Just the video I was looking for! Thank you so much. For those confused, the single coil clips go 250k, then 500k. The humbucker clips starts with 500k, and then 250k. Pay attention to where he flicks the switch ;) Visuals on the screen could have helped, but we're all adults who are hopefully attentive enough to figure it out on our own.
he said it. he played everything twice. you can also see him switching the toggle down before he repeats, and then up before the next piece. however........ maybe i have poor hearing but i cant tell the diff between 250k and 500k. they sound the same to me.
The difference is more subtle than i expected but you can hear it. When using a good ear monitor, on single coils, the 500k pot seems to emphasize pick attack, a bit more ice picky. Maybe not so noticable to the Listener but may annoy the player. The whole shape of the tone doesn't really get brighter but thatd could be due to the amps compression (drive). I prefer 250k, it just works
Great video. Also to your question on how Fender could have the best of both worlds on their HSS strats.. All Fender would need to do is have a dual stacked pot... 250k / 500k pot and have the humbucker go to the 500k and the single coils go to the 250k. I actually prefer using 1Meg pots on the neck pickups of a single coil and neck humbuckers just to give it the clarity and because it is almost like having a second bridge / lead sound. A lot of variables come into play. Their is no right or wrong. All that matters is what sounds good to YOU. Keep up the good work !
Great video. Listening with cheap speakers, I couldn't hear much difference, but switching to headphones did the trick. Listening to the single coil comparisons, I definitely like the 250k. The 500k sounds too brittle to me ... getting into icepick-tele tones. The 250k sound was still very bright, but had a pleasant, warmer sound. I'm in the process of putting a strat kit together and this really helps in choosing pot taper.
What this video mainly did for me was reaffirm to myself just how much more I prefer single coil pickups! Hahaha. Seriously though, I was surprised at how slight the difference between pots is for me. I hear it, but I was expecting more contrast than what actually came across. Interesting. For me, the humbucker could be either or and I wouldn't really mind, but I definitely had a preference for the 250k on the singles, as slight as it is. Thanks for this! I've never seen anyone else actually do a test like this. Cheers!
There's no great difference because of the strat construction! If this test would have been made with a LP, the result will be a little proeminent. The strat have the treble in its "soul"... But, in a comparision, the recommendation of many brands of lil' humbuckers for strats is mantain the 250k pots. So, there's no such greater difference in use 500k pots in a strat.
Exact perception I got which is good. I want to keep my current electronics and buy a new pickguard that is HSS and use the 250K pot for the Humbucker.
Yes excellent video with plenty of well known examples. Only suggestion would have been to add text to the screen as to what exact pickup setting and pot you were on.
If you want more bite from your pups replace the 500k pots with a 1megaohm pot. It will bring more bite and prescense to your tone. It will work on single coils as well even though you may want to roll back the tone. This 1meg pot will bring even cheap pups to life. I found out about this 30 years ago from Torres engineering who is an amp builder guru in So Cal. Some l.p. style guitars have 350k pots which really kill the sound. The 1meg pot works like this. It provides more resistance to ground which allows more signal or current to your amp. Torres provides the pots for l.p. and strats.The short shaft pots for strats are available anywhere.
+Adam Bourne I did it on the switch for both of the single coil hot terminals. If you do it on the pot and the pot is a master volume it will apply to the HB too.
This has been very insightful thank you, the Shafts on one of the a250k pots completely snapped on my cheap Aldi guitar and sounded just as horrible as their quality now that iv had a clear listen to the 500k ones. I think ill be going with that choice for a fresh set, thanks man.
Would have been better if you could say which was 500k and which was 250k and which pickup was on when you did the switching. I lost track after the 1st 2
Much thanks! I’ve been tormenting myself for days trying to figure out how to wire my hss - so many complicated suggestions out there. I don’t hear enough difference to matter. 500K’s seem to work fine with single coils.
I’m currently tormenting myself too! What did u end up with and do you like it? The manufacturer of my pickups is raw vintage and their diagram is all 250k which they use in the $3000 xotic guitars. So not sure why I’m second guessing them but it seems like nobody else does like that.
