Inspired from another thread, I thought to mention something that has always bugged me and see if others feel the same.

Why is there no consistency between Pots and pickup design? Why don’t pick up manufacturers’ voice pickups for a standard Pot value?

I feel that when I swap Pots out, from 500k to 250k to 1mg, that I notice a significant difference in tone. And so, when I go about changing the pickups in my strat from SSS to HSS or HSH, I am in this predicament: Single coils sound best with 250K Pots, but humbuckers sound muddy with those same pots. Even worse when I go to adjust, by putting on 500k Pots as the single coils are now too shrill.

As example, I’ve a SD hot rails which looks to be a direct drop in replacement for a single coiled sized pickup, but putting into a strat with standard 250k pickups sounds too muddy to me. With 500K pots, it sounds like, to me, just how it would have been designed.

Is there some technical reason why they can’t voice pickups to a standard Pot value?

Volumes can be written on the technical aspects of your question/postulation for a, "one size fits all" standard in this context would defy the laws of physics. For an, "industry standard" pickup and pot to exist, this would limit said pickup to where its tonality, shape and output would be severely limited to what is available today.

As to your particular example, a simple and cheap solution to the problem is to use a 500K pot for the Hot Rails and where the other two "standard" pickups are wired to their respective terminals at the selector switch, solder one to each, a 500K resistor (or close enough) along with the respective pickup and then the other tail of both resistors to ground. The "standard" pickups will then 'see' a 250K pot when selected and respond appropriately.

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You dig?