Wiring experts: Please talk to me in English

Inkstained

Inkstained

New member
I have a 2014 Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker. It has the P-90 "slug" pickups.

I want to get an SD Custom Shop P-90 under humbucker for the bridge slot, leaving the neck pickup stock.

(Here's an earlier thread about my guitar and the pickups.)

My questions: Is there an "optimal" wiring kit for this set-up?

Do I use 250K pots for the neck pickup and 500K pots for the bridge pickup?

Does anyone have a kit for this kind of set-up?

Thanks.
 
Re: Wiring experts: Please talk to me in English

250k for the neck and 500k for the bridge will exaggerate the traits of each position - will make the neck dark and the bridge bright. Not a bad plan if that's what you're going for. If it were me, I'd start with all 500k pots and adjust downward if necessary.
 
Re: Wiring experts: Please talk to me in English

There is no 'optimal' kit that we can recommend - period.

Mainly as none of us hear with your ears or have your rig or your playing style. In general......

Increasing volume pot K rating makes the pickup become more open or bright.....reducing it makes it a bit thicker or duller. Not by much but its certainly audible.
increasing tone pot rating allows you to have more treble content available at 10. A higher rated pot can be turned down to get the same range as a lower pot.
Tone caps simply tell you the frequency the treble gets rolled off. Higher values mean more rolloff.

The best plan is to simply stick with what you have and see if the new pickup actually needs a change rather than trying to second guess the future (unless you're a clairvoyant).
 
Re: Wiring experts: Please talk to me in English

I would be a little less blunt about it, but Mojo's Minions is giving good advice: the best approach is to install the pickup with the pots you already have. If you think "this sounds muffled, I want more high end" or "this seems too shrill to me," and THEN get a higher or lower-ohm pot to make that happen. 500 is brighter than 250 and 1k is brighter than 500.

There are people who like 500k ohm pots with single coils, people who like 250k ohm pots with humbuckers, people who just use 500 for everything, etc. Only your ears can tell you what you need relative to what you have.
 
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