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With the guitar talk lately - a word on tone pots

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by BrockStapper, Jul 18, 2007.

  1. BrockStapper

    BrockStapper Contributing Member

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    here's a bit of info that might help someone out someday that I'll throw out there for fun...

    Most know the roll of the capacitor in the guitar in regards to filtering out higher frequencies but not all are as aware of the potentiometers value and how it effects frequencies.

    I finished building a guitar not too long ago that is a little too muffled on the high end of things do to several factors (the pickups are Little '59's which emulate humbuckers and the body is mahogany which is by nature a little darker than Ash or Alder). The potentiometers job in regards to tone pots is to short signal to ground through the capacitor which filters off high frequencies as this happens. The resistance (ohms) of the pot determine how much room, above ground, the signal has to play with.

    A 250k tone pot will have less room above ground and will, as a result, filter out more high end than a 500k pot will. A 1meg pot (found on certain active electronics, funky pickups and in the odd custom guitar where certain wood and pickup combinations demand it) will filter out hardly any high end and will allow the pickup to simply pass the full frequencies of which it is capable.

    The reason why Strats generally come with 250k pots and Gibsons with 500k (except for 300k's every so often on certain models) is a direct result of how much room above ground these guys allow you to have. Humbucking pickups have less high end than single coils as a result of the same reasons they cancel hum. That's the reason for the different values in tone pots between different pickup and body types. Strats are brighter acoustically and brighter as a result of the single coils - so they use a lower value pot in order to tame some of the resulting high end. Gibsons are generally mahogany with humbuckers so they use a higher value to allow more high end to pass through. Gretch, for instance, generally have brighter pickups than Gibsons but they usually also use 250k pots which brighten them up even further.

    In my particular instance (for this guitar only), I started out with 500k pots. I've used several different values of capacitor to brighten the instrument up but it still could use a bit more. so... after taking apart and soldering my life away it has to come apart again. 1 meg pots with a higher value capacitor is going to be just the ticket to get the right tone out of this particular instrument.

    I'll post a pic here that I took with my camera phone of the instrument in case anyone is interested. Nitro laquer all the way baby (sprayed with cans in the yard)

    someday you might want to have fun with potentiometers too!

    Alright,
    back to work...

    Brock

    P.S. a hint - since potentiometers are resistors you can also wire in a resistor of equal value to either double or half the value of the potentiometer... but keep in mind, less is usually more in regards to circuitry...
     
    #1 BrockStapper, Jul 18, 2007
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2007
  2. BrockStapper

    BrockStapper Contributing Member

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    [​IMG]

    sorry for the crappy pic... but here is as she sits now...

    almost done.
     
  3. DFWRocket

    DFWRocket Member

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    I miss my strat..yes its gone..sold it and my amp to make room for baby. bought an Ovations to replace..but I miss my 40th anniversary strat
     
  4. DFWRocket

    DFWRocket Member

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    you work!!?? since when?
     
  5. wreck

    wreck Member

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    Huh?












    Sorry im not a guitar player, but i wish i was :(
     
  6. BrockStapper

    BrockStapper Contributing Member

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    haha!

    since I decided I was tired of being a poor audio engineer...

    Now it's ACAD this and ACAD that.

    ok, so maybe "work" is a little too strong a word.

    matter of fact, that's lunch folks. check back later.
     
  7. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    Trust me, I know plenty of rolls. There's the kaiser roll, the plain ole' dinner roll, jelly roll, spring roll, egg roll...
     
  8. BrockStapper

    BrockStapper Contributing Member

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    mmmm, jelly
     

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