Anything else I should do?

[Twinfan]

Good choice Martin - you can't go wrong with what you've chosen.

Enjoy your new found tone!

[MartinS]

Thanks. Hey, just had a look at your website: I love AC/DC. have you heard their version of Baby Please Don't Go? Malcolm Young's rhythm guitar's fantastic.

[Twinfan]

Yeah, it's a cracking version - from the '74 Jailbreak album.  I heard a rumour that Malcolm played lead on the "Show Business" track...

[MartinS]

Just to confuse matters, I asked Gibson and Tim about this: Gibson say:

"The right value pots for your guitar should be Volume: 300k Linear and
Tone: 500k Audio (log)."

Tim says:

"On an older guitar of this calibre I generally advise to leave the working as is if it's all working well."

I suppose now I've ordered the pots and caps I should have 'em changed...?

What do you think?

[Will]

I guess you may as well change them, Old pots may be a bit scratchy?

Jsut don't throw away the originals

[MartinS]

Yeah, the old volume pots are slightly scratchy down around 1-2, but I use a volume pedal for swells.

[Philly Q]

Tough decision.  I tend to think that if a guitar's been left unchanged for a long time, it's sort of bad karma to mess with it - one of the reasons (apart from cost!) I don't buy vintage guitars.

But you're changing the pickups anyway, and they will almost certainly work better with 500Ks than with the old pots.  Then again, if the pots are 300K/100K and you're used to them, the brighter, more lively tone with 500Ks might come as a bit of a shock!

And to make matters worse, wiring a 335 is such an awkward job - you really want to make the right decision first time!

If you do decide to keep the old pots, get the tech to clean them while they're out of the guitar - that should fix the scratchiness at least.

[MartinS]

Hmm... I don't know. I'm not a great fiddler with the tone and volume knobs to be honest. Maybe I should leave the old ones in a keep the CTS and Orange Drops as spares.

[MartinS]

OK, here's your last chance to advise me: my pickups have arrived, as silvery as a fish. So, do I get the tech to instal them and leave the pots and caps, or change the pots and caps, too?

Personally, I'm leaning towards the former, but want to get the most out of the pickups.

Cheers.

[PhilKing]

You can ask the tech to clean them and see what they sound like and have him decide.  I would change the capacitor anyway as you won't have bumblebees and the orange drops will sound better.  To change pickups on a 335 you have to pull the pots anyway, so you could also have him try the different volumes.  I would be tempted to upgrade the bridge pickup pots anyway, as a 500K Audio would give a brighter sound and I usually prefer the audio taper on the volumes.