What pot value for P90's?

[TheArchitect]

On a standard setup, there would be 500k tone and volume pots. In this case there will just be a volume pot. The typical two 500k pots actually sums to about 250k in the circuit if memory serves so I am considering going with a 250k on this one to replicate a similar load.

Has anyone does this? Does it work in practice like it says it should on paper?

 

[Subliminal lanimilbuS]

A 500K pot has very little resistance when turned fully up, a few ohms. Same as 250K pot. Your pickup with both will see the same resistance to your output jack. The only difference is that when turned fully up your pickup sees 500K to ground with a 500K pot and 250K to ground with a 250K pot. The less resistance to ground lets a little more of your higher frequencies bleed to ground resulting in a little bit of darker sound when using a 250K volume pot. The difference to ground between the two pots is always present no matter where they are set. For example a 500K pot set to 100K sees 400K to ground. A 250k pot set to 100K sees 150K to ground. At the same settings to your output jack a 250K pot is always going to have less resistance to ground than a 500K pot and hence sound darker.

Other things like your guitar, pickups, bridge, strings, etc. can also play a role in how dark or bright your guitar may sound. Your amp itself comes into play with what pot might sound best with ones setup. The only real guideline, as far as the volume pot is concerned, is that the less resistance it fully has the darker things sound and the higher the brighter. A 1 meg pot would be very bright in a Les Paul. No volume pot whatsoever would be ones max limit as far as brightness is concerned.

I would try different values of pots between 250K and 500K and see what works best for you. You can even go outside that realm. I found an old log pot with 680K resistance that I put into one of my guitars for its neck pickup that worked out quite well. Anything less in that guitar sounded to dark. I always prefer to find the best volume pot before playing around with my tone pots and relative capacitors.

 

[TheArchitect]

A 500K pot has very little resistance when turned fully up, a few ohms. Same as 250K pot. Your pickup with both will see the same resistance to your output jack. The only difference is that when turned fully up your pickup sees 500K to ground with a 500K pot and 250K to ground with a 250K pot. The less resistance to ground lets a little more of your higher frequencies bleed to ground resulting in a little bit of darker sound when using a 250K volume pot. The difference to ground between the two pots is always present no matter where they are set. For example a 500K pot set to 100K sees 400K to ground. A 250k pot set to 100K sees 150K to ground. At the same settings to your output jack a 250K pot is always going to have less resistance to ground than a 500K pot and hence sound darker.

Other things like your guitar, pickups, bridge, strings, etc. can also play a role in how dark or bright your guitar may sound. Your amp itself comes into play with what pot might sound best with ones setup. The only real guideline, as far as the volume pot is concerned, is that the less resistance it fully has the darker things sound and the higher the brighter. A 1 meg pot would be very bright in a Les Paul. No volume pot whatsoever would be ones max limit as far as brightness is concerned.

I would try different values of pots between 250K and 500K and see what works best for you. You can even go outside that realm. I found an old log pot with 680K resistance that I put into one of my guitars for its neck pickup that worked out quite well. Anything less in that guitar sounded to dark. I always prefer to find the best volume pot before playing around with my tone pots and relative capacitors.

I am more concerned about 1) the shift in the resonance peak between the values and 2) finding a value that will work with those pickups in a Strat that will somewhat resemble what the top end would be in a LP Special for example

 

[Offshore Angler]

I use my ears but either A500K or A300K. I tend to go more towards the A500K but you really need to use your ears and see which you prefer.