Pickup Changes/pot changes what to get, and where to look???

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If I were to change pickups in a few of my les paul guitars, what are the benefits to change out the pots as well? I am putting some BKP in them (warpig, and rebel yell) and wanted to know if I should be putting some good quality pots in there to replace the old ones. I dont know what vaule pots I should be going for, or what difference it makes if I use 250k, 500k, ect... can someone school me on what to do here? If it makes a huge difference I am trying to run the BKP in series or parallel, so I dont really know if there is a diagram somewhere online or at the BKP website to look at to do this properly, but if someone could point me out to a site where it would help me out with that I would appreciate that as well. I get easily confused on what to do when I read postings on how guys change pot values, split coil humbuckers, ect... because it just makes me want to try out all of these options, but then I have to find out who makes the best pots, what value pots to get, will they fit in my les paul... ect. Can someone give me their opinion of the best pots out there to buy, I have heard of some brands but forgot the names.

Thanks, Chad
 
As far as values go, lower numbers like 250k cut more treble, where 500k lets more pass through from the pickup. 1K and above let even more brightness through, but you lose a lot of the taper. If volume swells and that sort of thing are important, it's probably best to stick with nothing above 500k. CTS has a good reputation for making quality pots, and I like them.
 
When you say lets more "pass" through with a 500k, what does that mean, and what kind of effect that has on tone... and when you say taper, what does that mean, I dont know what kind of effect that has on my tone? Sorry for the stupid questions, but I love to learn. That company is the one that I have heard of alot... how is their customer service? Will they be patient and be able to awnser my questions by phone or email? I appreciate the help.
 
The passing of treble is pretty simple...a 250K pot will in general leave a pickup sounding darker, while a higher value will allow more of the brightness to get through to your output jack.

With the BKP pickups you're getting, 500K would be the clear and easy choice.

Taper is the response of the knob...the rate at which the signal grows with the roll of the knob.

I really wouldn't bother hunting much further than CTS... pots that are realiable, and sound great every time for me.

Eric
 
Sounds fantastic!!! I think I will have to give them a try... thanks for your help guys, I really appreciate it. RIG TALK IS SO TITS MONEY!!!!
 
Now that you got me thinking... what exactly would the improvements be when I put new capacitors and switches in the LPC and DC? Should I still be looking to get CTS parts for those as well?

mhenson42":3mltemjz said:
Check out RS guitarworks. You can get some real nice pots from them. Don't forget new, upgraded capacitors as well. I changed the switches, pots and caps on all my guitars when I upgraded the pick-ups. Well worth doing.

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/index.php?cPath=45
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Now Im having problems finding out what kind of pots I need to get, short or long shaft... and also I cant find a push pull cts pot 500k anywhere. The web link you gave me said it had CTS Push Pull 500k, but when I clicked on the item it said they were made by alpha. Anyone know if they discontinued those pots or not? I cant seem to find any, and I really want to split the BKP for a variety of tones when I get them.

Thanks, Chad
 
500K pots. I use CTS. Bareknuckle Rebell Yells are great in a Les Paul.
 
glip22":2ysifai9 said:
500K pots. I use CTS. Bareknuckle Rebell Yells are great in a Les Paul.
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So Ive heard, and I cant wait to try them out myself... the stock pickups on the 80 LPC just flat out sound like shit, and I cant wait to hear what this guitar sounds like with some good pups in her.
 
AFAIK CTS doesn't make their own p/p pots. Most are relabeled ones (also from other brands)

In my experience most p/p pots suck, as in: they don't sound right, bad taper and the p/p mechanism is prone to failing.

The very best I've found so far are the original push/push pots in the 70's/80's Yamaha's. Unfortunately they no longer supply them the way they used to be. They didn't make them to begin with but I've tried to find them by their original manufacturers name and no luck.

Giga

Oh... forgot: I've bought (quite expensive) Bumblebee and grey Tiger caps from RS and they are great ! Best I've found so far. Don't underestimate the influence of your caps !
 
Thanks a million Giga, I wont underestimate them... which do you think I would enjoy more? I get torn too easily between brands, quality parts, ect... I cant ever seem to commit. So what would you suggest between the bumblebee and grey tiger? Is there different values that make a difference? I have only seen .22 caps in the prewired cts boards that are sold at RS Guitarworks, and they seem like a good idea, but I know that they are overpricing the parts for easy convienence of a "drop in" board like that. I am thinking of making my own little board to put some cts pots in and drop it in my LP to replace it, but what kind of material is that stuff made out of is my only question... would it make a difference what I make it out of?

Giga":7wn20n6k said:
AFAIK CTS doesn't make their own p/p pots. Most are relabeled ones (also from other brands)

In my experience most p/p pots suck, as in: they don't sound right, bad taper and the p/p mechanism is prone to failing.

The very best I've found so far are the original push/push pots in the 70's/80's Yamaha's. Unfortunately they no longer supply them the way they used to be. They didn't make them to begin with but I've tried to find them by their original manufacturers name and no luck.

Giga

Oh... forgot: I've bought (quite expensive) Bumblebee and grey Tiger caps from RS and they are great ! Best I've found so far. Don't underestimate the influence of your caps !
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I use the grey Tiger for my bridge PU's (Rio Grande bbq) and the bumblebee's for the neck (Haüssel P90). The grey Tigers give a sort of woody tone (for lack of a better word) and the bumblebees give very nice smooth highs with a nice taper which works great for the trebly P90.
You can't go wrong with either of them really and you buy them in couples anyway.
In general 0,022 is a good value for hb's. Sometimes I use 0,015 for the neck, depending on guitar, PU, amp, etc.
Note that I use an extra little resistor to set the "minimal tonepot setting" to work around that annoying last one or one and a half notch on the tonepot. Tonepotvalue for the neck is 330k. Also note that connecting your tonepot to the inputlug of your volumepot gives an entirely different tone than connecting it to the outputlug of the volumepot. This is easy to experiment with.

Good luck !

Giga

Edit: extra remark on the RS superpots: I've tried them and went back to the regular ones. They run a bit easier and they roll of the volume faster which I like because I'm constantly adjusting my volume and like to go from "as clean as possible" to higher gain with my volumepot.


pfapin05":1r6kydib said:
Thanks a million Giga, I wont underestimate them... which do you think I would enjoy more? I get torn too easily between brands, quality parts, ect... I cant ever seem to commit. So what would you suggest between the bumblebee and grey tiger? Is there different values that make a difference? I have only seen .22 caps in the prewired cts boards that are sold at RS Guitarworks, and they seem like a good idea, but I know that they are overpricing the parts for easy convienence of a "drop in" board like that. I am thinking of making my own little board to put some cts pots in and drop it in my LP to replace it, but what kind of material is that stuff made out of is my only question... would it make a difference what I make it out of?

Giga":1r6kydib said:
AFAIK CTS doesn't make their own p/p pots. Most are relabeled ones (also from other brands)

In my experience most p/p pots suck, as in: they don't sound right, bad taper and the p/p mechanism is prone to failing.

The very best I've found so far are the original push/push pots in the 70's/80's Yamaha's. Unfortunately they no longer supply them the way they used to be. They didn't make them to begin with but I've tried to find them by their original manufacturers name and no luck.

Giga

Oh... forgot: I've bought (quite expensive) Bumblebee and grey Tiger caps from RS and they are great ! Best I've found so far. Don't underestimate the influence of your caps !
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