250K Volume & 500K Tone?

[Bezmotivnik]

I was looking at a HH I bought a few years ago and never got around to playing much. I got it out tonight and realized I liked it enough to invest a little time in setting it up better.

This includes possibly some coil splitting, as the pickups are wired and ready for it.

Controls are 1V/1T/3W with 500K pots and a .022mFd tone cap.

Volume control is apparently dead off by "5" so I'm wondering if I am going to buy a switched potentiometer, would I be better off with a 250K one for the volume to give more gradual and meaningful control to the rotational range? I'm fine with the tone, but in all my years I haven't seen a mixed-value V/T pair. Any compelling reason why not?

Thanks for any useful input!

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: 250K Volume & 500K Tone?

I'd first suggest looking at what kind of taper your pot has. Whichever it has (audio or linear), try the other one to see if you like it better.

Mixing values is not a problem. When I do a pot swap to a different value, I usually start with just the volume pot. It has the biggest effect on the sound, so I don't bother changing the tone pots until I have checked out what it sounds like with just the volume pot changed. Sometimes it is the right change in tone. Somethimes it needs to be more extreme, so I swap out the tone pots too.

 

[CTN]

Re: 250K Volume & 500K Tone?

mixed value is a great way to find middle ground. let me explain.

dual 500k pots would yield a circuit optimized for thick sounding humbuckers. Dual 250k pots would be ideal for single coils, but too dark for humbuckers.

If you've got a bright sounding set of humbuckers or if they sound bright in your guitar, doing a 250k vol, 500k tone or like I have in my Jolly Roger, a 500k vol and 250k tone, it gives you a kinda nice middle ground. you still get a nice full humbucker sound, but the 250k in the circuit damps just enough highs to make it a bit smoother/creamier/less harsh.

try it! if you don't like it, you can always switch the values around until you find something you like.

 

[totergecko]

Re: 250K Volume & 500K Tone?

most standard gibsons have a mixed volume/tone pot. 300k linear volume, 500k audio pot. I'm betting you have a linear volume pot since you said it goes dead by five...on linear pots there will usually be a spot where the sound changes drastically. this is nice if you use your volume control for dynamic swells but if you want to be able to use your volume to actually control the volume, you'll want an audio taper. if you want to figure out which kind of pot you have just look at the pot, it'll usually say either A or B somewhere on it. A=audio, B=linear

 

[big kurka]

Re: 250K Volume & 500K Tone?

@Bez since you only have 1 vol and 1 tone use 500k pots. You can use a linear for the vol and audio for the tone or audio for both. I you use 250k pots it will make your neck pu very dark.

 

[Bezmotivnik]

Re: 250K Volume & 500K Tone?

I may do some switched A/B testing on this, which is the ONLY meaningful way to tell anything.

Anyway, is there a tech FAQ entry somewhere that explains how volume pot value affects tone? I'm not 100% clear on the engineering.

As always, thanks for any help!

 

[big kurka]

Re: 250K Volume & 500K Tone?

The vol pots are like a high freq. filter. The lower the number the more of the higher freq. wil be filtered out. Humbucker typically use 500k pot because humbuckers are typically darker sounding vs single coils which are brighter and will typically 250k pots. The rating number on the pots (250k, 500k, etc..)do not effect the ratio control from 0-10. That would be the taper. There are two basic types linear and audio. You seem to understand that part. As for the rating 250k, 500k this is the high freq. filter cutoff point. It is common practice in lets say a les paul two vol two tone control setup the pots for the neck controls will be 500k to allow more highs to try and come through because humbuckers are ussually darker sounding and in the bridge they will use 300k or even 250k pots to help balance between the neck and bridge position because the bridge is a naturally brighter position. If your guitar only as 1 vol and 1tone your selction is obviouslly limited. In your case I would stick with the 500k pots. If you'er not happy with the taper of the vol pot try a linear taper but for the tone I would highly recommend staying with an audio taper. Now as a rule of thumb I always use the same ratings of pots for vol and tone. I you only have 1 vol and 1 tone which ever value you choose use the same, but if you have 2 vol and 2 tone you can use choose to use 500k vol and tone neck and 300k vol and tone bridge.

Hopes this helps you out