Hi, newbie ?

[KingFool1]

Hi just joined on the forum although I have been reading for a while.

I have seen several posts about warming up over bright Pickups by installing 250k pots. My guitar is an Ibanez ARX140, it has 2 volume and 1 tone with 3 way switch. I got it used and someone had already changed out the pickups but I suspect that it may not be wired correctly. Anyway I ordered a set of Seymour Duncan 'Hot Rodded' SH-4/SH-2, because I figured I just start out fresh so I know what I have. I'm second guessing myself though that these may be higher gain than what I want or over bright, not being knowledgeable on this subject. I play mostly Blues, Country, & Rock.

If you do the 250k change, do you change all the pots out to match? Just the Volume for the pot you want to tone down? or just the tone control?

BTW - I ordered the 35th anniversary set because I found them new at a good price (I think?, $130) so I only have the shielded single conductor lead to work with.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you may offer.

Bill

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Hi, newbie ?

Welcome to the forum.

Just change the volume pots. Try your new new pickups through the stock control harness first.

 

[CTN]

Re: Hi, newbie ?

I find it's mostly just the volume pot that makes the biggest tonal difference as far as 250k/500k goes.

I usually prefer a stock JB with a 250k pot, but that said, the 35th Anniv. set has roughcast Alnico 5 magnets as opposed to the smooth, polished magnets of the regular versions, so you might find you don't even need the 250k to smooth things out. (roughcast magnets tend to give pickups a rounder, smoother sound than their polished counterparts)

If your guitar has 500k pots right now, try your 35th Anniv set with that first, and if you don't like it, then experiment with pot values.

 

[KingFool1]

Re: Hi, newbie ?

Thanks for the responses guys! You run a tight little forum here, very nice.

My plan was to run it for awhile with the stock 500k setup till I had a good feel for it. I just wanted to know what my options would be, and what I'd need for a backup plan.

 

[Inder_Cine_Mann]

Re: Hi, newbie ?

Just out of curiousity, what amp(s) are u playing?

 

[KingFool1]

Re: Hi, newbie ?

I have a Peavey Delta Blues 115 (stock except for preamp tubes), a Peavey Envoy 110 (w/ragin' cajun speaker), and my newest toy is that I'm absoultely loving is a Kalamazoo Model 2, all original (except for 3way cord and new caps - original values that I installed) it's a 5w point to point, single ended amp w/tremolo circa 66-67.

 

[KingFool1]

Re: Hi, newbie ?

Update:

The pickups arrived, installation went pretty straight forward, only 1 spring shot across the room to be lost forever when attaching them to the mounting rings, and only put one mounting ring on with the slant reversed, probably par for the course for my 1st time. Used a drill with a fairly large bit and routed out the space for the longer legs and throughly cleaned out the space afterward. I used the long leads and ran the shielding (screening? for our UK cousins) around and soldered to two pots each (I did leave the 500k pots in by the way), so I'm much more comfortable with the grounding scheme now. Replaced some of the old jumpers that looked to be too tight for my liking or questionable solder joints. Closed everything up. Polished up, and proceeded to restring - actually broke a string rushing the job because I couldn't wait to try it out. Made a few eyeball adjustment to the height of the pickups and plugged in...

To my complete surprised everything worked!

My initial response to the sound is very favorable, contrary to some of the reviews, I found the response warmer than what I'd been expecting but clarity was greatly increased across all the strings. I spent the next couple hours tweaking height adjustments and tone settings on my amp. The Delta Blues has passive tone controls and I found I was able to move all three controls much closer to full response while still sounding good.

I'm very pleased with the sounds that I'm now getting out of my $75 Ibanez. Thanks for all the invaluable information you guys have put out on this forum.

Bill