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500K volume - 250K tone pot

plexi70

New member
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
8
looking for feedback - I recently overhauled the wiring in my 2010 Les Paul 50s tribute with a Wolftone Mean/Meaner set that included the 50s wiring style with CTS 500K audio taper pots. The stock guitar came with 300K linear volume and 500K audio tone pots. After completion, I liked how the neck sounded - almost like a fatter version of an Eric Johnson neck pickup but the bridge sounded thin and treble spikey - lots of gain but the infamous fat P90 mids were lacking. I replaced the bridge tone pot with a 250K and the mids fattened up really well, the upper-mids were evened out and the treble softened ever-so slightly. With the 500K tone pots, I didn't hear much change in the tone control until it was around 5 - now it starts at 8-9.
I'm overhauling a semi-hollow Schecter C1ea to be closer to a Languedoc and have purchased unpotted 59' humbuckers and intend on have toggle switches for series/split/parrallel. I'm considering putting a 275K CTS audio taper pot for the bridge 59b as they have a tendency to be bright and mid scooped. I've read forums where players don't care for the brightness or mid-scoop of a pickup - changing the tone pot resistance seems to be an affordable alteration that seems to shift the resonant frequency quite well and afford a great tonal range in the sweep of the tone control. I believe altering the value of the tone pot is quite different as compared to the volume pot. I wouldn't consider this an option for all bridge pickups - for brighter or thin sounding instruments perhaps. Thoughts?
 

TM1

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Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Messages
8,349
In the `50's & `60's Gibson used a 500k Volume & 250k tone on all single pickup guitars. They felt it would make the guitar sound smoother/sweeter. Using a 250k tone pot rolls off some of the highs and takes any harshness out of the guitar when plugged in.
 

FretsAlot

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Jan 22, 2003
Messages
931
Plexi70,

I had similar results. I put a Meaner in my CS '09 LP-Jr a few months ago. The guitar came with 400K+ pots. I ordered a 500K+ CTS vol & 250K tone pot from RS Guitarworks, but I didn't pay attention to the details well enough when I placed my order and incorrectly got a smooth shaft tone pot for a tele, not a knurled shaft for an LP - my fault entirely. So I now have a 500K+ CTS vol and the original 400K+ Gibson tone pot in the guitar. I find I typically have the tone pot between 4-5. I will eventually change that pot to the 250K.

Fretsalot/Scott
 

plexi70

New member
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
8
Plexi70,

I had similar results. I put a Meaner in my CS '09 LP-Jr a few months ago. The guitar came with 400K+ pots. I ordered a 500K+ CTS vol & 250K tone pot from RS Guitarworks, but I didn't pay attention to the details well enough when I placed my order and incorrectly got a smooth shaft tone pot for a tele, not a knurled shaft for an LP - my fault entirely. So I now have a 500K+ CTS vol and the original 400K+ Gibson tone pot in the guitar. I find I typically have the tone pot between 4-5. I will eventually change that pot to the 250K.

Fretsalot/Scott

The volume and tone are somewhat interactive with 50s wiring. Definitely recommend using a vintage taper pot for the volume control and regular audio taper for tone control. The vintage taper allows so much more variation between very clean and full gain. I found that a normal audio taper for volume control was clean until 8 and than it jumped quite quickly between 8-9. A vintage taper of 30% is between regular audio taper at 10% and linear taper at 50%. It's important to know that the tone control is only as good as to what the volume control offers. I now get why Bonamassa said that the magic in the old Les Paul's were in the controls - lookup on YouTube "Bonamassa sound like Clapton" - he states that. The recipe they used then really works.
 

plexi70

New member
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
8
In the `50's & `60's Gibson used a 500k Volume & 250k tone on all single pickup guitars. They felt it would make the guitar sound smoother/sweeter. Using a 250k tone pot rolls off some of the highs and takes any harshness out of the guitar when plugged in.

Awesome feedback - thank you. My "auditory observation" jives with what you mentioned as being "smoother/sweeter". Between 500k and 250k tone pots, I notice most of all is that a 250k thickens the overall tone - shifts the high mids out BUT without diminishing the overall tone as I notice when I sweep a tone pot down. Changing the tone pot to 250K does not sound anything like turning 500k half way or ballpark within a sweep. It's still has all the harmonics, definition and clarity. I also would say that it doesn't dull the treble at all. Why Gibson uses modern wiring and cheap pots is a real head scratcher - considering they already perfected it years ago.
 

GeraintGuitar

Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
115
OLD thread i know but this is defo somthing to think about if your after that FAT kossoff 59 sound without buying a real 58 or 59
 
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