tone2thebone said:
Bloozcat - I want to revisit this post due to a comment you made about the values of the pots. Question....you made a comment about a pot that you measured on your VOM having a value of 209K as opposed to the rated 250K....my question is if you used the 209K pot would you notice any decrease in output or sound clarity? What about pots that register higher than 250K, say for instance one that measures 253K. Is there a noticable difference in sound quality with a higher rated potentiometer?
Yes there is a difference in tone. The pots that register much lower than the stated value tend to sound muddier, and less clear. Those pots that register higher than the stated value have the opposite sound - brighter and clearer. If you've ever heard a single coil that was designed for 250k pots, played through a 500k pot, you get the idea. Very bright, sometimes even to the point of ice pick sounding. A potentiometer is just a variable resistor that is designed to bleed signal to ground. What I have noticed though, is that pots that register on the higher side of their stated value, tend to sound
better to my ear. We're talking 10%-15% higher here, not 100% as with the comparison I made between the 250k/500k pots. They sound more dynamic, with better presence. They also seem to respond to capacitor values better in the tone circuit.
A difference of just a few k-Ohms in a pot won't be noticable...like from 250k to 260k. Where I find the difference to be is when they start getting up to and over the 10% tollerance range...@ or > 275k.
Having said that, I've found that there are so many guitars out there that have pots in them that are well under the 250k reading (or 500k), that to change them to a pot that reads at or greater than the 250k makes a big difference in tone. Ex.: If your guitar presently has a volume pot in it that reads 206k (the lowest I've found), and you change it to one that reads 250k on the nose, you've increased the value by more than 17%. Now imagine replacing that pot with one that reads 275k - 10% on the high side. It would be 25% higher that the one you replaced. You just increased your pot value by one quarter.
So if the pot you currently have is reading 250k as they're listed, and you go to a pot that is reading 275k (10% high), you'll hear some difference, but it will be minimal. However, if your current pot is reading on the low side (206k-225k), and you swap it for a pot that is reading on the high side (265k-275k), the difference will be more noticable. It's all relative.
EDIT TO ADD: My most dramatic example that I have is with some custom wound Strat pickups. I asked the winder to give me a set of over-wound pickups to get a Texas Blues type sound. When I got them, they read 7.0k for the neck and middle, 8.0k for the bridge. Definitely over-wound. In the P-90 range it seemed. I installed them with some pots that read under 250k (230k-ish). I also had installed some no-name polyester caps. The pickups sounded good, but the #2 and #4 positions just didn't have much quack. So, I stuck pots in it that had the highest readings of any I had...279k for the volume, 265k for the neck tone, and 275k for the bridge tone (I moved the tone from middle to bridge). I then added a .015mf Orange Drop cap to the neck tone pot, and a .022mf Orange Drop cap to the bridge tone. After re-adjusting the pickup height, I plugged it into my amp. I immediately noticed the improvement in the #2 and #4 positions. They now sounded like a horny duck on viagra! Sweet Home Alabama never sounded so sweet. Mark Knopfler? No Problem! All the positions had a clarity and presence like nothing before. When I cranked the amp up, it was like I had stuck my finger in a light socket. The tone brought tears to my eyes. Everything from SRV tone, to Hendrix, to Richie Blackmore just oozed from the amp. I thought I had missed the sign post up ahead and had entered the Twilight Zone. I couldn't believe it was even the same guitar. And this was without any effects.
I've had less dramatic effects with humbuckers, but I will say that the same clarity and presence thing still applies there as well.
Chaulk one up for suthun hospitality.
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