yet another post on pots!!!

[JDC]

sink is full of dirty pots, no wait I mean, who makes good push pull pots?

can't find any CTS ones on WD music :(

humbuckers = I want 500k right?

tone pot be 500k too?

do I need to get capacitors too? if so which ones do folk usually go for?

cheers lovely people! (first reply gets a pint)

[hunter]

Good push pull pots don't exist. You get rebranded ones from Dimarzio or PRS if you wanna pay extra, but they're all the same, cheap build, I think Alpha makes them. They have smaller post diameters than CTS.

I would not use them on Volume positions, only on Tone if it has to be.

For caps, I like paper and oil ones. I bought some recently priced NOS types of ebay and they give the woman tone, quite impressive actually, like a Wah a bit. You can buy that kind of stuff here at BKP, too.

[BigB]

humbuckers = I want 500k right?
tone pot be 500k too?
do I need to get capacitors too? if so which ones do folk usually go for?

500K is indeed the usual value for buckers. You can try 1M if you want more high ends to pass thru (never tried myself FWIW).

And yes, you obviously need capacitors for your tone controls - they're actually part of the low-pass filter

The standard value for buckers / 500K pots is 0.022uf, but you can try higher values (0.033 or 0.047uf) for darker tones or lower values (0.015uf or less) for brighter tones.  FWIW on my Vox Custom 24 / Crawlers I settled on 0.015 for the neck and 0.033uf for the bridge.

Most guitars will come stock with cheap ceramic capacitors. Replacing them with Orange Drop (polypropylene) or PIO (Paper In Oil) can improve your tone (well, highly subjective topic here...). I can't tell about orange Drops (didn't try them so far), but PIO will kinda smoothen the tone, specially if doing a 50s style wiring.  You can find russian PIO caps on the net for an almost sensible price tag, and as far as I'm concern they are as good as the VitaminQ or Bumblebee reissues.

My 2 cents...

[Twinfan]

For push/pull, I found the PRS ones to be the best available.  Frikkin expensive though.  They have US spec shafts so you can use US spec knobs.

This is probably the same as the PRS ones:

http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/product/POT_PUSH_PULL_500K_W%7CDPDT_SWITCH_WD500PP#

[Philly Q]

The PRS push-pulls are the only ones I've come across which don't feel flimsy and wobbly.  Better than their regular pots, almost!   :)

[JDC]

was thinking of possibly doing away with the tone knob and sticking a 3 way switch in there for hum, split and bridge with split neck then using a push pull on the volume for parallel, but if they suck I might experiment using the 3 way for parallel at a later date

is there anything that looks like a pot but acts like a 5 way switch?

[Philly Q]

is there anything that looks like a pot but acts like a 5 way switch?

We could mention PRS again, they use 5-way rotary switches on the Cu22 and Cu24!

I don't know if you can get the exact wiring you want, but there are several different rotary switches here:

http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-shop/allparts-guitar-amp-parts/electronics/switches-c-277_1_81_82.html

[Will]

Does your guitar have pickup rings? The SD triple shot ring may do the job

[andymac]

Have a word with Jonathan at Feline.  He has push push pots, far easier than push pull, and they don't feel at all flimsy

Andy

[Tele52]

sink is full of dirty pots, no wait I mean, who makes good push pull pots?

can't find any CTS ones on WD music :(

humbuckers = I want 500k right?

tone pot be 500k too?

do I need to get capacitors too? if so which ones do folk usually go for?

cheers lovely people! (first reply gets a pint)

I bought my pots and caps from Tim, I can't believe how much better my 2000 Gary Moore with PG Blues sounds. Great gear does make a difference.