Question on replacing pots for new pickups

[mikedgmikedgolf40505]

I'm going to add Seymour Duncan Jazz & JB Trembucker pickups to my Dean Custom 350 Floyd strat style guitar. It has coil tapping and I plan on keeping it. I've read that most people replace their pots when they replace their pickups. What are the reasons for this, and should I do it? I normally play rock, hard rock and metal.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Welcome to the forum.

It is not strictly necessary to replace control pots at the same time as installing new pickups. On the other hand, it would be a waste of money to rig up hundreds of Dollars' worth of shiny, new pickups through a bunch of dogbreath cheapo control electronics.

In the case of Epiphone guitars, they have adopted a PCB and block connector wiring system. Without spare block connectors, this system is not convenient for pickup upgrading.

In the case of HSS Superstrat type guitars, a choice has to be made between 250 and 500k pots (or a compromise value such as 300k).

 

[koshikas]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

unless they are not working well (scratchy pots) OR the pot values are seriously way off the recommended values for the replacements OR u dont fancy those cheap tiny pots lasting long, u are good to keep those pots as is even after putting in those replacement pickups

 

[mikedgmikedgolf40505]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Thank you. What do the numbers you quoted mean? Are those for volume control pots? What about for the tone control? One last question, do you have to replace the cap/knob on new pots and do new pots come with knows? Thanks so much for the help and quick reply.

 

[mikedgmikedgolf40505]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Thank you!!

 

[DreX]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Since the Dean Custom 350 comes with humbuckers stock, it almost certainly has 500K pots (which is to say a pot with 500K ohms resistance between the "0" and "10" position) since that the most common value of volume pot for humbuckers. Since you are putting humbuckers in there again, there's no real need to change the pots and get a different resistance. A lower resistance such as 250K would have less treble, and a 1M pot would give you even more treble than the 500K, but 500K is apparently the sweet spot to most player's ears.

Also, since the guitar has coil splitting built in on the tone knob, if you were to replace the tone pot, you'd need to get one that's also a push/pull knob for the splitting feature, since they're all one unit.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Might be a good idea to pull out the meter and check the pots. Some brands can be good about their pots and some not so much. I have stuff from big companies and stuff from boutique shops and the 500k pots tested at 450k. Not the end of the world, but if you want to really get into modding and tweaking and all that level of stuff it could be fun. And replacing pots is fairly easy as well.

 

[mikedgmikedgolf40505]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Since the Dean Custom 350 comes with humbuckers stock, it almost certainly has 500K pots (which is to say a pot with 500K ohms resistance between the "0" and "10" position) since that the most common value of volume pot for humbuckers. Since you are putting humbuckers in there again, there's no real need to change the pots and get a different resistance. A lower resistance such as 250K would have less treble, and a 1M pot would give you even more treble than the 500K, but 500K is apparently the sweet spot to most player's ears.

Also, since the guitar has coil splitting built in on the tone knob, if you were to replace the tone pot, you'd need to get one that's also a push/pull knob for the splitting feature, since they're all one unit.

Thanks, great stuff to know!!!

 

[mikedgmikedgolf40505]

Re: Question on replacing pots for new pickups

Might be a good idea to pull out the meter and check the pots. Some brands can be good about their pots and some not so much. I have stuff from big companies and stuff from boutique shops and the 500k pots tested at 450k. Not the end of the world, but if you want to really get into modding and tweaking and all that level of stuff it could be fun. And replacing pots is fairly easy as well.

Since the Dean Custom 350 comes with humbuckers stock, it almost certainly has 500K pots (which is to say a pot with 500K ohms resistance between the "0" and "10" position) since that the most common value of volume pot for humbuckers. Since you are putting humbuckers in there again, there's no real need to change the pots and get a different resistance. A lower resistance such as 250K would have less treble, and a 1M pot would give you even more treble than the 500K, but 500K is apparently the sweet spot to most player's ears.

Also, since the guitar has coil splitting built in on the tone knob, if you were to replace the tone pot, you'd need to get one that's also a push/pull knob for the splitting feature, since they're all one unit.

That's also a great idea. I can have the tech that installs my pickups check the pots for me.