Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: indysmith on May 31, 2009, 07:10:51 PM

Title: Do 250k pots make Humbuckers a lot quieter?
Post by: indysmith on May 31, 2009, 07:10:51 PM

Put a 16K humbucker in my Strat - it seems really quiet. Is that to do with the 250K pots?
It's quieter than the mules!

I'm not complaining btw; I reckon it sounds a lot better in this guitar than it did in another with 500K pots!

Title: Re: Do 250k pots make Humbuckers a lot quieter?
Post by: AdamB on June 01, 2009, 05:43:48 AM

I don't know about quieter. But it won't let all the sound frequencies it supposed to let through, through. So it might seem quieter

Title: Re: Do 250k pots make Humbuckers a lot quieter?
Post by: Philly Q on June 01, 2009, 11:31:48 AM

I don't know about frequencies that are "supposed to" be there (no rules, after all!  :wink: ) but you will lose some of the highs with a 250k.  And I don't know if it makes the pickup quieter, but it may "seem" quieter.

On the other hand, I've seen it claimed that a 250k gives you a smoother roll-off when you turn down the volume.  There are less highs on 10 than a 500k, but you don't lose as many highs when you turn down.

I'd use a 250k on an HSS guitar, because I don't like the sound of single-coils with a 500k.

Title: Re: Do 250k pots make Humbuckers a lot quieter?
Post by: HTH AMPS on June 02, 2009, 08:50:48 PM

Quote from: Philly Q on June 01, 2009, 11:31:48 AM

I don't know about frequencies that are "supposed to" be there (no rules, after all!  :wink: ) but you will lose some of the highs with a 250k.  And I don't know if it makes the pickup quieter, but it may "seem" quieter.

On the other hand, I've seen it claimed that a 250k gives you a smoother roll-off when you turn down the volume.  There are less highs on 10 than a 500k, but you don't lose as many highs when you turn down.

I'd use a 250k on an HSS guitar, because I don't like the sound of single-coils with a 500k.

if you use a single pot shared between humbuckers and single coils you could use a 500k pot and add fixed 500k resistors from the 'hot' end of each single coil to ground meaning that your 500k pot will become a 250k pot when switched to single coil settings.  Best of both worlds.

Title: Re: Do 250k pots make Humbuckers a lot quieter?
Post by: Philly Q on June 02, 2009, 10:44:05 PM

Thanks HTH, I may give that a try.

I'm (very, very, very slooooowwwwwly......) putting together a swamp ash hardtail Strat with a VHII and two Irish Tours.  I'll try the 250k volume first, as I'm expecting it to be pretty bright.

Title: Re: Do 250k pots make Humbuckers a lot quieter?
Post by: HTH AMPS on June 03, 2009, 07:08:59 PM

it's a nifty little mod - seems obvious when you think about it.