Pots and Caps

[Bandade]

Has anyone done any modifications the pots and caps on their 535 or prospect? I just switched from Schaller to Seth Lovers and I am quite confused by the performance of the volume and tone controls. The volume pots do not have an even taper and the tone controls do little to the tone; I would like a bit more top end. I've made changes to the volume and tone controls of other guitars but I want to get some input before I go through the total hell of fishing the electronics out of my prospect.

 

Thanks

[FredZepp]

I can't help with the 535 mods really, but something needs done if you feel your Seths need more top end. I find mine to be very open and fairly bright.

 

Good luck with the Prospect, those seem like a fairly ideal Heritage. I really like their design on those.

[High Flying Bird]

Has anyone done any modifications the pots and caps on their 535 or prospect? I just switched from Schaller to Seth Lovers and I am quite confused by the performance of the volume and tone controls. The volume pots do not have an even taper and the tone controls do little to the tone; I would like a bit more top end. I've made changes to the volume and tone controls of other guitars but I want to get some input before I go through the total hell of fishing the electronics out of my prospect.

 

Thanks

 

I agree with Fred on this one. I had Seth's in a 150 and they were fairly bright. I find Schaller's to be very bright. Maybe you might want to look into adjusting your amp before you gut the Prospect. A few months ago I got a H-357/Firebird with Phat Cats in it. I have just started getting used to my amp after playing my 535 with HRW's through it the last year.

[mars_hall]

Just trying to think outside the box here...

 

Did you adjust pickup height and the individual pole pieces for the sweet spot? Another thought concerning the lack of tone control would be, are the internal wires (i.e. pickup wire shielding, improperly dressed or rearranged cables within the guitar, etc) touching at a spot in the circuit that causes a short somewhere within the tone circuit?

 

In general, the tone control subtracts high frequency content out of the pickups signal and the two main adjustable factors are the pot and cap.

 

There will never be more high frequency content than the pickup originally provides. In other words, having no tone pot and no cap will provide the maximum high frequency content.

 

The pots will be 500K and the cap will be .02 uF typically for humbuckers.

 

I have heard of people replacing the 500K with 300K pots but this will only take more high frequencies out which is the opposite direction of where you appear to be wanting to go.

 

Increasing the value of the cap from the typical .02 uF towards .05 uF (another standard cap used) will likely be the way you are wanting to go. If you can shunt different values while the control are outside the body this may help. When you shunt caps they add, so two .02 uf caps in parallel will give you .04 uF etc.

 

 

As far as the pot, make sure the one in the guitar is the standard audio taper one.

 

None of this may help, but maybe seeds have been planted for the possible solution.

[lifewithasong]

I've never handled a 535 or a Prospect, but on the two H575 I worked with, I notice that they use 250K tone pots (vs. 500K volume pots). If yours does also, you may try switching those out for 500K pots to let more high frequencies through. I'm like you--I've done some switching on other guitars--and found that these types of simple mods make a huge difference. . .and sometimes are necessary (but fun) when changing pickups.

 

As a side note, on one of my current 575s, I also replaced the Schallers (I agree with you High Flying Bird--too bright) with Stew Mac's Parsons Streets, and used a .047 cap for a while and loved the sound overall. I've since put that stock yellow cylindrical cap back in and. . .LOVE the sound with these pickups.

[Spectrum13]

My frist Heritage was a 2006 150 with Seths. The bridge pickup was too bright, the neck pickup not bright enough the taper provided only three points for tone and volume on a spectrum of 10. It also was wired modern style and the toggle was starting to go. I wanted vintage wiring, more shades of volume and tone and a brighter neck and less bright bridge. I replaced all the electronics except the wiring harness.

 

Stock in 2006 were WD pots with 250 T and 250V. I replace with an RS treble tamer kit and switchcraft toggle. The 500V 500T brightened the neck Seths while the 500- 300 and forgot the value of the cap mod provided just the correct amount of bite and the CTS pots provided more control over volume and tone tapers. The vintage wiring prevented the loss of highs when I turned down the volume.

 

The next two 137 and 155 all received similar mods and for my custom Prospect, I spoke with Jason Lollar concerning pot and cap values as recommended for P90s in a semi and worked out the details and ordered the parts from RS and mailed them to 225 Parsons for Ren to assemble.

 

This might be considered compulsive but I got exactly the controls I wanted. Yea control freak, thats me.

 

 

 

BTW a high quality harness is cheep and will provided better shielding on the P90s.