Wich Pot should I use?

[Bob W]

I am building a single pick up Tele and wonder what potentiometer to use. The pickup is a Seymour Duncan 1/4 lber. should I use 500k pots or 250k ? Help!

 

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

do you want a brighter, more aggressive tone (500k) or a darker, fatter tone (250k)? its gonna be loud and thick either way

 

[Artie]

Given that a Tele is probably the easiest guitar ever, to swap the pot. I'd try both, and see which you like better.

And welcome to the forum.

 

[Spaghetti Bolo]

You could try wiring a 500k pot as a rheostat then use it to increasingly load the pickup and find out which you prefer. It's a worthwhile experiment if you've never tried it.

 

[Mincer]

For Quarter Pounds, I'd probably use 500k as it is plenty thick.

 

[ToneFiddler]

pot is singular?
1)so just a volume?
or
2) volume + tone

for 1) would use 250k. had that setup and liked it.
2) 2x 250k was too dark for me. so i would go no load tone pot or higher pot values

 

[Mincer]

As we see, there is no standard answer. Most people try both and decide what they like.

 

[esandes]

I would recommend 250k for all single coils. I found higher resistances diminished the classic single coil sound.

 

[jeremy]

there is nothing about the qp that is the classic single coil sound. 17k and .25" rod magnets is pretty different than 6k and .187" rods

 

[Mincer]

Yeah, I agree with that- no one buys the QP expecting a 50s Strat sound. So the 'rules' regarding what pots to use go out the window, too- it is down to what you like.