i have a 2005 Frontline catalogue for the launch of the EJ Strat.

It lists detailed spec inc 350k tone pots. Mine (a later one) has 250k pots. Is this wrong or did they change the spec?

Thanks

The older ones had 350K pots. The last I saw them in EJ Strats was with 2008 models.

_________________
You dig?

Interesting, thank you. Actually, reading the spec again, I should have put 375k pots.

I've looked for 375k pots online, but not managed to find any to upgrade. They seem to be 250 or 500k, mind you I guess you'd need EJ's ears to tell the difference!

Right you are. I knew what you meant but posted the same K value mistake. I was thinking that 350K audio pots are indeed available but not 375K audio (that I'm aware of any way).

If this means that much to you, what you would have to do is replace the wire going from your pickup selector switch to your volume pot with a 125K ohm load in order for your pickups to 'see' a 375K pot load. Just to complicate the issue, only 100K, 22K and 47K resistors are readily available. Consequently, the closest you'd get is to replace the wire with a 100K soldered to a 22K resistor and then to the pot. Your pickups would then see a 372K load which obviously is virtually undetectable from a 375K load. Remember too, the fact that most pots do not read (resistance wise) exactly what they are said to be any way.

_________________
You dig?

Why was that value selected for the EJ Strat pots and why the change back to 250K pots. Yeah, I know only EJ knows, but there must have been a reason. Does the higher value pot brighten or darken the pickup tone? I always get that mixed up.

_________________
Bill

EJ had an old 335 way back when. Evidently, he loved the tonality of one of its volume pots. (Just go with this.) He had his tech meter it. Apparently, due to the pot being worn from age it was reading near the 400K ohms range. Consequently, this is what he decided the resistance value should be for all his volume pots where it eventually got tweaked to 375K ohms.

In this context, the higher the resistance of especially a volume pot, the more the frequency response of a passive pickup is distributed. So yes, the higher the resistance value of the pot, the brighter the tone.

_________________
You dig?

That's a very useful summary. I have a friend who is handy with a soldering iron, I'll show him this thread.

It's odd they gave up fitting them as standard, if I was to guess it's because one thing my maple neck strat with EJ pickups is not short of, it's brightness!

I thank you.

Actually, 250K pots are the norm with 'regular' Strats.

I'm sure they changed the pots to 250Ks because the higher resistance ones ramped up production costs and once popularity with the EJ model caught on, they premised no one would really know the difference any way. Further, the guitar's overall tonality was not as pleasing to a large segment of the owning populace with the higher resistance pots. Hence, a win/win situation for FMIC where the price gets to stay the same.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

_________________
You dig?

Interesting. Thanks Martian.

_________________
Bill

You're welcome!

_________________
You dig?