One of those "disconnect the tone pot" guys

alanfc

alanfc

New member
I did this with my CustomCustom bridge in my Strat,

and now have done it with my Les Paul, Rio Grande BBQ in the bridge. At the same time I had change the volume pot to an Audio taper. Trouble is, is all I had on-hand was a 300k so I just put the thing in.

So now I'm wondering,, since the tone is disconnected, and will stay that way, will I hear benefits from changing the volume pot to 500k from 300k? Since the Tone isn't in the chain, I don't know. May as well ask before soldering.

(I did a comparison of my new/used Tele last night with my LP and found the Tele single coil to be fantastically clear and responsive. Short of trying new pickup altogether in the LesPaul (like a P-90 type), I thought I 'd ask on this first. )

Thanks!
 
Re: One of those "disconnect the tone pot" guys

a 500k pot will noticably add more treble
 
Re: One of those "disconnect the tone pot" guys

With most pickups I have difficulties hearing it when you change just one pot between 500 and 250 Kohm and nothing else. That's with pots at "10" and through recordings. If there is no tone pot at all it might be more noticeable.

Regardless of whether that means I'm deaf or my recordings suck, in these cases I recommend that you take a couple resistors and two crocodile clips and just try both load resistances. In a Les Paul with an open cavity that's a simple test, but you have to disconnect the 300 Kohm pot first.
 
Re: One of those "disconnect the tone pot" guys

OK thanks...
Based on my Tele experience I'm darn near ready to try a Quarter pounder in the bridge of this LesPaul, just to see ! I hope the wires are long enough
 
Re: One of those "disconnect the tone pot" guys

So I changed the pot last night and test recorded & compared a clip with the old 300k in there, same amp settings and mic position....and the new 500k has more detail but also sounds thinner (oh no).
However, on my headphones, something that sounds phat and good will sound like mud in real life. So the real test will be at rehearsal.
I'm not necessarily going for more pure Treble but, more clarity. We'll see.

I wonder if hooking up the tone pot again (even though I'd always run it full on) will give me a happy medium between 300k with no tone, and 500k with no tone.
 
Re: One of those "disconnect the tone pot" guys

alanfc said:
So I changed the pot last night and test recorded & compared a clip with the old 300k in there, same amp settings and mic position....and the new 500k has more detail but also sounds thinner (oh no).
However, on my headphones, something that sounds phat and good will sound like mud in real life. So the real test will be at rehearsal.
I'm not necessarily going for more pure Treble but, more clarity. We'll see.

I wonder if hooking up the tone pot again (even though I'd always run it full on) will give me a happy medium between 300k with no tone, and 500k with no tone.
Click to expand...

The tone pot (even at 10) kills all highs, at or next to the resonance peak. The lower value volume pot only kills highs on the resonance peak.

So the difference is that if you go 500 Kohm and tone pot (from 250 Kohm and no tone pot) you kill some medium-highs that are below the resonance peak that you didn't kill with the 250 Kohm pot.

Hard to predict what translates in clarity and what translates into thinner.

You'd also have to try 47 and 22 nF capacitors.
 
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