Tone help for my ES 335

Sir Loin

Sir Loin

New member
Well... I've been on the hunt for ways to brighten up my rather tonally dark ES 335. Initially, I thought to change out the pickups for something else but had it suggested to me to first change out the volume pots on my guitar from the 300K that came stock to 500K. I've also had it recommended to put in some upgraded capacitors. The guitar came with .022uF capacitors (I have absolutely no clue what that means). How much influence does these capacitors have on my tone? Also... are there certain types of volume pots I should be looking for?
 
Re: Tone help for my ES 335

RS Guitarworks sells great upgrade kits.
Pots come in audio or linear taper. Typically, it's audio for volume, linear for tone.
Caps come in may types and values. Common to humbuckers are .015uf and .022uf.
Common to bass is .1uf. Common to single coils is .047uf, but it's really up to your ear.
All about caps.

In general you want to get 10% pots, ie., ones that are no more than 10% outside of their stated range.
RS Guitarworks offers an "improved" taper pot, as well, but that's a personal preference.
CTS are pretty much the industry standard for guitar pots.

Have you tried adjusting the pickup height first?
After that, I'd look into a new 500k harness, volume pots, tone pots and caps.
Personally, I like .015/.022 PIO caps, but again, tastes differ.

If things are still too dark, you might investigate new pickups.
And just for grins, check out the Seymour Duncan Triple Shots. Quickest, easiest way to get coil split and series/parallel switching.
Add 2 x push/pull pots for OOP and series/parallel when both pups are selected and you've got the Jimmy Page mod.

Good luck.
MM
 
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Re: Tone help for my ES 335

I checked out the ready-made wiring harnesses at RS Guitarworks. The look great... but they want $185 for them! I think I might be better served ordering the individual pots and getting a local guy to solder them in for me.
 
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