Pot Swappin'

[gnomethrone]

I have a basic tech question:
I recently swapped the stock bridge position wide range humbucker in my tele deluxe for a duncan black winter. When I pulled off the pickguard to do the swap I realized it had 250k pots. I had come that far so I went ahead and dropped in the new pickup. Its great but now im running my amp with the treble and presence dimed.

If I want more treble from my pickup do I just switch the tone pot for a 500k or do I need to do the volume pot too? My understanding from googling it is that the volume pot value will effect output and attack. Those arent a problem and I'm lazy so I don't see any reason to switch.

Am I on the right track here?

[MechaGodzilla]

I think the general consensus is that WRHBs want 1meg linears?

[Paul_C]

Teles and Strats usually have 250k, Les Pauls 500k (as you say, to brighten things up) vol and tone, though if you only want to do one, the volume pot is the one to swap.

Curiously, Jazzmasters come with 1 meg pots as std. when 250k sounds much sweeter, IMHO.

[gnomethrone]

Sorry for the long post. Heres what's up:
WRHB is removed.
Black winter is installed.
Guitar still has 250k pots.
Want more treble.
Swap just tone for 500k or do volume as well?

[gnomethrone]

though if you only want to do one, the volume pot is the one to swap.

Oh ok. I might as well do both eh?

[Bartimaeus]

Given that you've got treble and presence dimed, you might want to try swapping in 1m for the volume and leaving the tone as is? Then if that isn't sufficient go for the tone as well. It's simpler and could do the trick. If you're intent on swapping both, 500k for each would probably give you the results you desire.

But if you are swapping the tone pot too, I recommend giving a TBX tone control a shot! I love all of the options it gives me with the bridge pup on my Tele.

[BetterOffShred]

I'd put a 500k volume and tone in it. It'll be fine. I definitely prefer linear taper..


EDIT: Also, get a 4 way selector while you're at it. It has standard Tele switching and then a both in series huge as fuck mode. I love it.

[BoatRich]

Given that you've got treble and presence dimed, you might want to try swapping in 1m for the volume and leaving the tone as is? Then if that isn't sufficient go for the tone as well. It's simpler and could do the trick. If you're intent on swapping both, 500k for each would probably give you the results you desire.

But if you are swapping the tone pot too, I recommend giving a TBX tone control a shot! I love all of the options it gives me with the bridge pup on my Tele.

TBX is backed so hard, I have them in all of my guitars and basses and they add so much useable range.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I'm a fan of 1M pots. Sounds good to me in a jaguar so with WRHBs probably very nice indeed.

[codetocontra]

Assemble the guitar with the pickups wires hanging out from the pickguard, or if they aren't long enough then splice in some longer wires to do so. Then just use alligator clips and test a few pots to see what sounds best. Also helps if you add a treble bleed to find the values you like as well. Good luck.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Assemble the guitar with the pickups wires hanging out from the pickguard, or if they aren't long enough then splice in some longer wires to do so. Then just use alligator clips and test a few pots to see what sounds best. Also helps if you add a treble bleed to find the values you like as well. Good luck.

Good idea!

[PeteeBee]

Given that you've got treble and presence dimed, you might want to try swapping in 1m for the volume and leaving the tone as is? Then if that isn't sufficient go for the tone as well. It's simpler and could do the trick. If you're intent on swapping both, 500k for each would probably give you the results you desire.

But if you are swapping the tone pot too, I recommend giving a TBX tone control a shot! I love all of the options it gives me with the bridge pup on my Tele.

TBX is backed so hard, I have them in all of my guitars and basses and they add so much useable range.

I want to hear more about this TBX stuff. I always find the tone pot useless unless I want to just make the guitar sound muddy. Getting some more use out of the pot sounds great. What's a TBX pot? Googling makes it seem like a fender specific thing. Can I put them in my epiphone Dot? That's the only guitar I use these days.

[MechaGodzilla]

I always find the tone pot useless unless I want to just make the guitar sound muddy.

I used to feel this way, but when I started setting my rig brighter and backing off the bass, around 5-7 on a tone knob is a good, midrangey base tone and coming up to 10 for leads makes them pop in a way that just using the volume knob alone can't. I like the gibson 50s style wiring (where lug 1 of the tone pot comes off the middle lug of the volume), just seems to make the guitar less muddy when you roll the controls back.

[PeteeBee]

I always find the tone pot useless unless I want to just make the guitar sound muddy.

I used to feel this way, but when I started setting my rig brighter and backing off the bass, around 5-7 on a tone knob is a good, midrangey base tone and coming up to 10 for leads makes them pop in a way that just using the volume knob alone can't. I like the gibson 50s style wiring (where lug 1 of the tone pot comes off the middle lug of the volume), just seems to make the guitar less muddy when you roll the controls back.

That makes a lot of sense. I'll try adjusting the eq and see if that helps. For years I played a guitar that only had a volume knob so I'm kind of new to this whole "tone" thing.

[BetterOffShred]

Yeah and when you add effects tone becomes huge. Octave effects like tone rolled off, super bananas fuzzes will glitch differently with tone rolled off, plus some effects are just inherently bright, so rather than EQ your rig for their use, just roll that tone a touch when you engage them.. I really find the tone knob on most of my guitars super useful.

I also like linear as I said before 90% of the time it's full vol full tone, so it's just a preference for tweaking with pedals.