Guitar Pots with in-between values?

BesaMoogie

BesaMoogie

Well-known member
Do they exist? We all know the rule of thumb, 250k for single coils and 500k for HBs. Then there’s Gibson that has 300k pots. But do any in-between values exist aiming at 400k or 450k, apart from the ‚natural‘ variance pots have?
 
I’ve always made my own. For example, but a few 250k pots, open them up and scrape the side edge of the carbon track to make it 300k. I use to make all of my “500k” pots 550k for consistency.
 
psychodave said:
I’ve always made my own. For example, but a few 250k pots, open them up and scrape the side edge of the carbon track to make it 300k. I use to make all of my “500k” pots 550k for consistency.
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Never heard of this Dave, going to have to try it.
Got a couple pots lying around.
Pretty neat.
 
dcburn said:
Never heard of this Dave, going to have to try it.
Got a couple pots lying around.
Pretty neat.
Click to expand...
Make sure you are super careful and only lightly scrape the very outside edges of the carbon track. Use a meter along the way to make sure you don’t over do it. I use alcohol to wipe the loose carbon afterwards.
 
psychodave said:
Make sure you are super careful and only lightly scrape the very outside edges of the carbon track. Use a meter along the way to make sure you don’t over do it. I use alcohol to wipe the loose carbon afterwards.
Click to expand...
I love little tricks!
Appreciate the advice.
 
psychodave said:
I’ve always made my own. For example, but a few 250k pots, open them up and scrape the side edge of the carbon track to make it 300k. I use to make all of my “500k” pots 550k for consistency.
Click to expand...
Wow, that`s like next level! So basically, by craping off the carbon track you increase the resistance?
 
I have some 400k plus/minus long shaft that came out of a Les Paul I had a long time ago. I don't know what value that were supposed to be. You can buy 550k+ pots and put resistors in parallel. But you need big value resistors. A 550k pot with a 2M2 resistor is 440k.

I used to always think higher was better but now I think it's just another variable to tweek.
 
BesaMoogie said:
Wow, that`s like next level! So basically, by craping off the carbon track you increase the resistance?
Click to expand...
Yep. As I mentioned, you only scraped the very side edges of a carbon track pot. It’s not a quick process and doing it right might take you 15-20 minutes…but you get an EXACT number.

I like to find pots that are below 500k so I can use this process and make them 500 or 550. This way when changing pots my guitar doesn’t sound different due to a lot reading different.

Griff is also correct talking about resistors…but I prefer scraping. 😉
 
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