I'm planning on building a pickguard for my 04 aerodyne strat. I've got a set of vintage noiseless p/u's for the neck and middle spot and a sd hotrails for the bridge. I'm thinking on coiltapping the bridge and maybe doing some s-1 style switching if possible. The vintage p/u's came with 1meg pots, but i've been told i should switch to 250k pots for a better tone. Has anyone done this before, and if so what results have they had? If not, what pots does everyone reccomend. Thanks, Robby

Welcome.

The 250Ks are your best bet for the VNs. I've tried 250Ks and against my better judgement, 500Ks and 1,000Ks. Anything beyond 250K made the VNs sound most 'anemic' as in spite of what people are prone to believing, the VNs are indeed, weaker pickups where anything beyond 250K is simply inappropriate.

The Hotrails were also designed around 250K pots which in part is what gives them their "hotness". A 500K or larger pot will dissipate said "hotness" for just plain volume as larger resistance pots will filter out the midrange in favor of increased highs and lows. Consequently, when and if you do decide to split the HRs, clearly, a 500K pot would not be appropriate in accordance with the reasons of my prior paragraph. So, here too, I'd go with 250Ks.

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You dig?

Martian is spot on in his assessment. 250K pots is definitely the way to go for the applications you described. Good luck on the project!