I came across this:

http://www.torresengineering.com/1megpot.html



Hmm, is this true? Does it really increase your gain? Doesn't it also make your pickups sound really bright and harsh? It says for a pickup with more than 12k you should get a 2meg pot, I have a tonezone in a guitar that's 17.4k and I only have a 500K pot for it. :schocked:

Does anyone here use these high K pots and would you recommend them?

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I think it is true I now that Dimarzio makes the 1 meg for that purpose I was going to buy one but I cant find one anywhere I might have to try this brand Ive never heard of them but its probably worth a shot.

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okay, i wish i had the graph for this, but i dont. Basically, the higher the value of pot, less current is bled off to ground (we all know this). Pot value describes the resistance between the pickup and ground when it is fully open (set to 10).

It wont make them trebley and shitty sounding, it will actually just open it up more. More bass, more mids, more treble, especially mids and treble. And as we all know, a general increase of all frequencies is seen as an increase in amplitude, also known as volume, and in the case of a first stage in an amplified situation, gain. What this means is less compression (volume wont be leveled off as much), it will sound more organic, and also due to the increase of general volume, it will sustain more. May i note, that tonally, you wont notice more bass, you will notice more volume and more treble.

Now, about the description of it being good for high impedance pickups. This is because high impedance pickups mean they have more winds which means they have more bass and mids and less trebel. Therefore using a higher impedance pot will bring otu that trebel. If you, on the other hand have a low impedance pickup, it will be a trebley pickup to begin with, and therefore using high impedance pots will make it toooo trebley. The ones who documented 1meg pots sounding "harsh and trebley" were the ones who build fender tele's back in the day with the 1megs instead of the 250k's they have today. So of course it will sound harsh and trebley, you're using low impedance single coils :P

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Awesome, I think I'm going to get a 2meg pot for my guitar with a Tonezone and PAF pro, the tonezone is a really dark overwound pickup with 17k or so, hopefully the pot can sharpen out it's upper mids a little more. One question though, the PAF Pro only has about 8 or 9k dc resistance, would the 2 meg pot make the PAF pro sound excessively as well? Maybe I should just get a 1 meg pot so they'll both be within acceptable limits?

Edit: LOL nevermind I forgot I could just use a 2 meg pot for the TZ, and a 1 meg for the PAF pro, forgot my guitar has space for 3 pots. By the way, in conjunction with high meg pots, why kind of pots should I use for the tone control? A high 1 meg pot too or a plain old 500k for the tone? I always keep the tone knob at 100% but I still want to have it available.

I'm trying to find an audio sample comparison of a guitar with a 500k pot and one with a 1meg or 2meg pot, can anyone point me to one?

So that's why people suggest 1meg pots for long cable runs, it gives a boost to the guitar's output volume/gain.

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As far as your Tone pot is concerned, you can just stick with a regular 500k. The tone pot value has much much less impact than the Volume pot value. I think the Tonezone could benefit from a 1meg ohm pot, although I would see if you can find something around 600K for the PAF pro. It might get a bit bright.

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for tone i have NO idea. I would think however that the higher value the pot, again, the less trebel is bled off. Personally, i'd like to experiment with all this and figure out what happens. Its always something that i've thought about.

there is a way to change the "value" of the pot without actually taking it out. Get a 500k resistor, and you have to solder it somewhere on it, but i dont remmber exactly, and that should raise it or lower it between 250k and 1megk depending on where its placed.

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Oh wonderful, because I have a 500k push pull pot for coil tapping that I wanna install as the tone pot on that guitar with the TZ and PAF pro.

The PAF pro is slightly above 8k and according to that site 1meg pots are meant for 8k-12k pickups. I'll follow your advice and get something in between 500k and 1 meg for the paf pro if i can find it. But it shouldn't be bad if it's 1meg since it's in the neck position I guess?

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True, it all depends on the sound you are going for. For me, that would probably make the neck pickup too bright, but thats just my taste. I would say go ahead and try a 1meg and see how it works.

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i always wondered what coil tapping was. I have one on my guitar, no idea why

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well coil tapping can mean 2 things:
first some background: a basic singlecoil is a magnet with wire wrapped around it, one wire going in the beginning, and another coming out the end.

a coil tap is originally when one would put ANOTHER wire in between those two primary wires to reduce output and whatnot for a different tone.

A coil SPLIT only applies to humbuckers, and is when you completely bypass one of the coils, thus turning your hummer into a singlecoil. A coil split is a type of coil tap, but a coil tap is not always a coil split

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well thats a lot of information...seems to make sense though, don't know why i'd want that...

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Ok, I thought I'd post in here instead of starting a new thread. I'm currently building a new guitar (Custom Strat) for lead playing. Thing is it will be hb/sc/sc, what pots should I use? I was thinking that for the HB (Dimarzio Air Zone most likely) that I could use a Fender TBX tone pot (gradated 250k/1meg), but I dont really know what to do with the Volume, the Single Coils will be fender Texas Specials so even a 500k volume might make them too bright sounding...?

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For H-S-S guitars, 300k pots are commonly used for volume.

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Sounds logical!

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