tele resistor question

[el duderino]

i have a tele with a neck p/u that needs 500k pots and a bridge p/u that needs 250k pots, so i need to wire in a resistor and i think i've got that covered. so i go to the store and they have resistors in 1/4 watt, 1/2 watt, and 1 watt.... all are 250k. does it matter which one i use?

[walterw]

nah. whichever one is is physically the easiest to put in there is fine.

[el duderino]

awesome. thanks for the help walter i appreciate it!

[walterw]

oh, wait, that resistor needs to be 500k, not 250k. in parallel with the 500k pot, the 500k will give you the 250k you're looking for.

[danieldroukas]

1/4 or 1/8th if they have it. You'll be dissipating such a rediculously low wattage anyway you won't even need them that high, but anything smaller is kind of silly looking.

Do you mean you already have both a 250k pot and a 500k? Or do you need to turn one 500k into a 250k? A 250k resistor will not work for your application in either case anyway--you need a 500k.

[el duderino]

Thanks for the input. I was following the diagram of a fat tele from the fender site. They have a 270k resistor going from the bridge position on the switch to ground. I have a harmonic design Z90 in the neck and an S90 in the bridge with a 500k volume and a 500K tone pot. The S90 sounds better with 250k pots and the Z90 with 500k pots so i was going to put in a resistor so the bridge sees 250K. I put in a 220k and it rolled of some highs from the bridge, but not quite enough so i was going to go 270k........ am i doing it wrong???

[walterw]

I have a harmonic design Z90 in the neck and an S90 in the bridge with a 500k volume and a 500K tone pot. The S90 sounds better with 250k pots and the Z90 with 500k pots so i was going to put in a resistor so the bridge sees 250K. I put in a 220k and it rolled of some highs from the bridge, but not quite enough so i was going to go 270k........ am i doing it wrong???
well, yes, but you're way below 250k at this point already. a 500k resistor in there will parallel with the 500k pot and give you the 250k it's "supposed" to have. that 220k or even the 270k is giving you more like a 150k or 175k pot!

[el duderino]

Hmmmm...... I guess i'm a little confused. Am i putting the resistor in the right place? I am going from the bridge position at the switch on one end and grounding the other end on one of the pots. is there somewhere else i should put it? It's a tele so i thought if i followed the fat tele diagram http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/telecaster/0108000_02B/SD0108000_02BPg2.pdf where they use a 270k i would be ok? Maybe i should just throw a 500k in there to see what happens. Thanks for takingthe time to help me out walter!

[walterw]

that fat tele diagram is for a guitar with a 5-way switch to split the neck bucker into various arrangements. if you just want your bridge to "see" a 250k load while your neck "sees" 500k, you want 500k pots and a 500k resistor from the bridge pickup's hot to ground.

[el duderino]

Fantastic! i will try that this afternoon. Thanks!

[Crotalus]

I realize I'm resurrecting an old thread here, but it seemed like a better idea than starting a new one for a simple related question. What is the impact on tone and volume of reducing the resistance that the pickup "sees"? What would be the difference in sound if I used a 500K pot with no resistor, versus a 500K pot with a 270K resistor? Question is based on the Fat Tele wiring diagram referred to earlier. Thanks.

[Thames]

Strange. I got a similar problem in my Strat. I had a Dimarzio S-Distortion single at the bridge, with 500k pots, and standard singe-coil for neck/middle. Dimarzio told me to use a 270k resistor for the single coil... sounded fine to me.... ?!

[Crotalus]

Strange. I got a similar problem in my Strat. I had a Dimarzio S-Distortion single at the bridge, with 500k pots, and standard singe-coil for neck/middle. Dimarzio told me to use a 270k resistor for the single coil... sounded fine to me.... ?!I have a home-made Tele with a Duncan humbucker at the neck, a Lawrence at the bridge. The volume of the guitar decreases a lot when I use the bridge pickup with or without the neck pickup.

[Jef Bardsley]

Here's a picture of the output of 500K and 300K pots using a humbucker. The curves for single coils is almost identical:

http://home.townisp.com/%7Eyesrie/500-300Vol.jpg

As you can see, most of the difference is in the resonant peak that's up in the harmonic region, so there's almost no difference in volume, and the lower value pot reduces the chime of treble a bit.

Because it's a resonant peak, it doesn't sound quite the same as turning down the treble on your amp. What the graph can't show is the loss of dynamics - too high a load (a "high" load comes from a low pot value) on the pickup makes it sound lifeless and dull, even if it has plenty of treble. On the other side, a low load (like a 1Meg pot) makes things sound brittle and harsh.

With a couple of alligator test leads, you can compare these things on the fly for yourself, and that's highly recommended, as what sounds good to you will depend on the wood of your guitar and your amp (which is also part of the load, but we ignore that, mostly).

HTH,
Jef

[clothwiring]

This reflects what you gentlemen are discussing right?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/support/schematics/tele_1sing_1humneck.jpg