I've been wondering the same thing- my ears confirm to me that I prefer the 250 with the HB! that's all I was really wanting to know- so thank you for the demo! Great sound examples!
Im looking at adding the Texas special neck pickup....and the Seymour Duncan pearly gate custom shop...single coil......now im confused I have 250k pots.....should I just stick with those? it seems that the 500 will also render some interesting sounds....
You can get a "dual concentric" potentiometer for a tone control. Two pots in one position and they can be of different values, say 500k and 250k so you can wire the humbucker to the 500k. And it only takes on spot on the pickguard. The main downside is the pots are deeper and i've only found telecaster style knurled knobs for them.
You could also use a dual concentric 500k pot and a DPST switch to select just one side, for 500k, or both in parallel, giving a 250k pot. A tone pot is actually being used as a variable resistor (only two connections to the rest of the circuit), so a double pole switch is all you'd need - i.e. one that opens or closes two separate circuits at the same time. If you wanted to switch between pickups during a tune, having a separate tone control for each pickup would seem to make sense.
the problem is that you still have say a 500k vol pot for the hb, strats need a 250k. its quite a problem. im currently working on a solution to this, results to follow soon. :)
Strats don't NEED a 250k pot, anymore than a Tele does. The difference is that a 250k pot will automatically lop off a bunch of the high frequencies in your tone, before you even get a chance to hear them. The lower the number of the pot, the more high frequencies get sent to ground. Pots, regardless of the value, do not add anything to a passive pickup. They only filter what the pickup provides. The higher the value of the pot, the more of the natural sound of what the passive pickup can provide, makes it through to your amp. What does happen however, is if you use a 500k pot on a passive SC, you'll find that as a musician you'll be forced to actually use your tone knob. Most guys just turn it wide open and never touch it again. It is possible to completely bypass all pots and caps, and wire your pickup directly to the jack. I think a lot of guys would be stunned by what came out of those passive pups if they did. But even a volume pot will pull off tone, depending on what volume you have it set at. The lower the volume, the more high frequencies get filtered off and sent to ground. The whole reason for the treble bleed circuit you see a lot of new builders putting in the guitars now. As a builder, the hardest part has always been what value pots to use, in a guitar with different combinations of pups. Like the old HSH Super Strats of the 80's, most of those used 250's across the board early on. But the 250's filtered off more of highs, making the HB's too dark. As arena rock really started coming of age in the mid 80's and more and more guys started wearing mascara and singing with all the high pitched voice of a 10 year old girl, builders switched to 500k pots across the board, allowing more of the highs to make it through the circuit. Something I highly recommend all guitarists do, is to try different combinations for yourself. Different caps, different pots, audio pots vs linear pots in different positions. You might find something you like better. If you don't, you can always go back to your original set up. The other thing I recommend, is to use the tone knob. most people set it on 10 and never touch it again. If that's how you like to play, set it on 8-9 instead. It will become more active, especially on older guitars. Pots will kind of wear in a bit if it's just left on 10 all the time. The other option is to bypass the tone circuit, and only leave in the volume pot. This will give a better representation of what a passive pup is actually providing. Anyway, have a good one Mrcrappy. Take care. Bob in Germany
Absolutely great demo. The difference was much more dramatic than I thought it would be. Every electric guitarist should watch this video. Nice work James.👍🏼
I literally couldn’t tell the difference between the 250k and 500k pots. If you put, for example, 1k ohms of resistance between your pickups and your output jack, it doesn’t matter whether it’s being put there by a 250k pot or a 500k pot or a 1k resistor or two 500 ohm resistor in series or two 2k resistors in parallel. 1k ohms = 1k ohms = 1k ohms. But thanks for doing this test. I appreciate it. It is exactly the video I was looking for!
Thanks for this video. Not only the humbucker sounded darker, but also less gain. Which made it sound a little less lively. But that can be fixed with a clean boost. I actually like the darker sound, gives me alice in chains vibes.
Cool test! Not to muddy the waters but the tone pot and cap value and also make a big difference. Just take into account when listening that no tone pot (as shown here) will be a lot brighter overall tone.
