250K or 500K volume pot?

[appar111]

I have a tele that has a Chopper T in the bridge and an Air Norton at the neck. Since these are both humbuckers, should I change the volume pot from 250K to 500K, since the general rule of thumb is to use 500K pots for humbuckers? This guitar has a fender "no load" tone pot.

The only slight complaint I have is that the Air Norton in the neck sounds a bit muffled from time to time (I usually just add a little treble and raise the pickup a tad and all is well). I can actually coax some great jazz tones out of the neck position on the clean channel.

So should I just leave well enough alone? The bridge pickup sounds good right now-- just enough treble roll-off where it doesn't sound harsh (which is good, because it's a higher output ceramic magnet), but it still has some thick tele twang (ala Richie Kotzen). I'm worried that while a 500K pot would make the neck sound a little better, it would make the bridge sound too bright.

My amp and pedals have plenty of range left to dial in more treble, and I'm inclined to do that before adding a 500K pot that might make the guitar too bright.

 

[gunslinger]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

You could try it and see. And if you didn't like it you could always switch back. Besides a little more treble you'll likely hear a little more output. I'd recommend a CTS pot.

 

[doveman]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

I like 500k pots with single coil pickups ... it should be OK with humbuckers.

 

[danglybanger]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

500k pots are ABSOLUTELY necessary with HBs IMO

Course I like 1 megs... with single coils :laugh2:

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

If you find that your stuck between the two pots you can add a 125k resistor to the 500k pot which will give you a pot that reads around 350-375k which is a good compromise. Brighter than a 250k, but darker and smoother than a 500k. I pulled my hair out over the Quarter Pounders until I tried this trick.

 

[doveman]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

If you find that your stuck between the two pots you can add a 125k resistor to the 500k pot which will give you a pot that reads around 350-375k which is a good compromise. Brighter than a 250k, but darker and smoother than a 500k. I pulled my hair out over the Quarter Pounders until I tried this trick.

Actually you'll need a 1Meg resistor in parallel with a 500k pot to get 333k. I mis-quoted this the last time I recommended it. It works pretty good though.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

I am not sure were talking about the same thing? What I did was take a 125k resistor and put it on the last leg of the pot and grounded it on the back of the pot. When I read it with the multimeter I thought it read 365k?

 

[doveman]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

I am not sure were talking about the same thing? What I did was take a 125k resistor and put it on the last leg of the pot and grounded it on the back of the pot. When I read it with the multimeter I thought it read 365k?

You may be right ... I've not seen what you are talking about ... this is a link to the mod I'm refering to ... pretty handy.

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

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

Actually I am totally wrong! I don't remember where I got this idea from?

 

[doveman]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

Don't sweat it ... when I misquoted the mod last time Artietoo swooped in pretty quick to make sure I was giving the guy good advice. I actually quoted a 1k rather than the 1Meg I had in my rig. That would not have helped. Pretty nice mod though ... and the link has some good information on treble bleed mods as a bonus. :13:

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 250K or 500K volume pot?

I used this with a set of livewire singles where I hooked it up like I said. I noticed that there was a lot less treble so I thought I had done what I thought? I guess I don't remember testing the old circuit and my current multimeter wont read anything past 200k.