Tele neck pickup - 250k vs 500k pots

[Music&Chaos]

Hey RT,

I have a tele I have really been going in setup wise. Now that it feels like a dream, I shifted that same focus over to the pickups.

*I still need to intonate it, had to dial in neck angle and action*

First off, the pickups in this guitar already sound great overall, but I was seeking a bit more balance.

You see, this tele has a single coil neck with a humbucker at the bridge.

I have 500k pots installed along with an oil cap (.033 I believe), wired in a 50s tele config.

Very lively sound!

I had a resistor added in so the neck pickup saw a load closer to a standard single coil at about 270k or so.

Nice, fat sound, snappy, all that.

The bridge pickup balance though has just been a touch out of whack, but I really liked the current position.

Decided to try the setup with the resistor out.

Bingo!!!

This tele neck really sounds like a thumping thing. It seemed to just fatten up certain mid frequencies almost. Interesting, as I thought the extended top would become more brittle or fatigue prone but it sounds fuller in a way I did not expect.

This pickup sounds absolutely awesome with a 500k pot!

The balance is also there due to the extended mids and top end.

Only took a few minutes to try and brought this guitar to the next level.

Originally this neck pickup was just sitting in here, as it is for another build, but now......

Yeah, it's gotta stay. I guess I'll have to get another.

The pickups I am using are from Planet Tone.

American metal for the neck and Legacy for the bridge. Both with Alnico V magnets.

Clear, articulate, in your face, with growl and bite, but also warm.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

I love hearing people experimenting and finding good sounds through messing with pots and resistor values. It’s like the cheapest thing you can do to significantly change your sound.

I recently worked out a way to make a single push pull pot split a humbucker and patch in a resistor at the same time to simulate the split coil seeing 250k pots. So now in the same guitar, in humbucker mode, my pickups see 500k pots, but when I coil tap the neck single coil, that resistor gets introduced to the circuit which means I get a more realistic and balanced single coil-ish sound instead of the shrill ice-picky thing you usually get when you split humbuckers into singles on 500k pots. Even if I leave the push pull pot pulled, switching back to the bridge automatically removes the resistor and brings the load back to the 500k pots only. Getting tricks like that to work is always fun.

Glad you found a wiring that works in all cases for your guitar!

 

[BABMusic]

I miss the tone of my single coils with the 250, but I had to compromise so that my humbucker would sound its best with the 500.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I miss the tone of my single coils with the 250, but I had to compromise so that my humbucker would sound its best with the 500.

You can just throw a resistor in and have the single coil see a 250k pot instead and the bridge will still see a 500k.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I love hearing people experimenting and finding good sounds through messing with pots and resistor values. It’s like the cheapest thing you can do to significantly change your sound.

I recently worked out a way to make a single push pull pot split a humbucker and patch in a resistor at the same time to simulate the split coil seeing 250k pots. So now in the same guitar, in humbucker mode, my pickups see 500k pots, but when I coil tap the neck single coil, that resistor gets introduced to the circuit which means I get a more realistic and balanced single coil-ish sound instead of the shrill ice-picky thing you usually get when you split humbuckers into singles on 500k pots. Even if I leave the push pull pot pulled, switching back to the bridge automatically removes the resistor and brings the load back to the 500k pots only. Getting tricks like that to work is always fun.

Glad you found a wiring that works in all cases for your guitar!

Now THAT is a cool idea! I really like that a lot. Damn you! lol I will have to try this in my guitar(s) that split.