It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:05 pm

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Pots and caps--question
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:37 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 39
Location: Sun City West, AZ
Anyone tried using something other than 250k pots w/single coils? I have some Texas Specials and I'm "tone searching". What capacitors are you using? How about your volume pot? Any ideas will be appreciated! Thanks.

_________________
Custom made all Koa Strat SSS
"FrankenStrat" P90s
Nashville Tele
Light Relic Baja Tele
Tele 1980s Vintage
Gibson Les Paul Special
Gibson Custom Shop "Montana Gold" J200
Fender "Blues Deluxe"


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:51 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:58 pm
Posts: 556
Location: Dublin, Ireland
You can use a 500k or 250k pot for volume or tone and a 1 meg for volume. ...and you can use 0.22 or 0.47 caps....although I know there are more, I just can't remember them).


Last edited by Sandwich on Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:24 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 39
Location: Sun City West, AZ
Thanks. Have you used any of these (other than what came in your guitar) and if so what kind of tonal change did you experience?

_________________
Custom made all Koa Strat SSS
"FrankenStrat" P90s
Nashville Tele
Light Relic Baja Tele
Tele 1980s Vintage
Gibson Les Paul Special
Gibson Custom Shop "Montana Gold" J200
Fender "Blues Deluxe"


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:29 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:07 pm
Posts: 427
increasing the value of your pots is generally going to give you a brighter sounding guitar. This goes for the volume pot as well because it does bleed a bit of signal to ground even when it's at 10.

The caps are going to control the rolloff frequency of your tone pots. The higher the value the lower the rolloff.

I actually went a completely different direction and replaced both of my tone controls with midrange shapers from:
www.guitar-mod.com
They are much more usefull in my opinion for altering the sound of my strat. You can suck out some of the mids from those texas specials and get a more hendrix sound when you want or go the other way for a claptan sound. I love them.
You can go with one of these and a standard master tone if you want, but I ended up wiring it so I have a dedicated one for just the bridge pickup and another for all other combinations (had to use a 5-way superswitch for this).

-Eddie


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:47 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 39
Location: Sun City West, AZ
Thanks for the info and the web link! I'm going to spend a bit of time surfing there and I may try something similar to what you've done. That's exactly the kind of info I was hoping to get! :D

_________________
Custom made all Koa Strat SSS
"FrankenStrat" P90s
Nashville Tele
Light Relic Baja Tele
Tele 1980s Vintage
Gibson Les Paul Special
Gibson Custom Shop "Montana Gold" J200
Fender "Blues Deluxe"


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:24 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:58 pm
Posts: 556
Location: Dublin, Ireland
The longest possible answer,, courtesy guitarelectronics.com:

What is the difference between 250K & 500K pots?

Either 250K or 500K pots can be used with any passive pickups however the pot values will affect tone slightly. The rule is: Using higher value pots (500K) will give the guitar a brighter sound and lower value pots (250K) will give the guitar a slightly warmer sound. This is because higher value pots put less of a load on the pickups which prevents treble frequencies from "bleeding" to ground through the pot and being lost. For this reason, guitars with humbuckers like Les Pauls use 500K pots to retain more highs for a slightly brighter tone and guitars with single coils like Stratocasters and Telecasters use 250K pots to add some warmth by slightly reducing the highs. You can also fine tune the sound by changing the pot values regardless of what pot value the guitar originally had.

What is the difference between Audio and Linear taper pots?

Audio and Linear taper pots have the same total resistance but differ in which position of rotation the pot will reach the 50% value. Linear pots are usually marked with a B or Lin (examples 250KB, B250K, 250K Lin) and will reach 50% of its total resistance in the 50% rotation point. Audio taper pots are usually marked with an A or Aud (examples 500KA, A500K 500K Aud) and will decrease most of the resistance in the last 50% of the rotation. This can give a more gradual audio reduction is some cases. Most manufactures and builders either use Audio taper pots for volume and tone or linear for volume and audio for tone. However, if a problem of exists where a volume or tone pot has no effect on the sound, try a changing the taper. How to check the taper with an ohm meter: Set the pot to the center position (50% rotation) and measure the resistance between the center pin and each of the outer pins. If the the resistance is equal (50% of the pots value) the pot is linear. If the values are not equal, the pot is an Audio taper.
What is a Fender TBX tone control and how does it work?


Some Fender guitars come equipped with a special pot called a TBX Tone Control T (treble) B (bass) X (Cut) that cuts either treble or bass instead of a tone pot that cuts treble frequencies only. This is done with a ganged 500K-1M ohm control pot that is wired to work as a low-pass filter in one direction and a high-pass filter in the opposite direction. A center detent in the middle position is provided for the off or "flat" position. Although Fender altered their Start tone configuration to have the TBX control the middle and bridge pickups, it can be also be wired as a master treble/bass control. The TBX can also be used in place of any standard tone control on any guitar.

How does the tone capacitor value affect the sound of the guitar?

Most guitars and basses with passive pickups use between .01 and .1MFD (Microfarad) tone capacitors with .02 (or .022) and .05 (or .047) being the most common choices. The capacitor and tone pot are wired together to provide a variable low pass filter. This means when the filter is engaged (tone pot is turned) only the low frequencies pass to the output jack and the high frequencies are grounded out (cut) In this application, the capacitor value determines the "cutoff frequency" of the filter and the position of the tone pot determines how much the highs (everything above the cutoff frequency) will be reduced. So the rule is: Larger capacitors will have lower cutoff frequency and sound darker in the bass setting because a wider range of frequencies is being reduced. Smaller capacitors will have a higher cutoff frequency and sound brighter in the bass setting because only the ultra high frequencies are cut. For this reason, dark sounding guitars like Les Pauls with humbuckers typically use .02MFD (or .022MFD) capacitors to cut off less of the highs and guitars like Strats and Teles with single coils typically use .05MFD capacitors to allow more treble to be rolled off. Keep in mind that the capacitor value only affects the sound when the tone control is being used (pot in the bass setting) The tone capacitor value will have little to no effect on the sound when the tone pot is in the treble setting.

Does the number of control pots used affect the sound?

Yes: Since the load on the pickups is determined by the total parallel resistance of all pots that are being used at a a time, using fewer pots will reduce the overall load and give a slightly brighter sound. Also, connecting more pots is the same as using lower value pots, two 500K pots will loose or "bleed" the same amount of treble frequencies as one 250K pot. To lessen the effect, switching should be designed (when possible ) to remove pots from the circuit when the related pickup is not selected. An example of this is the Les Paul: bridge controls are out of the circuit when in the selector is in the neck position and the neck controls are out of the circuit when the selector is in the bridge position.


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: sjlen and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: