipped with a "no load" 250k tone pot that I never changed out. From what you have said, this will probably be fine for you. I personally found the Little '59 to be too "dark" so I changed the volume pot to a 500k. It opened the Little '59 up a lot. Surprisingly, it didn't have a huge effect on the Vintage Stack in the neck. In the end it still wasn't what I wanted from the guitar. Ended up trading it for a Gibson SG.

All that said, I would start with the 250k pot and give it a go. If you want a little something more out of the bridge, swap it out later for a 500k. Fortunately this is really easy on a standard tele.