I just replaced the pickups in a Squier Affinity Strat, and what I assumed would be standard 250K pots with a .22µf, were 500K with a .33µf capacitor. I believe what people are hearing is more the effect of different capacitor values, rather than the 250K vs. 500k debate... I almost felt like modding a pick-guard with a 3 way switch with .22, .33 and .47µf caps to see if there was a difference in tone, that might be interesting to hear, but the difference between 500k and 250k, to my ear, is negligible.
I put 500k in everything. You can always roll it off a hair if it seems to bright but my theory is I'd rather have it all and not need it instead of need it and not have it....
Thanks! Got a Tele clone that I've put a full-sized A2 humbucker in the neck, for jazzier stuff, and a very bright GFS (but good-twangy) rail in the bridge. Looks like a stacked 250/500k pot will balance them tonally.
Thank you, fantastic demo, you were clear which pot was which (yes he WAS), the sounds were clear, and this was very helpful! I'll keep the 500k with my Super Distortion and just keep rolling the tone back to 7. The 250k sounds like it might roll it off too far.
Confused about what config you were playing. You talked about 4 configs yet you went thru much more throwing of switches. Perhaps update with time stamps.
Great video. I think a 500k resistor in parallel to the pot would give you 250k total load so there's probably a way of doing that with the single coils. Personally I'll have my neck pickups as bright as they can get so I don't care.
I was wondering about this, because I want to use a humbucker, single coil combo for a Jag I'm building.. But what if your volume never moves from 10? Does it matter then? I really dont use volume under normal circumstances
I share this pro tip with very few people. Mainly because they really do not know what they do not know and just play what is stock. So here it goes: Use 500k pots on all your guitars with HSS. Make the tone knob 500k as well. Wire the volume and tone knob like a 50’s Les Paul junior. (Vintage wiring vs Modern) use the value .010- .015 for the tone cap. Use the bottom knob as a blender to give you two more options on your 5 way switch. If you want to roll back the volume or tone when using single coils to get more of those stratty tones then you will be inclined to use your ears more and also more feel of the strings and magnets resisting your pick attack. Tone really is in your hands, some guitars do this better out of the box, most have to be modified to this recipe to really have it all in HSS. Now, you have the 500k which the humbucker loves, you are twice the value for single coils, you can roll off the volume and tone and solve that, plus.... using the value of tone cap I prescribed, you will actually use your tone knob more than ever before as the value (.010-.015mfd) shifts the mid and treble points like a partially cocked Wah wah pedal, instead of that .05 horrible muted muffled muddy sound Fender chose to use when guitar players would mimic bass guitar on a 6 string while recording in the 50’s, and no modern players really use the tone knob because of that fact. Now also with my setup, you get the humbucker and neck pickup together with the blender knob and if you add a micro switch, you can shut off a coil on the humbucker and get a close tele sound and in switch position 2 and 4, you can turn the blender off and get all three pickups on together. Playing your amp is now your new concern. You can dial up higher than you would normally use for volume and tones, and use the volume and tone knob straight away on the guitar for boosting volume and tone without a pedal... ala Hendrix ... you will love this setup more than anything and will play more and use the volume and tone knobs with that micro switch for coil tap on the humbucker and never want anything else forever thereafter...... do a video with this idea.... and thank me later. Cheers!!!!
+james ryan You played a song on your "seymour duncan mag mic..", video (which i bought btw and love) and i was wondering what that song might be? love the content have a wonderful day. Thanks
What's your wiring? I also have HSS, style- bridge: Gibson 498t, middle: Seymour Duncan Duckbucker, Neck: Seymour Duncan JB Jr. Please suggest wiring, pot type and capacitor. Thanks! :)
Would have been nice to actually be told which pot you were switching to each time. just verbally saying it in between or text. Otherwise all we're doing is watching you play guitar. Regarding having both single and double coil in the same guitar, would it work to use a 250k pot but on the wire coming out of the humbucker attach a 250k resistor before it gets in the tone circuit (so the single coil just gets the 250k and the humbucker gets 250k + 250k with the same volume pot)? curious if anyone has tried that.
I can barley hear the difference between the two pots...there is a slight diference in highs, but thats it....i would say that the standard way of wiring is best. Lets agree that a 250k pot is usually around 220k and a 500k pot is about 450k at best.....if you want to be different go with 300k pots on all 3 and that gets you around 280k per pot...and that opens up a single just a hair and tames a humbucker just a bit.
I thought by your title that you were testing the actual VOLUME of the pickups of the two guitars, vintage vs reissue. Why don't you do that? I have yet to find THAT type of test anyhwere, between old and new guitars. The legend has it that the copper in the windings was more pure in the vintage models, and there were more windings on the pick up which resulted in more volume and better tone at the same amp setting for both guitars. I've yet to fine anyone who's done that actual test, at least with a DB meter. I don't have a vintage axe or a DB meter, or i'd do it.
It’s pretty simple; he’s using the 250k pot first each time he plays a new riff. You can clearly hear the repeat of each new riff being brighter indicating the use of 500k
@@steffenbrix some people think there’s only one kind of midrange, one kind of treble frequency, they are thinking in terms of simple 3-band EQ.!! It’s a lot more complex, even with studio grade EQ you can’t always shape the tone to 100% accuracy
Because the wiper is on the output, so there's still either 250k or 500k in parallel to ground loading down the pickup. It's a potentiometer set up as a potential divider, not a variable resistor. If it was then, you'd be right but guitars aren't wired that way.
Just the video I was looking for! Thank you so much. For those confused, the single coil clips go 250k, then 500k. The humbucker clips starts with 500k, and then 250k. Pay attention to where he flicks the switch ;) Visuals on the screen could have helped, but we're all adults who are hopefully attentive enough to figure it out on our own.
Thanks for uploading this, the difference on the single coils is a lot less extreme than I expected!
Would have been nice to know which is which .
I was lost
he said it. he played everything twice. you can also see him switching the toggle down before he repeats, and then up before the next piece. however........ maybe i have poor hearing but i cant tell the diff between 250k and 500k. they sound the same to me.
@@shinobi1014 Sounded the same to me also.
YOU ARE THE MAN. Thank you. A lot of people will appreciate your contribution I am sure.
Great video. I think everything sounded better with 250k. Even the humbucker.
Going on a journey with pickups for my strat and found this video. Thank you for taking the time to put this together!
The difference is more subtle than i expected but you can hear it. When using a good ear monitor, on single coils, the 500k pot seems to emphasize pick attack, a bit more ice picky. Maybe not so noticable to the Listener but may annoy the player. The whole shape of the tone doesn't really get brighter but thatd could be due to the amps compression (drive). I prefer 250k, it just works
If Harvey Keitel and Scott Weiland had a son together lol
Nailed it 😂😂😂
K
Harvey Scott Weiland😎🤯
If Steve Martin and Hillary Clinton together were telling a Corny joke.
100% lol
@@keithclark486his observation was good yours is just pathetic
Great video. Also to your question on how Fender could have the best of both worlds on their HSS strats.. All Fender would need to do is have a dual stacked pot... 250k / 500k pot and have the humbucker go to the 500k and the single coils go to the 250k. I actually prefer using 1Meg pots on the neck pickups of a single coil and neck humbuckers just to give it the clarity and because it is almost like having a second bridge / lead sound. A lot of variables come into play. Their is no right or wrong. All that matters is what sounds good to YOU. Keep up the good work !
If you have HB 5:30 is what you want to hear (500K)
A very thorough exploration. Thanks, man.
Great video. Listening with cheap speakers, I couldn't hear much difference, but switching to headphones did the trick.
Listening to the single coil comparisons, I definitely like the 250k. The 500k sounds too brittle to me ... getting into icepick-tele tones. The 250k sound was still very bright, but had a pleasant, warmer sound. I'm in the process of putting a strat kit together and this really helps in choosing pot taper.
Very nice comparison! Thanks for posting.
Thank you very much! The best comparison on TH-cam!
What this video mainly did for me was reaffirm to myself just how much more I prefer single coil pickups! Hahaha. Seriously though, I was surprised at how slight the difference between pots is for me. I hear it, but I was expecting more contrast than what actually came across. Interesting. For me, the humbucker could be either or and I wouldn't really mind, but I definitely had a preference for the 250k on the singles, as slight as it is. Thanks for this! I've never seen anyone else actually do a test like this. Cheers!
There's no great difference because of the strat construction! If this test would have been made with a LP, the result will be a little proeminent. The strat have the treble in its "soul"...
But, in a comparision, the recommendation of many brands of lil' humbuckers for strats is mantain the 250k pots. So, there's no such greater difference in use 500k pots in a strat.
Don't forget that TH-cam compresses everything. There IS a bigger difference then you hear on this platform.
Exact perception I got which is good. I want to keep my current electronics and buy a new pickguard that is HSS and use the 250K pot for the Humbucker.
Yes excellent video with plenty of well known examples. Only suggestion would have been to add text to the screen as to what exact pickup setting and pot you were on.
Thanks for the video! I could hardly hear the differences.
Couldn't follow which setting was being used when.
Its helpful. And I like your playing. Thx for your time making this
If you want more bite from your pups replace the 500k pots with a 1megaohm pot. It will bring more bite and prescense to your tone. It will work on single coils as well even though you may want to roll back the tone. This 1meg pot will bring even cheap pups to life. I found out about this 30 years ago from Torres engineering who is an amp builder guru in So Cal. Some l.p. style guitars have 350k pots which really kill the sound. The 1meg pot works like this. It provides more resistance to ground which allows more signal or current to your amp. Torres provides the pots for l.p. and strats.The short shaft pots for strats are available anywhere.
fantastic! great demonstration and GREAT guitar playing!
Use 500k pots all throughout. Then for the single coils wire a 270k resistor from hot to ground. HB sees 500k and the SC's see 250k.
+Kley De Jong Wire the resistor on the switch or on the volume pot?
+Adam Bourne I did it on the switch for both of the single coil hot terminals. If you do it on the pot and the pot is a master volume it will apply to the HB too.
In this way SC's will see 167K. You have to put a 510K resistor then the SC'S will see 255K.
Yes, you have to put on the 5 way switch. One 510K on the wire from middle SC and other to the neck SC. Put the other side of resistor to the ground.
This must be in parallel, never in series.
Dude your tone is off the hook!!!
This has been very insightful thank you, the Shafts on one of the a250k pots completely snapped on my cheap Aldi guitar and sounded just as horrible as their quality now that iv had a clear listen to the 500k ones. I think ill be going with that choice for a fresh set, thanks man.
Would have been better if you could say which was 500k and which was 250k and which pickup was on when you did the switching. I lost track after the 1st 2
Thanks for this informative demonstration, answers my question perfectly. 🎸
You did great job, Sir!
THX for this great video & test !!!
Thanks for checking it out!
Much thanks! I’ve been tormenting myself for days trying to figure out how to wire my hss - so many complicated suggestions out there. I don’t hear enough difference to matter. 500K’s seem to work fine with single coils.
I’m currently tormenting myself too! What did u end up with and do you like it? The manufacturer of my pickups is raw vintage and their diagram is all 250k which they use in the $3000 xotic guitars. So not sure why I’m second guessing them but it seems like nobody else does like that.
What about a single 500k pot volume for the HB and two 250k pots, tone and volume for SC?
Thanks for clearing this up dude 🤘
I've been wondering the same thing- my ears confirm to me that I prefer the 250 with the HB! that's all I was really wanting to know- so thank you for the demo! Great sound examples!
you like mud,yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im looking at adding the Texas special neck pickup....and the Seymour Duncan pearly gate custom shop...single coil......now im confused I have 250k pots.....should I just stick with those? it seems that the 500 will also render some interesting sounds....
down position for single coils sounds more open and rounded. i dig that more, great video!
You can get a "dual concentric" potentiometer for a tone control. Two pots in one position and they can be of different values, say 500k and 250k so you can wire the humbucker to the 500k. And it only takes on spot on the pickguard.
The main downside is the pots are deeper and i've only found telecaster style knurled knobs for them.
You could also use a dual concentric 500k pot and a DPST switch to select just one side, for 500k, or both in parallel, giving a 250k pot.
A tone pot is actually being used as a variable resistor (only two connections to the rest of the circuit), so a double pole switch is all you'd need - i.e. one that opens or closes two separate circuits at the same time.
If you wanted to switch between pickups during a tune, having a separate tone control for each pickup would seem to make sense.
what if
A vol pot is 500 and tone pots are 250 ?
B If you remove one of the 2 tone pots of a strat and you are left with a vol and 1 tone?
the problem is that you still have say a 500k vol pot for the hb, strats need a 250k. its quite a problem. im currently working on a solution to this, results to follow soon. :)
Strats don't NEED a 250k pot, anymore than a Tele does. The difference is that a 250k pot will automatically lop off a bunch of the high frequencies in your tone, before you even get a chance to hear them. The lower the number of the pot, the more high frequencies get sent to ground. Pots, regardless of the value, do not add anything to a passive pickup. They only filter what the pickup provides. The higher the value of the pot, the more of the natural sound of what the passive pickup can provide, makes it through to your amp. What does happen however, is if you use a 500k pot on a passive SC, you'll find that as a musician you'll be forced to actually use your tone knob. Most guys just turn it wide open and never touch it again. It is possible to completely bypass all pots and caps, and wire your pickup directly to the jack. I think a lot of guys would be stunned by what came out of those passive pups if they did. But even a volume pot will pull off tone, depending on what volume you have it set at. The lower the volume, the more high frequencies get filtered off and sent to ground. The whole reason for the treble bleed circuit you see a lot of new builders putting in the guitars now.
As a builder, the hardest part has always been what value pots to use, in a guitar with different combinations of pups. Like the old HSH Super Strats of the 80's, most of those used 250's across the board early on. But the 250's filtered off more of highs, making the HB's too dark. As arena rock really started coming of age in the mid 80's and more and more guys started wearing mascara and singing with all the high pitched voice of a 10 year old girl, builders switched to 500k pots across the board, allowing more of the highs to make it through the circuit.
Something I highly recommend all guitarists do, is to try different combinations for yourself. Different caps, different pots, audio pots vs linear pots in different positions. You might find something you like better. If you don't, you can always go back to your original set up. The other thing I recommend, is to use the tone knob. most people set it on 10 and never touch it again. If that's how you like to play, set it on 8-9 instead. It will become more active, especially on older guitars. Pots will kind of wear in a bit if it's just left on 10 all the time. The other option is to bypass the tone circuit, and only leave in the volume pot. This will give a better representation of what a passive pup is actually providing. Anyway, have a good one Mrcrappy. Take care. Bob in Germany
Bigfoot in Germany interesting reading Samsquanch.
Great video James! Thank you!
Raul Cerna Thanks man!
Agreed, some legend on-screen to tell us when ya were making' changes, and to which. Yeah I know, ya explained it at first. Legends would still help.
are those the original mij pickups? they sound lovely
What's your neck pickup, sounds great!
Excellent video! I had always wondered...
Absolutely great demo. The difference was much more dramatic than I thought it would be. Every electric guitarist should watch this video. Nice work James.👍🏼
Love your style bro.
good demo and nice playing! Thanks.
Should have put a description on the screen of what pot and pick up
I literally couldn’t tell the difference between the 250k and 500k pots.
If you put, for example, 1k ohms of resistance between your pickups and your output jack, it doesn’t matter whether it’s being put there by a 250k pot or a 500k pot or a 1k resistor or two 500 ohm resistor in series or two 2k resistors in parallel. 1k ohms = 1k ohms = 1k ohms.
But thanks for doing this test. I appreciate it. It is exactly the video I was looking for!
Never mind the pots although it does matter, what is the difference between 50s, 60s and modern wiring, cheerz,
do the TONE POT have any sound changing properties between the 250 & 500?
Nice playing... But which is which, I'm not good in guessing.
Thanks a lot James, really helpful.
Great video. Where I can get a wiring diagram for this dual volume wiring ?
Thanks for this video. Not only the humbucker sounded darker, but also less gain. Which made it sound a little less lively. But that can be fixed with a clean boost. I actually like the darker sound, gives me alice in chains vibes.
Nice work man! How bout sharing the wiring diagram.
I use a 300k for my JB JR in my Strat. Great video!
