For people who've tried a 250k volume pot in a tele, then tried a 500k pot IN THE SAME GUITAR WITH THE SAME PICKUP, how noticeable is the tonal difference? I would expect the highs to open up- by how much,slightly or a lot? Is it night & day, or a very slight difference?
Any OTHER noticeable changes in the tone?
Thanks- Pete
I've tried it, and the difference is more than a little noticeable. I've done this with Barden pickups in both a Tele and a Strat. The 500K volume pot makes the treble annoyingly prominent when the volume pot is full on, but way too much treble rolls off almost the instant you back off on the volume. This gave rise to the need for the treble bypass cap on the volume pot.
Obviously, this is all personal taste, but I do not like a 500K volume pot with single coils, at all. There are many who will disagree, and no one is right or wrong. I much prefer a 250K volume pot with no treble bypass cap. My Teles are plenty bright and full, just the way they are.
I have a Strat that I bought with 500k pots in it.
It sounded great unplugged, but shrill and overly bright amplified.
I switched the pots to 250k.
It made a big difference. The guitar is much sweeter sounding with the 250k pots in it.
I put a 500k pot in my overly dark Tele and brightened the tone quite a bit. Installing a 1meg pot went event further, but had a lousy taper.
Had a similar experience to Don (with clones),one which was more noticeable than the others was a $80 Kramer in which changing the pots from 500k to 250 made it much smoother and strat like,within it's cardboard bodied boundaries.
I also had a fine tele clone ,which I did the same to ..and same result more usable taper,range and sounds. The good thing I find about increasing the value of the pot is that you can still turn it back down if you don't wan't all the added treble that a higher value usually puts "back".
Basically higher value pot = [a bit] more perceivable output and treble in the signal,and, yes the taper can get more unpredictable.
What has helped my humbucker equipped guitars is leaving the volume pot standard and increasing the value of the tone pot,you get more sweep and treble [as above].
A useful "short cut" is to remove all the grounds to the pot shell and solder a resistor of the right value to the pot shell [ it's series so if you wanted to make a 500k pot from a 250k youl'd simply add a 250k resistor ] then resolder the ground leads to the other end of the resistor. A nice pain in the erse on a strat type guitar,btw.
You can either leave the resistor in or if you find you like ,put a pot with the appropriate total value in.
lemiscate, not sure I understand your circuit. Wouldn't 250K in series with a 500K be 750K? I have used a 500K in parallel with a 500K pot to chang it to 250, though.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Yes youl'd be right,but I did say "if you wanted to make a 500k pot from a 250k youl'd simply add a 250k resistor..".
No offence just noting it :)
I've used the parallel mod too,it's all good . I do notice some minor hissing [delay or buffering??] in one particular parallel circuit..rather strange,but, then it is wired oddly [Mini switch to switch lead polarity and resistor accross main 3 way to buffer the Dean bridge pickup down to "less aggressive"] - then.people do say I'm wired up wrong myself.
Cheers.
lemniscate - sorry. Guess I need to clean my glasses. Sorry for the confusion ( on my part.)
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Take it easy. :yay
My hope is just to get a little more "air" in the tone, not shrillness-
Sounds from what you're saying like the lower treble frequencies also are louder, giving that annoying brightness?
a larger value pot can allow more higher/high mid frequencies through -yes.
To gain a larger tone range i suggest a larger value tone pot to start with, so as not to mess with your current vol control,etc, if you've a 250k go to 500k,for example.
Don't change anything else for now. I find that this helps with a lot of my (lower end) guitars. Hopefully it'll help yours out too.
Good luck.
For all "vintage freaks" out there
Leo Fenders original circuit was 250k vol & 250k tone (Broadcaster, Nocaster & the early Teles)
From 1953- 1967 the ctrls are 250k vol & 250k tone
It wasn't until post 1967 that 1M vol ctrl & 250k tone was installed
I found this info in a book by A R Duchossoir so I dunno how acc it is but the book seems acc enough (lotsa pics etc)
my '68 Telecaster came stock with a 1Meg-Ohm volume pot! But, that's also the value VOL pot that CBS/Fender recommended with the Fender/Seth Lover humbucker that's mounted in the neck position.
as a VERY general rule-of-thumb:
1Meg = bright HB; ice-pick-in-ear SC
500K = V.Good HB; bitey/sharp SC
250K = dull/muddy HB; smooth SC
That is VERY good info Old Tele ManOriginally posted by Old Tele man
my '68 Telecaster came stock with a 1Meg-Ohm volume pot! But, that's also the value VOL pot that CBS/Fender recommended with the Fender/Seth Lover humbucker that's mounted in the neck position.
as a VERY general rule-of-thumb:
1Meg = bright HB; ice-pick-in-ear SC
500K = V.Good HB; bitey/sharp SC
250K = dull/muddy HB; smooth SC
I'll replace my 200k in the Squier Tele with the Nocaster pup's with the 250k for a try, now is the vol ctrl a log or lin , my guess is that the vol is log & the tone is lin as per what is used in HiFi gear
I also liked your approach with your setup Tele straight into a Super Reverb!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote