New pots and switch ?

[kirkw101]

I'm going to swap out pots and the three way today. Should I go 250k for both vol and 500k for tone with a .22cap?

 

my neck pickups is a tad darker than I really want so I'm hoping/praying I can swap something out and get it a tad brighter.

 

18 year old pots and switches need love too! I was thinking about putting a coil tap on the bridge, I've never wired one before.

 

Input needed guys

 

kirk

[mars_hall]

500Ks all around. If the pots are not scratchy, keep them. Increasing the cap value will shunt less high-end to ground, which is what tone circuits do.

 

The coil tap shouldn't be any great problem.

 

The muddy neck pickup can have its tone altered by playing with pickup height and pole screw heights. Usually moving the pup away from the strings while the pole screws get nearer will increase the treble response. YMMV

[DetroitBlues]

I've done the coil tap, but I must say it really doesn't do much for me. All I've noticed is the 60 cycle hum I get from a single coil pup. As for the tone cap's, I've often heard to use a lower number than .22uf to improve the tone.

[kirkw101]

my volume pot on the bridge works but the shaft has some wiggle to it. its kinda sloppy feeling, not scratchy though.

 

I get hum right now, when my hands are not on the metal. the switch has missed a few times when I flip it to the neck position.

 

 

Thanks guys

 

 

kirk

[kirkw101]

oh, I've adjusted the pickup as much as I can and pick farther back when I'm in the neck position. I was just wanting to try something different and see what happens.

 

thanks for the advice

 

kirk

[mars_hall]

oh, I've adjusted the pickup as much as I can and pick farther back when I'm in the neck position. I was just wanting to try something different and see what happens.

 

thanks for the advice

 

kirk

 

Try disconnecting the cap wire that connects to ground on the neck pickup. This will give you the maximum amount of treble possible for that pickup because none will be shunted to ground.

[kirkw101]

will do. thanks

[DetroitBlues]

Make sure the volume pots are audio taper pots...

[Jimbob]

I agree with 500K pots all around as opposed to 250K to bring out more high end. You may also want to check your existing pots before considering the notion of keeping them, for the last two Heritage guitars I rewired (H150 & H535) both came stock with 250K pots, and both are early 90s guitars. If you're unable to see the values on the pots, a multimeter may need to be used to check them. I'll typically use a .022 cap on the bridge pickup, but to bring out a little more flexibility in the high-end for the neck pickup without disconnecting the cap, I'll use anything from a .010 to a .015 with the lower number increasing the high-end taper. Also, I'd use good-quality caps and avoid the cheapo ceramic ones.

[kirkw101]

thanks guys. I decided to leave everything as is for now. I did shoot some cleaner in there and that helped. The vol 2 pot still has a little wobble in it but it functions like a new one.

 

kirk