Hi guys,
I am modding one of my Strats to a HSS configuraiton. Currently have Duncan SSL-1 in neck, SSL-1 RWRP in middle, and SSL-1 in bridge.

I'm going to try it with a Duncal Lil 59 (single coil size humbucker) in the neck and leave the SSL-1 RWRP in the mid and SSL-1 in the Bridge.

I'd like to be able to coil tap the neck bucker.

(I know, not classic strat and won't sound like an LP - I have an LP when I need that sound, I'm just tinkering here and want to give it a try).

Here are my questions:

On the Seymour Duncan wiring diagram (http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... v_2t_5w_pp) they are showing 250K push pull volume and tone pots.

I thought the conventional wisdom was 500K pots on buckers. Is the lil 59 OK with 250K pots?

I don't have a push pull volume pot and would need to buy one so want to be sure I am getting the right stuff first time out (or maybe second or third go around as things usually work for me).

Thanks,
Jeff

Well, there's a few ways you can look at this. Duncan designed the single slot humbucker series premising most of them would go into guitars having 250K pots and so on face value, yes, you can get away with a 250K pot. On the other hand, you will be having a rather 'woofy' pickup in the neck position of your Strat where a 500K pot would dissipate the midrange hump, replacing it with clearer highs and lows. Either way, it would still be kind of boomy and when not coil tapped, the volume will be much more than that of either of the SSL-1s. Of huge consideration as well is the fact that a 500K pot would make the SSL-1s sound clanky and sterile unless you wire in a 470K resistor in parallel with each of the SSL-1s.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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Martian,
What about the volume pot? 250 or 500?

I kind of like the idea of a bucker in the neck but could always move it to the bridge if it's too "woofy" (like the way you worded that).

Since I'll be playing either Neck, Neck/Mid, or bridge, bridge/mid, I'm not quite as worried about the volume thing (I already have that on another HSS strat that came from Fender as an HSS). The "clanky" tone on the SC's is where I would have a problem.

What problems come up if I put a 500K for the neck tone pot and a 250K for the bridge one? Is that a bad idea?

Perhaps I'll just try it with the 250K pots that are there already and see how she sounds.

It's just solder and move a few things around if I change my mind.

Thoughts?

Jeff

You can use a 500K tone pot for the neck pickup but I think you're getting a bit confused here. The critical pot which will dictate the tonality coming out of the pickup is the volume pot. Essentially, the tone pot will be more of a how you roll off the treble in the circuit thing.

Sure, you could wire everything up with 250K pots and see if it works for you.

Since you asked me for my thoughts, here's what I'd do if I were you:

I'd put the Lil 59 in the bridge, change the volume pot to a 500K one and wire in a 470K ohm resistor in parallel with each SSL-1. The purpose of the resistor is so that it fakes out the pickup to 'see' a 250K pot. These resistors are like, 2 for 99 cents at Radio Shack or similar places. With the resistor, you would solder one tail to the respective SSL-1's terminal at the pickup selector switch and solder the other tail to ground. That's it.

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We may be around the same page; when you're saying wire the resistor in parallel; parallel in relation to what? The pot?

Yes.

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I must not have posted the post I wrote up. I had said that I find the 500K pots really open up the pickups, giving them more output, treble and presence. I use 300K tone pots for Virtual Vintage, but as a rull, all humbuckers should run with at least 500K pots, even stacked humbuckers like noiseless single coils. At 250k, you're going to get a muddy tone out of them, they need to "breath". I find 250K on any noiseless single coils to be akin to putting a blanket over them. Ive put 700-750K pots into some humbucker guitars by wiring either a 500k or 1Meg resistor to the outside lugs of the pot, i cant remember the forumla off hand, at my day job.
I have a lot of Tele players who bring in their guitars for me to put in volume kits (the rest of the repair shops, like the certain chain stores new repair shop, where if you want anything more difficult than a basic setup, your own your own) they use a one size fits all, which doesnt work. I sill sit with a bag of caps and resistors, and wire them with/without resistors, wired in series or parallel with the caps to find the right one. But I put a 500K in a few Teles, and they loved them. I just did a few with 1Meg pots; on a single coil!! to me, it was terrible, way to bright, but thats what they were looking for.

ah ha, now it is making sense.

Thanks.

Huh, I find the tone pots affect the tone more than the volume does. You can always put a 250K, or split the difference and make a 300-350K. You can use a 250K, and turn the tone pot into a no-load. Its actually really easy; Take apart the pot, look at the board where you'll see like a semi-circle, like a horseshoe. Look at the copper leads coming down from the knob, and see where they rest when the knobs @10. Then either scrape off the copper "paint" on the board that makes that horseshoe looking thing. You can also use clear nail polish. So when you're at 10, you pretty much take the tone pot out of the circuit.
I also find that while changing cap values on the tone pot affects how much highs are rolled off, it also affects it when the knobs open, whereas it wont if you use a no load.
You can, and if you have the time and patience, use different values for each tone knob, or pickup. When I do volume kits on Les Paul like setups; 2 pickups, each with their own dedicated volume/tone pots, I use a lower value kit for the bridge pickup than i do with the neck. The neck pickup is the one most focus on when they're rolling off volume. Alot of people just always have the bridge pickup open all the way anyway.
You can mess around by building what is pretty much Fenders Greasebucket circuit. The only thing to keep in mind, is if you have 2 tone knobs, you have to make 2 seperate kits, and you also have to use one capacitor for each tone pot, as opposed to piggybacking it like you normally see them wired up.

Any time!

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