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Post by cedarchoper58 on Jul 4, 2021 18:14:15 GMT -5
I decided to change my volume pot on my 62 strat it was a 30 year old replacement and was scratchy. I put a replacement 250K one in and my guitar was not as hot sounding. I measuered it and it was only 225K ohms. The one i took out was 248K ohms and the origional was 280K ohms. Is this normal it really made my guitar sound different in a bad way. I put the 250K back in till i can find another one that measures close thks for input
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Post by Riff Twang on Jul 4, 2021 23:39:45 GMT -5
<> 10% tolerance is often specified I do believe. Sometimes 20%.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jul 5, 2021 9:12:22 GMT -5
^^^THIS. Tolerance is the allowable variance from the specification of the part, which means 10 brand new 250K pots may not all read 250K.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jul 5, 2021 10:07:26 GMT -5
Yeah, unless buying fancy, the tolerance is probably going to be +/- 20%. I had a few batches from a supplier where they were all off (as is to be expected) but they were all off by being too low. That was a little frustrating because it might have been nice to sit with a meter and a pile of pots and find the right ones for different jobs.
You can also fine tune this effect by using a higher value pot and clipping/soldering in a fixed resistor to change the tone. The pot will still work as normal. I've done this to solve the "which pots to use?" dilemma when combining single coils and humbuckers, like in a Tele with a HB in the neck. One idea I've had in the back of my head is to use 1M pots and put a trim pot in a control cavity to fine tune the loading, so it can be adjusted to the sweet spot with strings on by the player if they wanted to. I think this could be really useful with something like a P-90 Les Paul.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jul 5, 2021 11:12:57 GMT -5
So more to the point of the OP, do you guys find a considerable (audible) difference between say a pot that specs out @238k and 270k? My limited experience tells me there is a difference that could fall into the Goldilocks equation. I often wonder if it was the variable that made me have a disappointing experience with a second set of my favorite pickups.
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Post by Leftee on Jul 5, 2021 11:53:29 GMT -5
I’ve found the full sized Alphas to be a tighter tolerance that the full sized CTS. And less expensive.
Auf… yes, that could well be a contributing factor.
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Post by cedarchoper58 on Jul 5, 2021 15:54:24 GMT -5
So more to the point of the OP, do you guys find a considerable (audible) difference between say a pot that specs out @238k and 270k? My limited experience tells me there is a difference that could fall into the Goldilocks equation. I often wonder if it was the variable that made me have a disappointing experience with a second set of my favorite pickups. I deffently hear a difference in just going from 250K to 220K that is why i posted. My guitar sounded different in a bad way than it has for the last 20+ years. It had less trebble for sure |
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jul 5, 2021 17:46:46 GMT -5
So more to the point of the OP, do you guys find a considerable (audible) difference between say a pot that specs out @238k and 270k? My limited experience tells me there is a difference that could fall into the Goldilocks equation. I often wonder if it was the variable that made me have a disappointing experience with a second set of my favorite pickups. Goldilocks might be a good way to put it.
If it is your own instrument and you're used to it reacting a certain way you're more likely to notice. You know the amp settings you usually use, the pedals, all of that. If I swap a pot in something that isn't my own guitar and I just play it for a few seconds before and after I'm probably not going to pick up on it.
Different cap values can change the personality of a pickup too, even when the tone is all the way up. The resonant peak shifts slightly. Another thing that might not be noticeable if it is a guitar/pickup set that is unfamiliar to you, but if it is one you know well you'll notice it.
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Post by LTB on Jul 5, 2021 17:48:17 GMT -5
Google 300K audio taper pots (Gibson uses them) They would not load your pickups as much
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jul 5, 2021 17:58:50 GMT -5
More to Auf Kiltre's point, way back when I was working on designing a set of pickups my plan was to ship it with at least a tone cap, if not the entire wiring harness. I just didn't like the idea of my hard work being judged in all sorts of varying situations. That is when I came up with the idea of the trim pot, though it would've made less sense for the stuff I was designing at the time.
I've seen a big mistake with this stuff a couple times. One is with Carvin, and a few other guitars that come from that era. They use kinda hot humbuckers with a .047 cap, which gives it a sort of upper midrange Fran Drescher sound. Everyone swaps the pickups on those but leaves the caps but still are unhappy, and the guitars often collect dust. Swap the cap, and it gets much better even without doing the pickups. The other time is with cheap Strats like Squier. For reasons I don't understand, you'll only see 500k pots below a certain price point. Maybe the 250k costs half a cent more? Who knows. Everyone assumes it is just the cheap ceramic pickups that make them harsh sounding (which is true to an extent) but change the loading in there and you've got a much, much better sounding guitar. Do it with a resistor like a 470k or a 680k, and you have a solution for less than a dollar.
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Post by Leftee on Jul 5, 2021 17:59:34 GMT -5
The Aloha 300k Audio tapers I’ve received recently ohm out @280k-ish.
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Post by cedarchoper58 on Jul 6, 2021 14:14:34 GMT -5
is this 20% tolerence why some guitars sound great and others dont. Is the mystery solved
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pdf64
Wholenote
Posts: 556
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Post by pdf64 on Jul 6, 2021 16:58:20 GMT -5
^^^THIS. Tolerance is the allowable variance from the specification of the part, which means 10 brand new 250K pots may not all read 250K. … One idea I've had in the back of my head is to use 1M pots and put a trim pot in a control cavity to fine tune the loading, so it can be adjusted to the sweet spot with strings on by the player if they wanted to…. A potential issue there is a noticable tonal change when the vol control is turned down, even just a bit. The 4 x higher source impedance interacts with parasitic cable capacitance to roll off treble, the low pass filter’s corner freq will be 4x lower. |
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