Les Paul Wiring questions and recomendations

[SFW]

Question for you tone gurus. I have a 2001 Les Paul Classic that I picked up several months ago. The original owner had put EMGs in the guitar. When I bought it he threw in the original pups. I would like to reinstall the original pups, as I like their tone in my ESP. But that’s another story… Anyway… I know I want to use 500k pots, but what resister (or capacitor… what ever you call that thing) value should I use between the volume pot and the tone pot?

Also, I’ve heard some mention of using an aluminum tail piece on Lesters. What are the advantages of doing that? If you have any other recommendations, while I’m at it, I’d be more than happy to entertain them.

Thanks! JD