I have recently purchased a MIK Lite Ash Strat with Maple Birdseye Neck and Fingerboard. It came factory equipped with 3 single-coil Seymour Duncans - Seymour Duncan® Alnico Pro Staggered APS-1N, Alnico Staggered Pro APS-1RWRP, Alnico Staggered Pro APS-1B, (Neck/Middle/Bridge). While reading online information on this guitar, I found out that it is equipped with 500k pots instead of the usually seen 250k pots for single-coils. Now, my initial impression before I found out of these 500k pots was that the guitar, overall, sounded a tad brighter/treblier overall than a regular strat. Upon reading about potentiometers, there is something to the whole 500k=brighter / 250k=warmer/vintage. Upon asking a guitar store associate, he assumed that the guitar was equipped with 500ks because the pickups were "hot", he didnt sound too sure, and quite surprised that it didnt have 250k pots on their single-coils. I read the Seymour Duncan website and there is no recomendation on what pots to use with these pickups. So... my question is this: has anyone had this situation and tried switching the pots? Any and all observations are much appreciated - thanks!!

The proper pot value would be 250K for the strength of these pickups However, there is no, "in stone" rule that makes it so. Pickups like these which use Alnico II magnets give the guitar a more vintage type, sweeter sound with lots of midrange over those with Alnico V magnets which create a more 'jump out and bark at you', modern tonality with much less midrange. Obviously, we are talking the most two distinct type Strat sounds here. So, the choice to use 500K pots puts the player somewhere in the middle of the two where the larger pot resistance flattens out the midrange and expands the bass and treble. It really doesn't make sense if you think about it: They use vintage tone pickups teamed with a pot resistance to negate it. I guess behind the corporate doors, it was equitable somehow. If you want, give the 250Ks a shot. It's nothing that can't be undone. Be advised though, it will enhance the midrange even more while taking away a bit of highs and lows.

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thanks for the insight... will change them to 250k

Glad to help and like I said, if you don't like it, you can always change right back.

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Hey there Martian, got a couple of questions for you. I'm an old amp tech-player, who usually neglects the Strat and Tele until there is a problem. What's you're take on the Fender no load pots? and the Alessandro pots? ART

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Greetings!

Be careful with neglecting your instruments! I usually joke around with those who bring me such specimens for overhaul by asking, "Are you the type who also thinks the red light on the dashboard is for show?" LOL

The ONLY thing I find useful about a no-load pot is as a pickup blender. I use a left handed one so it works in the same direction as the other two pots. Other than this, I can't fathom why players want a pot that goes from '1' to '9' and then jumps to say, "12".

As to the Alessandro pots, essentially, they are MIL-SPEC pots and for typical playing applications, they are over kill. Granted, they are leaps and bounds above COTS (commercial off the shelf) stuff but one doesn't need such things unless they plan on playing their guitars in sustained outdoor, extreme climatic, combat like conditions. YMMV.

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Thanks for the reply, Martian. I put one of the no load volume pots in a Tele(P-90 neck pup) without really knowing it's function, I didn't even measure it's taper. That's diametrically opposed to my amp work. And yeah there is that notch effect. I have found the Alessandro caps to be very nice in older Fender amps. But I see your point in the guitars. ART

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Glad to help.

I make my own no-loads so of course, that detent (notch) is not there. Besides, I've never seen or even heard of a reverse taper, no-load.

The Alessandro Caps in an amp would surely be a beautiful thing! Such beauties or other 'high end' caps such as, "Orange Drops", "Bumble Bees", etc, in a guitar though, there are two profound and opposed schools of thought on the subject:
One school says that because the guitar's electronics are not active, having the highest quality cap doesn't really matter. The other school says that the guitar's circuit becomes part of the amp's circuit once plugged in and the guitars cap make a huge difference in the final analysis. Personally, I can argue both sides of the fence on this one yet I still lean towards the first school. YMMV.

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Hey Martian, I'm hep to the guitar's 100mv output signal, but I'm in the dark as how a "no load" pot works. Is there a bypass circuit for a portion of it's sweep? A reverse taper? Pardon my ignorance, but I've neglected this aspect of the guitar-amp equation. ART

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Inside the pot and at the '10' spot, the portion of the cermet resistance band is eradicated. This leaves a direct metal on metal condition where the sweep contact now has a direct, no-ohm (load) connection.

A "reverse taper" pot is one that works counter (anti) clockwise.

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Thanks, Martian, for the info. ART

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Glad to help!

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