Pick up / pot question

[Tricktoys]

Greetings, I have a MIM strat my son modded with the following pick ups
A little 59 humbucker in the neck, a stacked stk s4n in the middle and a standard size humbucker sh4 JB blk in the bridge. They are all 4 wire. What size pots should would work best with these pick ups?

The person who installed these for my son did what looks like a sloppy job and the second tone pot did nothing. One leg of the cap was not attached and the black wire for the middle pick up fell off as soon as I looked hard at it.

Doing a re fin on it and wanted to get it working the best I can for blues,rock and some jazz

Thanks

Trick

 

[Blille]

Pick up / pot question

Welcome!

I assume by size you mean 250k vs 500k?

Have you ever played with that pickup set? The best would be to know what pots are currently there and what you think of the sound with the current set and go from there. My starting point with that set would be 500k.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pick up / pot question

sounds like your tech sucks, dont go back. like blille said, id start with 500k all around and see what ya think. 500k will sound brighter than 250k.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Pick up / pot question

Im probably one of the only guys here that actually prefer 250K pots for humbuckers....
500K is the “standard” so you might want to start there. If you feel that is too bright the 250K might be what you need.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Pick up / pot question

Everyone here has already nailed it. 500k CTS pots are typically used with humbucker's. If you find it a tad too bright, instead of changing pots you can add a higher value cap in the circuit; a .047uf instead of a .022uf cap for example. Now, that won't make any difference with the tone control on 10, but once you start to roll the tone knob back it will help attenuate the brightness. Or you can just change the pots.

It's been a long time since I used a Lil' 59' or s Stk, but I'm sure I used 250k pots with those. I'm not good enough with wiring to know if you can use a 500k pot with the JB and a 250k pot for the other pickups, but one of the wiring experts here will.

Good luck and it stinks that the tech did such a poor job.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pick up / pot question

That is a great pickup set, and it is a shame you have a tech who would let something like that leave his/her bench. I've used 500k pots for something like your setup. But I always say, use what you have. In many cases, it doesn't make a night-and-day difference. If you have any other problems with the wiring, don't hesitate to ask here.

 

[Tricktoys]

Re: Pick up / pot question

Thanks for the input all. I have a set of 250k pots on hand and will order up some 500k. Just in case
Again much appreciated advice