1k pot for Les Paul???

Discussion in 'Luthier's Guitar & Bass Technical Discussion' started by prof2915, Aug 18, 2005.

  1. Aug 18, 2005 #1
    prof2915

    prof2915 Guest

    Hi

    Strat player here, know nothin´bout´humbuckers n´pauls :rolleyes:

    As I find the neck PU to be muddy n´dull here´s my (maybe stupid) question:

    Can I change the 500 tone pot to a 1k value to get more highs?
    (Or is it the other way around, a 250 pot :confused: )

    ps Will the "nail polish mod" (bypassing the tone control when on "9-10") give more clarity? ds
     
    prof2915, Aug 18, 2005
    prof2915, Aug 18, 2005
    #1
  2. Aug 18, 2005 #2
    hipfan

    hipfan Member

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    Sure, but you mean a 1 meg pot, not a 1K. 250K will suppress the presence and response a little more than the 500K, so you don't want to move in that direction.

    If the current tone pot is a 500K, however, and you're still not getting enough presence, I would make sure that your *volume* pot is at least 500K. I think that will have more of an effect on the response of the pickup than moving the tone pot from 500K to 1M will.

    Once you make sure you have both volume and tone pots at 500K or more, and if you're still getting muddy sounds, make sure to mess with the height of the pickup and the pole pieces. That can make a big difference in the tone.
     
    hipfan, Aug 18, 2005
    hipfan, Aug 18, 2005
    #2
  3. Aug 18, 2005 #3
    prof2915

    prof2915 Guest

    Yes :eek:
     
    prof2915, Aug 18, 2005
    prof2915, Aug 18, 2005
    #3
  4. Sep 29, 2005 #4
    armitage

    armitage Guest

    It will give you more highs and raise the resonant peak (usually around 5k on PAF style pickups). Some people find it a bit piercing.

    Here's a graph from Duncan, the top curve indicates virtually no load, the second curve down indicates a 1meg pot, the third down is a 500k pot, the fourth is a 250k pot and the bottom curve represents a 100k pot. As you can see, the peak doesn't shift in frequency, but it does shift in amplitude.
    The biggest difference is with the resonant peak's output.

    [​IMG]
     
    armitage, Sep 29, 2005
    armitage, Sep 29, 2005
    #4
  5. Sep 29, 2005 #5
    prof2915

    prof2915 Guest

    I did change my pots to some high quality 500k´s.

    The guitar does´nt sound any brighter but OD clean up better when I roll back the volume, and that´s nice!

    The guitar also reacts better to slight changes of volume when both PUs are on.
     
    prof2915, Sep 29, 2005
    prof2915, Sep 29, 2005
    #5

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