Well, you just shattered that whole idea of locking nuts making a guitar sound bad. That tone is fierce!
some humbuckers are recommended by the manufacturer to be used with 250k pots. "lace alumitone"
500k more twangy, sometimes harsh on singles.
500k sounds broader, more rounded on humbucker, 250k on humbucker seems a little muffled.
Cool test! Not to muddy the waters but the tone pot and cap value and also make a big difference. Just take into account when listening that no tone pot (as shown here) will be a lot brighter overall tone.
With the tone pot fully up, the cap doesn't really matter, it is better considered a short. Therefore 2 500K pots sound like a single 250K volume pot.
I just replaced the pickups in a Squier Affinity Strat, and what I assumed would be standard 250K pots with a .22µf, were 500K with a .33µf capacitor. I believe what people are hearing is more the effect of different capacitor values, rather than the 250K vs. 500k debate... I almost felt like modding a pick-guard with a 3 way switch with .22, .33 and .47µf caps to see if there was a difference in tone, that might be interesting to hear, but the difference between 500k and 250k, to my ear, is negligible.
Watching both comparisons back to back, Capacitor size makes way more difference that Pot size does.
Think you could add some titles in the video at the bottom, so we can more easily see which pot and pickup is selected?
I put 500k in everything. You can always roll it off a hair if it seems to bright but my theory is I'd rather have it all and not need it instead of need it and not have it....
Thanks! Got a Tele clone that I've put a full-sized A2 humbucker in the neck, for jazzier stuff, and a very bright GFS (but good-twangy) rail in the bridge. Looks like a stacked 250/500k pot will balance them tonally.
Michael Anderson did you try it??
Amazing playing in the style of SRV..
Thank you, fantastic demo, you were clear which pot was which (yes he WAS), the sounds were clear, and this was very helpful! I'll keep the 500k with my Super Distortion and just keep rolling the tone back to 7. The 250k sounds like it might roll it off too far.
Try a 300K ..... best of both worlds and works great for the Hum and singles. Great video showing the comparison!
Confused about what config you were playing. You talked about 4 configs yet you went thru much more throwing of switches. Perhaps update with time stamps.
Great video. I think a 500k resistor in parallel to the pot would give you 250k total load so there's probably a way of doing that with the single coils. Personally I'll have my neck pickups as bright as they can get so I don't care.
I was wondering about this, because I want to use a humbucker, single coil combo for a Jag I'm building.. But what if your volume never moves from 10? Does it matter then? I really dont use volume under normal circumstances
I prefer 500k across the board based on this video, but that's just me.
Just the info I was lookin for! Comparing 250k & 500k pots on single coil! TY! 500k sounds brittle to me, 250k's the way for my gitty. 🤘🤙
you kept on switching without labeling, now we don't know which is which...LOL!
What amp are you running?
You are rock man !
What were you mic'ing the cab with? Can't tell if that's a 57 or something else.
How are you going to compare two different pickup positions?
sick sound dude
250k on the single coil sounds just the way a good balanced pickup should sound like.
Great video man :)
Man, what amp are you using?
This is a killer crispy tone.
Nice video, BTW.
I share this pro tip with very few people. Mainly because they really do not know what they do not know and just play what is stock. So here it goes: Use 500k pots on all your guitars with HSS. Make the tone knob 500k as well. Wire the volume and tone knob like a 50’s Les Paul junior. (Vintage wiring vs Modern) use the value .010- .015 for the tone cap. Use the bottom knob as a blender to give you two more options on your 5 way switch. If you want to roll back the volume or tone when using single coils to get more of those stratty tones then you will be inclined to use your ears more and also more feel of the strings and magnets resisting your pick attack. Tone really is in your hands, some guitars do this better out of the box, most have to be modified to this recipe to really have it all in HSS. Now, you have the 500k which the humbucker loves, you are twice the value for single coils, you can roll off the volume and tone and solve that, plus.... using the value of tone cap I prescribed, you will actually use your tone knob more than ever before as the value (.010-.015mfd) shifts the mid and treble points like a partially cocked Wah wah pedal, instead of that .05 horrible muted muffled muddy sound Fender chose to use when guitar players would mimic bass guitar on a 6 string while recording in the 50’s, and no modern players really use the tone knob because of that fact. Now also with my setup, you get the humbucker and neck pickup together with the blender knob and if you add a micro switch, you can shut off a coil on the humbucker and get a close tele sound and in switch position 2 and 4, you can turn the blender off and get all three pickups on together. Playing your amp is now your new concern. You can dial up higher than you would normally use for volume and tones, and use the volume and tone knob straight away on the guitar for boosting volume and tone without a pedal... ala Hendrix ... you will love this setup more than anything and will play more and use the volume and tone knobs with that micro switch for coil tap on the humbucker and never want anything else forever thereafter...... do a video with this idea.... and thank me later. Cheers!!!!
