Tone Pots .. Please Help

[bigcraigie_1]

I recently changed the bridge pickup in my USA standard strat. I wasn't really getting on to well with a single coil back there so I bought a new scratchplate and a DiMarzio PAF Pro to compliment the remaining two single coils.

I've read that single coil guitars tend to have 250K tone pots and humbucker guitars tend to have 500K tone pots (why?, whats the difference?).

Anyway, since putting the humbucker in there, I don't feel as if i'm getting the output I was expecting from it. I have a PAF Pro in the bridge position of my Ibanez RG550 and it seems to have a lot more "balls" than the strat. I know the body woods are different but I wouldn't expect that much of a difference between the two guitars. The strat just seems a bit thin and weedy in comparison.

I have double checked the wiring and it is wired in series and not parallel which was my initial thoughts as I read that can be the cause of a thin sounding humbucker. I've adjusted the pickup height also. I can only really think that its the tone pot on the bridge pup that is the issue.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. My strat is a 2009 USA model if that is of any use.

[EADGBE]

Originally Posted by bigcraigie_1

I've read that single coil guitars tend to have 250K tone pots and humbucker guitars tend to have 500K tone pots (why?, whats the difference?).

Because single coils are much brighter than humbuckers because of less resistance. And the 250K pots tame more of the shrillness than the 500K ones.

You could try switching the volume and or tone pot(s) to 500K and see if that helps.

[fumbler]

First of all, series/parallel only applies when you have two pickups selected at the same time. Most are wired parallel. Series gets muddy IME.

That said, the volume pot is more important than the tone(s). It is almost definitely also 250k in your strat which will rob your PAF of some high freq. output compared with a 500k pot which is what it would usually be paired with. It's certainly possible to wire it so the PAF sees 500k but the single-coils see 250k. The bridge/middle combo is troublesome, though. Is the bridge pickup splittable? Then you can wire it so only one coil is paired with the middle.

See this thread:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=293930

[XmasTree]

It's "must HAVE," dammit! NOT "must of." That one really drives me NUTS. Must HAVE, could HAVE, should HAVE, would HAVE. If just ONE of you reads this new sig and sees the error of your ways then I'll be happy. Now go play your guitar.


that's funny.
for me: "it's you're! NOT your!"

[mistermikev]

just two guesses...

ensure both coils are working:
take something metal (screwdriver) and tap both coils w it... do they both make noise? if not perhaps you wired it wrong or have a bad coil?

ensure all the places you soldered (pickup connections) are not all 'grey' and are shiny... if they are grey it could mean a 'cold solder joint'.
if they are grey try using some solder braid to remove all solder and re-solder.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by fumbler

First of all, series/parallel only applies when you have two pickups selected at the same time. Most are wired parallel. Series gets muddy IME.

huh?

almost all humbuckers are definitely meant to be wired in series, and by that i mean series all by itself.

(now, if you're talking about strat single-coil pickups, then i agree and i agree; meaningless unless two are selected, and series-wiring strats just makes them unfocused and muddy.)

[fumbler]

Oops, Walter got me again. Next time I should read the OP better.

But the wiring diagram in the thread I linked to should solve your problems.