What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

T

timrocker

New member
Hi Pickup Fans:
I am curious what a 1 Meg pot is supposed to do as opposed to 250 K or 500 K. I know that 250 K are generally recommended for single coil pickups, and 500 K are more for Humbuckers, but what is the recommended application for 1 Meg? Thanks!
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

timrocker said:
Hi Pickup Fans:
I am curious what a 1 Meg pot is supposed to do as opposed to 250 K or 500 K. I know that 250 K are generally recommended for single coil pickups, and 500 K are more for Humbuckers, but what is the recommended application for 1 Meg? Thanks!
Click to expand...

The higher the pot value as a volume control for instance,the brighter the circuit,or the less highs that get sent to ground..Teles used 1 meg volume values..

G&L uses 1 meg as a bass rolloff..
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

I use 1 meg pots with humbuckers past 16K because they are dark enough. Really powerful humbuckers often sound choked with 500K pots.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

In short, they let more treble through to the amp. They give you more of the entire range of frequencies that your pickups produce, because they don't let as many of those frequencies go to ground. It is kind of like pulling a wind screen off of a microphone, or taking the grill cloth off of your amp. Having a wider frequency range to work with also lets you more finely tailor your tone pots to your needs.

Many guitars cannot really benefit from them, but I think they do a huge service to Les Pauls. Those guitars should have had 1M pots from day one IMO. I think I will be trying them in my Explorer as well, to see if I can keep the original pickups (496R and 500T). I like their attack, and they have a great midrange honk to them, but not enough treble for me.
 
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Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Fender Jazzmasters used 1M pot too, I think a great part of that "donk!" sound comes from it.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

There's a new wrinkle in this odyssey. One of the 1 Meg tone pots is broken. It's the one that controls the neck pickup, i.e. the one that gets a cap. I have a 250 k, and a 500 k on hand. At least to begin with, I'd like to get one of those two in there and see how it sounds. Which is likeliest to work well there, and what value cap do I need to use with it? I have a few different caps on hand. Thanks for the ongoing help, guys!
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Oh, I otter include that the pickups on this strat are Fender Noiseless singles.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

idsnowdog said:
I use 1 meg pots with humbuckers past 16K because they are dark enough. Really powerful humbuckers often sound choked with 500K pots.
Click to expand...

are there certain woods that work better with the 1 meg pots?

I put a 1 meg pot in a mahogany guitar with a Original Parallel Axis (15.7 k) and don't think I can tell a difference.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Just got the 1M pots for my Explorer in the mail today. I am hoping to make the stock pickups cut it before dropping the coin for Duncans. I'm trying to squeeze as much treble as I can from the 496/500 set.

Also going to a master volume, dual tone setup while I'm at it.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

hmm, isn't the pot rating like having a 1meg resistor in parallel to the carbon ring in the pot?

If so, could one simulate the 'load' of a given pot by placing a resistor in parallel with the + and - leads of a pickup? (like in a master vol/ master tone config situation where you want to choke down the highs of a bridge pickup before going to master volume by placing a resistor in parallel to bridge ie-putting a 470k so that the bridge sees the 470k and the 500k to have 250k in the end)
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Quencho: Yes. And if you have a guitar where you can access the control from the rear, then you can use aligator clips to test it out without soldering.

Personally, I couldn't hear a difference.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Itsabass, why don't you try no load pots? Or the clear nail polish trick for making your pot into a no load? Or wiring in some sort of tone circuit bypass?

Connect those pickups direct to the jack and use that as your last resort. If it works out, you're in the market for no load tone and vol.
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

No way, LOL. I find Les Pauls do best with 300K bridge pickup pots and 1 Meg or 500K neck pickup pots. I would never use a 1 Meg in a Les Paul bridge position!


ItsaBass said:
In short, they let more treble through to the amp. They give you more of the entire range of frequencies that your pickups produce, because they don't let as many of those frequencies go to ground. It is kind of like pulling a wind screen off of a microphone, or taking the grill cloth off of your amp. Having a wider frequency range to work with also lets you more finely tailor your tone pots to your needs.

Many guitars cannot really benefit from them, but I think they do a huge service to Les Pauls. Those guitars should have had 1M pots from day one IMO. I think I will be trying them in my Explorer as well, to see if I can keep the original pickups (496R and 500T). I like their attack, and they have a great midrange honk to them, but not enough treble for me.
Click to expand...
 
Re: What's the idea with 1 Meg Pots?

Thank God there's finally an answer here. I've been hitting refresh literally every hour for the past year and a half.
 
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