Thankyou for this great explanation 🙏🤙
Once the drummer kicks in what's the difference?
hahahaha You got that one right brother...
where can i get the wiring diagram? i'll like to do this mod for my strat. great video
thanks mate! did the sh-4 / 250k feel wimpier when shredding in comparison?
+james ryan You played a song on your "seymour duncan mag mic..", video (which i bought btw and love) and i was wondering what that song might be?
love the content have a wonderful day. Thanks
Thank you James for this smart enlightment. No doubt 500k is noticeable more bright. I prefer 250k for single coils
or, use 500k and a .047 or .068 cap. These cap values will darken he tone.
What's your wiring? I also have HSS, style- bridge: Gibson 498t, middle: Seymour Duncan Duckbucker, Neck: Seymour Duncan JB Jr. Please suggest wiring, pot type and capacitor. Thanks! :)
Also, what strings did you used here? Thanks great video
Would have been nice to actually be told which pot you were switching to each time. just verbally saying it in between or text. Otherwise all we're doing is watching you play guitar. Regarding having both single and double coil in the same guitar, would it work to use a 250k pot but on the wire coming out of the humbucker attach a 250k resistor before it gets in the tone circuit (so the single coil just gets the 250k and the humbucker gets 250k + 250k with the same volume pot)? curious if anyone has tried that.
I can barley hear the difference between the two pots...there is a slight diference in highs, but thats it....i would say that the standard way of wiring is best. Lets agree that a 250k pot is usually around 220k and a 500k pot is about 450k at best.....if you want to be different go with 300k pots on all 3 and that gets you around 280k per pot...and that opens up a single just a hair and tames a humbucker just a bit.
Sounds dope !!!
Very helpful video, thank you!
i got a little confused when what was what, any chance of having little headings?
Yup, nailed it! Thx
Great video!
I thought by your title that you were testing the actual VOLUME of the pickups of the two guitars, vintage vs reissue. Why don't you do that? I have yet to find THAT type of test anyhwere, between old and new guitars. The legend has it that the copper in the windings was more pure in the vintage models, and there were more windings on the pick up which resulted in more volume and better tone at the same amp setting for both guitars. I've yet to fine anyone who's done that actual test, at least with a DB meter. I don't have a vintage axe or a DB meter, or i'd do it.
Nice playing!
It’s pretty simple; he’s using the 250k pot first each time he plays a new riff. You can clearly hear the repeat of each new riff being brighter indicating the use of 500k
250 in volume or tone?
Guess you dont like or use the parallel axis pickups...
Hey bro... 500k u used o47 caps or o22?
47 i think
Little known fact - Both value tone pots have a shaft in center that MOVES to take out highs if you want
That is not the same. Tone pots roll off highs. Different loads change the peak frequency of the pickup!
@@steffenbrix some people think there’s only one kind of midrange, one kind of treble frequency, they are thinking in terms of simple 3-band EQ.!! It’s a lot more complex, even with studio grade EQ you can’t always shape the tone to 100% accuracy
This kind of renewed my love for Floyd Rose bridges on Strats. My experience is they always get too squawky on Strats.
Wait...If the pot is on all the way at 10 then why would it even matter?
Because the wiper is on the output, so there's still either 250k or 500k in parallel to ground loading down the pickup. It's a potentiometer set up as a potential divider, not a variable resistor. If it was then, you'd be right but guitars aren't wired that way.