Pots 250 or 500k ?

[RACER X]

I just bought p/u's for my Charvel, DiMarzio Fast Track 2 for the bridge and 2 Pro tracks for the mid & neck. DiMarzio recommends using a 500k volume pot on the FT 2, should i, or should i just stick with the 250k's ? The Charvel is Alder, well pretty sure and it has a maple/maple neck. Any suggestions would be great, thanks.

 

[beandip]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

I would stick w/ 250 and play it for awhile. If you find that you need more top end, go to 500. Pots are pretty cheap, so it's easy to experiment and find what you like.

 

[wasteofo2]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

I second beandips idea.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

The pickups are voiced to be used with 500k pots, in all likelihood ... the lower resistance from the 250k pots will affect the tone of the pickups. If you think they sound too harsh, try switching to the 500k pots.

 

[RACER X]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

DiMarzio says useing the 500k makes the pup a bit louder and brings out more of the high end brightness. I dont know if thats such a good idea since the guitar has a maple/maple neck, it may be to bright. But they still recommend the 500's over the 250's ?

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

DiMarzio says useing the 500k makes the pup a bit louder and brings out more of the high end brightness. I dont know if thats such a good idea since the guitar has a maple/maple neck, it may be to bright. But they still recommend the 500's over the 250's ?

OOPS! Sorry, this is correct ... 500k will be brighter than 250k! I meant to say 'muddy' instead of 'harsh in my last post! Sorry if that caused any confusion!

According to Stewart Macdonald (www.stwemac.com):
"Generally, 500K-ohm pots are used with humbuckers and 250Ks are used with single-coil pickups. 25K pots are used for active systems.

You can use any value you like, but a 250K will give a slightly warmer tone than a 500K pot. The 250K pot bleeds off (attenuates) some of the high frequencies to ground. A 1Meg-ohm pot will attenuate even less than a 500K pot, so if you want to hear your guitar "wide open" you may want to try one."

... that being said, I have two maple guitars; both of them ESP George Lynch models, and both have maple/maple body + neck config.s, as well as 500k volume pots (no tone controls or pickup selectors on the Lynch models), and they positively SCREAM! So, it really depends on what kind of tone you're going for ...

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

Instead of starting a new thread, I'll post this one. Does anyone make 300k pots? Can you mix volume and tone pots of different resistances? What would be best for P90s?

 

[RACER X]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

Im going for that George Lynch / Jake E Lee tone, thats why i picked the Fast Track 2 because its the closest to a humbucker you can get in a single coil.

 

[wasteofo2]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

Im going for that George Lynch / Jake E Lee tone, thats why i picked the Fast Track 2 because its the closest to a humbucker you can get in a single coil.

Umm, have you actually looked through the duncan pickup line? There's the hot rails, cool rails, little 59, JB jr. and Lil' Screamin' Demon which are humbuckers in the size of a single coil.

Instead of starting a new thread, I'll post this one. Does anyone make 300k pots? Can you mix volume and tone pots of different resistances? What would be best for P90s?

300k pots are made, Seymour Duncan desigened the JB and Jazz for a guitar with 300k pots, but I've never actually seen them for sale. I've heard that Gibson uses 300k pots on some guitars still.

As for what would be best with P-90's, buy both 500k and 250k pots if you can afford it plus alot of different value capacitors and experiment.

 

[Stevo]

Re: Pots 250 or 500k ?

I would go for the 500k pots. My curiosity would bug me until I did