Strat Tone wiring

[evh_slash]

I see that the conventional way of wiring the tone pots in a strat is to solder the tone pot to the Corresponding Pickup lugs on the 5 way switch.... Does this mean that the tone pots affect/Load the pickups BEFORE the volume pot hence are they the first load the pickup sees ??

I was interested in using a 300k volume pot in my strat to bring out a little more twang but now I'm wondering what is the point because if the pickups are going to see a 250k tone pot BEFORE the 300k volume im assuming the pickups have already been loaded down by the 250k tone and some of those extra highs would have already been lost by the time the volume pot even enters the equation ...

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Strat Tone wiring

Yes for your first question, no for the second. To get the effective load on a pickup you add up the reciprocal of the pot values and take the reciprocal of the answer.

So two 250k pots add up to 125k of resistance and what you propose adds up to 136k. This isn't too noticable an effect on your tone.

If you want twang I'd say swap out the tone controls for 500k pots so that the neck and middle both see ~167k. If you want more twang from the bridge pickup and don't care too much about the neck and middle getting slightly brighter, I'd say instead replace the volume with a 500k and add a baseplate to the bridge pickup so that the highs aren't too trebly, because the bridge pickup would be only seeing 500k as opposed to the usual 250k.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Strat Tone wiring

The way you are thinking about it is way more complicated than it actually is. Electronically, the tone pots on a Strat are, theoretically speaking, in the same effective location as the volume pot. That is, they are not "before" the volume pot. You are getting confused by the switch and by the runs of wire. But think about what the electricity is actually doing, and you will see that both the volume pot and the tone pots are controlled leaks from hot to ground, from the same effective point. It's just that the volume pot leaks all frequencies, and it does it no matter where the switch is set, while the tone pot only leaks certain frequencies, and only when the switch is set to its corresponding pickup.

Bottom line: changing the volume pot to a different value will indeed have an affect, as will changing the tone pot values.

As for your idea, you need to define "twang" before we try to figure out what advice to give. It isn't just "high end" IMO...but simple "high end" might be what you are talking about.

At any rate, going from 250K to 300K is a minor change, and it's even within the margin of error for 20 percent tolerance pots. If you are going to go to a higher value at all, I would go straight for a 500K pot instead of 300K.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Strat Tone wiring

Volume pots matter in their K rating, not the least because the job that pot does is quite different to the tone pot (and so therefore the effect of value is a bit different). The tone pot is a high pass filter, whereas the vol pot is a voltage divider, whose value affects the pickup's response as a whole.....bass through mids and treble.

If you want a small effect, swap a tone pot for a 500k......you can dial the 250k pot tone in by dropping down to 6 or 7. With a 500k volume you cannot compensate for the extra value simply by turning something else down. I found this out the hard way when I mistakenly put a 500k vol pot in a strat - worst mistake ever.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Strat Tone wiring

Volume pots matter in their K rating, not the least because the job that pot does is quite different to the tone pot (and so therefore the effect of value is a bit different). The tone pot is a high pass filter, whereas the vol pot is a voltage divider, whose value affects the pickup's response as a whole.....bass through mids and treble.

If you want a small effect, swap a tone pot for a 500k......you can dial the 250k pot tone in by dropping down to 6 or 7. With a 500k volume you cannot compensate for the extra value simply by turning something else down. I found this out the hard way when I mistakenly put a 500k vol pot in a strat - worst mistake ever.

I use 500k pots in strats. You get the sharper, more thumpier attack on mids and lows with it, not just highs. Excessive high end can easily be dialled out by tone control values and circuit.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Strat Tone wiring

Depends on the pickups. I use exclusively the lowest output SSS style ones and vintage amp styles too. Plenty of high end without needing it to be boosted in my case.....and yes, the highs + upper mids are what gets boosted more when you look at any pickup resonant peak comparison chart with different value pots.

No amount of tone pot twiddling compensates for my sort of scenario.