What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have?

[Dave Locher]

What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have? 250K? 300? 500?

I never thought of it until today, but I'm listening to a recording I did in 1993 and I was using a '62 Gibson SG Special that came with soap bar P90 pickups. It had humbuckers in it when I got it, a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a '60s Gibson humbucker in the neck position.
The bridge volume pot had been replaced - it had the 500k push/pull Dimarzio pot that came with the Super D "Dual Sound" pickup - but the rest of the wiring was totally original. Would the tone pots have been 250Ks? That would explain why none of my other guitars, with 500k pots, have quite the same tone as that SG. (Aside from the fact that it was, you know, a '62 SG Special!)

 

[jeremy]

Re: What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have?

in '62 i think they would all be 500k but i dont know that for sure

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have?

Yikes! I just Googled around for a while and the answer appears to be "Yes." Yes, it might have been 500k, and yes, it might have been 250k. There are documented original P90 Gibsons with either or both. So I guess I'll never know.

 

[AlexR]

Re: What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have?

Well, they did vary around.
Some of the vintage centralabs went up to 700k.

But you DO know......they had both. But 500k will get to 250K by turning them down, so by going 500k you have both anyhow.

And it would have been the guitar, even despite it having the SD in it squashing a lot of the nuance of a real vintage instument, that was the key. In fact even modern instruments have the 'it' factor here and there.....and its not just pure vintage open-ness. Some just do better for certain players and what they want to hear.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have?

interesting article from about a year ago on pots: http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/23145-cap-and-pot-trade

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: What tone pots would a 1962 SG Special have?

Thank you for that link! The sound clips were very helpful.