Gibson potentiometer and resistor question

Yesterday I disassembled my 2011 LP Special. Had acquired it as a dirty, scratched up guitar with several broken parts, and I figured to buff it out, obtain replacement parts and reassemble. Both the shafts on the original "Gibson" volume pots were broken. In looking for replacements I found (mostly) cts pots in 250, 300 or 500k ranges. Checking the originals they both measured 276k ohms. That was not a value I could find online. Could these be either 250 or 300s with some normal variance in value?

I ended up ordering 300k "Vintage taper" short shaft replacements. Pickups are stock Gibson p-90 with a neck value of 6.35k and a bridge value of 9.26k. The round, tiny orange "223" factory resistors are still in place. While the guts are all out is there any value in replacing these with a better component or should I consider a different value? Or would a trial run will be necessary before making that change...?

I have no idea how this guitar sounded in stock form. Three of the Kluson deluxe tuners were broken when I acquired it. Still have yet to string it and play.

The pots will almost certainly be 300K, values are +/- 10% so 276K is in spec for a 300K pot (it's almost in spec for 250K as well but I'm fairly sure that the originals will be 300K). In any case there won't be a lot of difference so your 300K ones will be fine.

The "resistor" you refer to is a capacitor (0.022uF). This is part of the tone control circuit, there is no benefit to changing this and the original ones are perfectly adequate. Some people may try to tell you otherwise but there are sound technical reasons why the type of capacitor used in a guitar circuit can have no impact on the tone. Changing the value of the capacitor would affect the tone, when you turn the tone control down you progressively bleed off the higher frequencies above a certain frequency and the value of the capacitor determines that frequency but 0.022uF works well for most people so unless you are particularly trying to change the way that the tone control functions there is probably no point in changing that.

PaulD said:

The pots will almost certainly be 300K, values are +/- 10% so 276K is in spec for a 300K pot (it's almost in spec for 250K as well but I'm fairly sure that the originals will be 300K). In any case there won't be a lot of difference so your 300K ones will be fine.

The "resistor" you refer to is a capacitor (0.022uF). This is part of the tone control circuit, there is no benefit to changing this and the original ones are perfectly adequate. Some people may try to tell you otherwise but there are sound technical reasons why the type of capacitor used in a guitar circuit can have no impact on the tone.

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Got it. Glad I guessed right.

And I’ll leave the capacitors as they are then. Thanks for the reply, Paul.

One more question that I just had. What’s a “vintage taper” pot? Size looked identical. Shafts were the same by the spec sheet.

thebeebe5 said:

One more question that I just had. What’s a “vintage taper” pot?

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The taper of a pot refers to how it's value changes as it is rotated, there are 2 main types, linear and logarithmic (sometimes called audio taper). As the names suggest a linear pot changes in a linear fashion so at the half way point its resistance will be half of the pots total resistance, a logarithmic pot will increase in value slowly at first and then more quickly as it is turned up further. Most guitar pots will be logarithmic but modern log pots have a slightly different taper to the ones used on vintage guitars from the 50's and 60's. A "vintage taper" pot replicates the taper on the older ones.

PaulD said:

The taper of a pot refers to how it's value changes as it is rotated, there are 2 main types, linear and logarithmic (sometimes called audio taper). As the names suggest a linear pot changes in a linear fashion so at the half way point its resistance will be half of the pots total resistance, a logarithmic pot will increase in value slowly at first and then more quickly as it is turned up further. Most guitar pots will be logarithmic but modern log pots have a slightly different taper to the ones used on vintage guitars from the 50's and 60's. A "vintage taper" pot replicates the taper on the older ones.

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Perfect. Thank you!!

All my vintage p90 Gibsons have 500k pots. You'll find that 500k really opens up the p90 for, I think, a brighter, crunchier tone with more growl and bite but with that full body p90 girth. They will be more dynamic and deliver the mighty BRANGALICIOUSLY BODACIOUS BOOYAH BLOSSOM!:dude::hank:hankeace2

The caps are as PaulD posted, it's all about the value. You could leave them as is but I like a larger value treble cap, up to .047, but you could stay at .022 but if, like me, you use the tone controls a lot, you may find the stock value too tame and may wish to dial down some more treble for darker than stock tones.

I go the other way on the neck pup tone. .015 or .01 lets me darken my tone without the mud. Great for "woman tone".