250k Vs 500k Pots For Pickups
Most people will use 500k pots for the neck and 250k for the bridge.
250k vs 500k pots for pickups. The other day i compared the monty s keef prototype. So larger pots are brighter pots and smaller pots are duller pots. We use 250k pots for the single coils because these pickups are often very bright. We use the 500k pots for the humbuckers because they are warm and dark sounding so we want to preserve as much high end as we can.
K is the abbreviation for kilo or 1 000. If you like this and wanna buy me a coffee i mean i won t say no. These are often paired with a 500k pot fig 2 that will preserve more of the high end that remains. Therefore a 500k pot will result in a brighter tone than a 250k pot used on the same pickup.
Higher values produce a slightly brighter tone. For whatever reason it ends up being treble that escapes to ground through the 250k or 500k side of the pot. Anyway and here s the important part the larger the pot the less treble that escapes to ground. Allowing some of the highs to slip away can reduce the shrill and warm up the high notes.
The two coils in a humbucker pickup cancel out many high frequencies because of phase cancellation caused by the closeness of the two coils. Single coil pickups can sometimes sound very bright and piercing so these pickups are often paired with 250k pots fig 1 to allow more high frequencies to escape. This makes a humbucker sound very warm compared to a single coil. If you swapped those out with 500k pots there will be more treble response and for some that may be desirable however if it s a standard strat wiring setup where the bridge pickup is not connected to a tone control then oh yes that bridge pickup will screech something awful and or sound shrill if wired to a 500k volume control pot.
You can also mix pots within a pickup if you want something different than what you get out of either a 500k or a 250k. 250k control pots are the usual choice for single coil pickups. Welcome to perky s analog gear demos. That s why you use 250k pots on single coil pickups to take the edge off if their super bright tone.
Lower values produce a slightly warmer tone they remove little more of the highs. These k numbers are the resistance ratings kohms. 500k control pots are the usual choice for humbuckers. This gives the tone a nice balance imbuing it with warmth without sacrificing the high treble tones.
1meg ohm is 1 000k or 1 million ohms.