25k pot with Painkillers!?! WTF?

[SLUG]

Hello all. First time post, long time user. I recently bought a guitar off ebay, and the origonal owner had changed out the EMG's for a Painkiller set. So I got the guitar, and noticed that it sounded really dark. I like a guitar that I don't have to try and dial highs out of and is balanced, so I sort of liked it, but thought it needed a little more highs. It sort of sounds like the tone control is dialed back a bit.

So I took a look inside to see what pots were in it, and found that the volume pot is a 25k. I got a reading of 250k off of the push/pull tone pot. I got a reading of about 180 - 185k from the jack to ground. So I guess my question is, if I want to add some highs/bite to my tone and let it breath a bit, should I go with a 250k volume pot? 300k? I hate bright, and have heard the Painkillers are rather brite and midrangy, so I'm not sure if I should go with a 500k even though it's most common.

I appriciate any advice you guys can give me. Here are some pics.

[Transcend]

I would personally go with a 500k or a 300k and change the highs on your amp as and when needed.

I had a gutiar with a nailbomb that had a 25k pot.

Not only did it knock the brightness down. It reduced the output, tightness, clarity, punchiness and pretty much made it sound utterly cr@p.

[HTH AMPS]

500k for sure, it'll sound punchier and crisp.  300k pots with humbuckers always sound a bit muddy to me and softens the highs too much.  You can always use the tone pot on the guitar or the amp's EQ to tame treble; not that I found PK's to be terribly toppy in my mate's LP Custom.

[gwEm]

500k for sure, it'll sound punchier and crisp.  300k pots with humbuckers always sound a bit muddy to me and softens the highs too much.  You can always use the tone pot on the guitar or the amp's EQ to tame treble; not that I found PK's to be terribly toppy in my mate's LP Custom.

i'd normally agree.. but i have a painkiller fitted in a Jackson RR which has no tone control. i had to go with 300k in that to tame the highs.

but in this 500k all round for sure like HTH says!

[plastercaster]

Never got all this stuff about pot values... they are adjustable you know.

[Transcend]

they are only adjustable to the max rating and if you max out too early then thats not good

[ericsabbath]

once a really stupid luthier left 25k pots when he switched my guitar back to passives and  he argued that he worked as a luthier for 15 years and that he was in electronic tech school for 5 years and that there's absolutely no relationship between pot values and tone  :lol: :lol: :lol:
he didn't even rewire the ground

the guitar sounded dark, low, thin and VERY muddy
the "clean" tone was really buzzy and distorted as $%&#

[plastercaster]

they are only adjustable to the max rating and if you max out too early then thats not good

So surely if you're thinking 300k or 500k pots the answer is "get a 500 and if you don't like it, roll it back to 300 through the simple rotation of the knob"?

Not being funny or anything, just wondered if there was more to this than meets the eye  :lol:

[Transcend]

they are only adjustable to the max rating and if you max out too early then thats not good

So surely if you're thinking 300k or 500k pots the answer is "get a 500 and if you don't like it, roll it back to 300 through the simple rotation of the knob"?

Not being funny or anything, just wondered if there was more to this than meets the eye  :lol:

No thats pretty much it.

The best way i can describe it is when i had a 25k pot in the guitar felt castrated as it was a passive humbucker.

You just adjust it to where you like it.

It does affect the output and high end though

[BigB]

Never got all this stuff about pot values... they are adjustable you know.

The volume pot forms some kind of RLC filter with the pickup and will bleed higher frequencies to the ground so actually working as a hipass filter, even with the pot wide open. The cutoff frequency depends on both the pickup's characteristics and the pot's value, with lower pot's values giving lower cutoff frequency. From experience, even the 10% difference between a 450K and a 500K pot makes a noticeable difference.

[ElectricTurkey4369]

Oo, that's one nice lookin' axe. What brand is it?

[SrDeMaFp]

Oo, that's one nice lookin' axe. What brand is it?

Looks like a Bernie Rico Jr Hesperian(?) And a DAMN nice one at that!

[ethan_hanus]

Dang, 25k for a PK? That would make any other pickup sound ultra muffled.

I use a 1 meg for my volume, which adds some nice grit to the PK on the clean channel, but I'm actually thinking of switching back to a 500k volume pot to make it slightly darker.

I say go with 500k pots all around, sound be a good balance for the PK. 300k might be ok, but idk where you would find one.