Anyone prefer 1 meg volume pots in their Tele???

[KissTone]

I just picked up a Tele which came with the post-67 wiring (1 meg volume pot). I've never played a Tele loaded with this pot value.

Does anyone prefer it, and if so, what advantages to you perceive?

It's not the twangy Tele sound I'm used to, and the volume roll-off is much quicker.

 

[walterw]

Ick!

With single coils, 1M pots are brittle and harsh, and have no sweep (as you've noted). I'd put some 250ks in there straight away.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

Agreed.

Makes me wonder if we should be hunting around for some 125 K pots. Even 500s are normally a mistake on a conventional single coil Tele or Esquire, imo. When I do use a 500 K, I use it on the tone control not the volume.

 

[ES350]

Tried some 150K pots on a Tele; warms it up some if you don't mind the drop in output. Problematic with the stock neck pu though...too dark.

 

[Jim Collins]

Personally, I think the 1Meg volume pot and the .001uF treble bypass cap is the primary cause of the icepick-in-the-ear reputation that Teles have, in many quarters. I don't even like 500K volume pots in Teles. But, that's just me.

 

[KissTone]

250k pots ordered and incoming . . . I'll try both set-ups and report back (but I suspect the 1 meg will end up in a spare parts box . . )

 

[KissTone]

Until I get the 250k pots, I'll try the 1 meg with a .001 uf cap and 150k resistor across lugs 1 and 2 . . .

 

[walterw]

...got 1Meg VOL in my '68 Tele with dealer-installed '71 Fender/Seth Lover WHRB--what Fender recommended with the original WRHBs.

i could see 'em for the wide-ranges, or at least 500ks.

 

[cugel]

don mare's so-called bakersfield wiring is a 1meg pot plus a cap and resistor in parallel on a pot, cant recall the details. search on tdpri. i have this mod in a tele and its great. totally usable. from what i have read plenty of late 60s teles had 1megs stock

 

[KissTone]

don mare's so-called bakersfield wiring is a 1meg pot plus a cap and resistor in parallel on a pot, cant recall the details. search on tdpri. i have this mod in a tele and its great. totally usable. from what i have read plenty of late 60s teles had 1megs stock

Yup, that's where I got the info: a Don Mare post on TDPRI.

I installed it last night---and the neck pup is spectacular, but the bridge is still pretty harsh.

 

[ssuttie]

I have an original (1975) Tele Custom with Les Paul style controls - I think it must have 1meg pots all round 'cause the original Wide Range HB sounds great but the icepick from the single coil in the bridge makes my teeth hurt with the volume and tone on 10 and turns to mud when you turn down the vol. I usually have to turn the tone on the bridge to 4 or 5.

Would installing 250k pots in the bridge side be a better (more useable) option?
Would I be losing anything (other than a little bit of output and vintage correct specification)

 

[AndrewTip]

I have a MiM Nashville telecaster. (2016) Always thought it was too harsh too much top end (ice pick). I’ve just replaced the 1 Meg pots . With 250k cts pots + .022 cap.
Not a massive change in overall volume. Definitely a better tone throughout the whole range. Not feeling like fitting a bleed cap as theirs plenty of top end

 

[Drak]

I have a 1 meg story.
I have a weakness for the Ovation Thunderhead series guitars, I have two of them.
One is completely rebuilt and (re)finished, the other is coming along.
So...They use genuine DeArmond pickups, ...like a Gretch.
So when I was rebuilding the first one, I did a little research on Gretch's and DeArmonds.
Come to find out it was typical to use 1 meg pots with them.
I was surprised to learn this.

I used 500K pots on mine, but I wouldn't mind a tiny bit more twangly in it.
If I had to do it over again, I'd put 1 meg volume pots in it just to see...