Adding a tone pot - good idea?

[sadaist]

I have an old strat copy that I've been tinkering with lately. It currently is set up with 1 humbucker and 1 volume pot. I'm buying a new pickguard & pot because the old soldering is a mess. I'm thinking about adding in a tone pot while I'm at it. Good idea, bad idea, or will it even make much of a difference? And when I buy the pots, should I use a 250 or 500?

The pickup is a Bill Lawrence L-500XL if that makes any difference.

[GAR]

Try lespaulforum.org posing this question. They'll give you 50 different answers for each choice.

If you're a blues guy do a 250KA, rock metal 500KA, my choices for my reasons.

One trick I've always liked is the "treble rolloff cap" a .001picofarad cap on the volume pot. It retains the high frequencies at any volume point.

[sadaist]

If you're a blues guy do a 250KA, rock metal 500KA

LOL. 500 it is. Metal allows for my hack mistakes to be covered up better.

[indeedido]

It is a good idea only if you intend on using it. I never use the tone pot myself. I leave it on ten. It adds more in the signal path. If I were to use one, definately 500k, but you could try a 1meg for something different.

[GAR]

btw Bill Lawrence USA is not Bill Lawrence.

Bill sold the name, then keeps making the same product. And there's litigation I don't understand, not allowing Bill to talk about it.

But he clearly states he has nothing to do with "Bill Lawrence USA" instead going by "Pickups by Bill Lawrence" or some shit

[jhale667]

Yeah, that whole Bill Lawrence-name deal is quite odd.

It's really a personal choice/preference as far as whether you add one or not - do you think if you install it, you will actually use it? That's probably the bottom line. It will give it more sonic versatility...

Agree with the 250K vs. 500K application. But the general rule always was 500 for Humbuckers, 250 for Single-Coils.
I heard Gibson went for the happy medium and is using 300Ks for most applications these days...

None of my straight-up humbuckered "Rock" guitars have tone-knobs, but I can't imagine a 3 Single-coil Strat without 'em...

[GAR]

Allparts has a stackpot which is a dual concentric potentiometer of two values either both 500 or a 500+250. So he wouldn't have to drill or order another pickguard, I think it's around $20 bucks.

All you'd have to worry about is which side is the tone when soldering up the lugs between sides, to output, and to ground.

[sadaist]

I finally found the correct diagram for my particular humbucker. It wasn't easy with the Bill Lawrence saga ongoing. Plus they use a color scheme that's different from any other major manufacturer. Anyways, from what I read the tone pot wouldn't really make a difference. So I just replaced the volume pot & re soldered everything with nice fresh wire. I went with the 500 (thanks guys) and the guitar sounds better than ever.

One mistake was near the jack plate I accidentally got a big splooge of solder on the guitar. At first I was furious, but it adds to the overall thrashing this guitar has received over the last 23 years and now I'm actually glad it happened. Just one more scar to have a story.

[GAR]

Put an ice cube on it, watch it fall off.

[jhale667]

Allparts has a stackpot which is a dual concentric potentiometer of two values either both 500 or a 500+250. So he wouldn't have to drill or order another pickguard, I think it's around $20 bucks.

All you'd have to worry about is which side is the tone when soldering up the lugs between sides, to output, and to ground.

True dat. I've actually considered using one in my Kramer rebuild, wanting independent volumes for each pickup and a tone control for the neck only.

They do look kinda funky, though...

[GAR]

-the hard part is finding decent knobs for a dc pot

[ELVIS]

LOL. 500 it is. Metal allows for my hack mistakes to be covered up better.

Maybe to you...

[ELVIS]

I can't imagine a 3 Single-coil Strat without 'em...

I have one...nice and bright...

It's not an exact science...

You have to test each pickup with different ohm pots and resistors for tone pots, and every pickup gives different results and sounds...


But i'd leave the setup the way it is, just clean up the wiring...

[Seshmeister]

[sadaist]

Agree. I should either just fucking quit or start smoking Camels. I stopped them when they stopped with my damn Camel Cash though. I would have quit already, but someone needs to fund the health care for all the illegal immigrants in California.