Pots (long shaft?) and Caps (values?)

[jacques]

Hi folks,

Please enlighten me on the subject of pots and caps.

After installing Amber Spirit of 59 (PAF style) humbuckers in my 2005 Heritage H150 I am tempted to change the pots and caps to more traditional specifications. After reading about V(intage) I(nspired) P(ickups), a.k.a. V.I.P. Potentiometers in the German magazine Gitarre & Bass I located a store in Switzerland. (I live in the Netherlands and am therefore more Europe oriented.) These pots are like the old Centralabs pots of the 1950s.

First question: Do I need the long shaft type or the regular ones?

And then: capacitors. I no nothing about the values of these things, just that I should try the P.I.O. or Paper In Oil type. I've read about 0.22 and 0.15 , but that's about it...

Second question: Should I look for two different values or the same? And which values do you guys recommend?

 

Thanks a million! Any other advice on wiring is very welcome.

 

Jacques 

[deytookerjaabs]

There's confusion, you should not need long shaft version. The long shaft is for gibson guitars that have that big hunk of metal acting as a shield/ground. Those pots are a solid deal, nail the 50's taper, and worth it all day. Again, IF that's what you're looking for because the slow to fast taper from 8-10 is pretty dramatic and I find it's just a matter of preference as I'm more than happy with my guitars that don't have them too. 

 

I've put those pot in a V I have, a firebird, a while back an H150 and last year a Les Paul:

 

Do it! Oh, and I just used some NOS russian thingys bought cheap off ebay as the caps. 

[jacques]

Okay, thanks! 

Anybody who has any ideas about the value of caps? I do find the sound of the bridge humbucker a bit thin - does the cap value have something to to with that?

[davesultra]

The standard for humbuckers is .022. Although some like a .022 for the bridge and an .015 for the neck. The higher the value the more high end you’ll roll off when turning the knob. I’ve tried.033 in a humbucker equipped guitar before, but didn’t care for the results. Normally when the tone pot is on 10 there’s very little the cap value affects.

[jacques]

Also thanks, that is a clear answer.

Anybody experience with the so called 50's wiring? Worth the trouble?

[davesultra]

Some say the ‘50s wiring adds clarity. I have tried it a few times but didn’t like it. I found that it mostly changes the sweep/taper of the pot. My impression is that if you manipulate the volume and tone controls a lot, then I can see where that would be useful. For me I typically run things pretty much wide open, except when using the neck pickup. For me the ‘50s wiring didn’t add much. But it’s worth trying out, you may like it. Worst case is that if you don’t care for it, it’s an easy mod to reverse.

[jacques]

So, I understand this famous 50's wiring does not add, for instance, great depth to a thin sounding bridge pickup or bring about other miracles. I think I will first see what happens with the pots and capacitors. I will let all who are interested know in due time.

Thanks!

[deytookerjaabs]

2 hours ago, jacques said:

So, I understand this famous 50's wiring does not add, for instance, great depth to a thin sounding bridge pickup or bring about other miracles. I think I will first see what happens with the pots and capacitors. I will let all who are interested know in due time.

Thanks!

 

Well, the problem with that rabbit hole is if you ask a certain choir the prevailing answer is basically that ANYTHING in the 50's from the .0002% of ababalaselineneumum in the bridge post will be a sure fire arbiter of golden tone fairies. IMO, give it a shot and see what you dig/hear and trust your instincts regardless of what conclusion you come to. 

[bolero]

I prefer the '50's wiring; it's been a while since I did the swap, but I seem to recall the taper was a more useable range for me

[Spectrum13]

2 minutes ago, bolero said:

I prefer the '50's wiring; it's been a while since I did the swap, but I seem to recall the taper was a more useable range for me

This.. plus if the pots are 500k, 300k or 250k there will be more treble to roll off from the higher values.