BKPs with 1meg pots

[Dave Sloven]

I know there has been some experimentation here with 1meg pots and bypassing pots completely and I'm wondering if anyone can share their experiences of playing guitars with these and whether they eventually went back to lower value pots?

The 1meg option was mainly discussed here in relation to the Warpigs but I have also seen at least one review where a Cold Sweat or Miracle Man has been wired straight to the jack.

With my Explorer I don't tend to use the tone knob at all - there's no reason to darken the tone. I'm wondering though if I might be able to get a brighter tone sometimes if I had a brighter value pot, and then get my current tone by backing of the volume and tone pots a bit?

[darthphineas]

I've tinkered around with the 1 meg ohm pots and have them in some guitars right now.  the first guitar was picked mainly just to try the pot and had nothing to do with the pickup or the woods but just on the convenience of which guitar didn't have some tripped-out wiring or a p/p pot or anything like that.

the other was based strictly on trying to open up a dull-sounding guitar.  turns out this guitar had more issues than the girls working the day shift down at the Jiggle Hut and the pots were one of many steps.

in both instances the pickups are higher output models like a JB or a hybrid made of a JB and a Custom, so as a reference they are not quite as open and clear as the BKP models.  but I can say the gave each guitar a bit more headroom.  it's not something I was able to hear and immediately think "oh, that's a 1 meg ohm pot!"  I think the shift from a 250k to a 500k is much more obvious.  however, I do believe that every little thing adds up and if you're looking for a little more 'air' in there, it'd be a step to take.  in both instances, I have no need to revert back to 500k.

to bypass pots, are you talking about a blower switch or just unhooking pots from the chain?  I have a guitar I've been meaning to wire a blower switch into for about a year and just need to get around to doing it.  I've seen where some guys say it's not like night and day, but it's a subtle bump frees up the resistance a bit to help with a little more sparkle when wanted.

you guys can shoot me know, but I just don't use tone pots, so I just unhook them.  I leave them in there so there's not an empty hole, so I just call them dummy knobs.  this is also one of those things where I can tell that subtle difference where the signal will have a little more 'essence' or 'life'.

[Dave Sloven]

Thanks!  Throwing in a set of 1meg pots sounds like something worth trying.  I am looking at changing the Asian pots in there for the American ones anyway - the witch hat knobs seem to be quite loose, suggesting that the previous owner has put Gibson knobs on Asian (metric shaft) pots.

I also need to change the selector switch, so I might as well get a full vintage style harness made for it.

[darthphineas]

it's always fun to keep the tech kit stocked up with some solid pots and jacks and switches.  I grabbed a few imports earlier this year, noticed they had lowest-common-denominator parts inside the control box, so just swapped them out.  I think I put in some CTS pots and some switchcraft jacks, and even some new trem springs in the back. just a few bucks here and there and it helped take them up a notch.

[Dave Sloven]

I might get the new parts in nickel or chrome rather than the current gold (as I hate gold hardware and it is more expensive anyway) but my Explorer will then look a bit 'mix-and-match' until I change out the bridge, tailpiece, and tuners ...