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Cautionary Tale And A Question


flatfinger

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Hey , what up?

Just wanted to share this, I've read questions in this board about pots and how much you should spend. I've been working on a strat clone project and am assembling a new pickguard and made a last minute decision to scrub a mid scoop control and put in a normal volume control. Being one 250k ohm pot short , I tried one that I bought on sunday from the local guitar"wallmart"center. Bad move! got home , checked it out............... 210k ohms, plus a really cheese feel as in cheap.!! The really bad part is it cost $5.50!!

When I took it back , the guy I usually deal with laughed, went back to a shelterd part of the counter and got me a fender packaged CTS(252k ohm)...... for $6.00!!!!

Don't ask me they shovel the other ones on an unsuspecting public!

If I had put it in w/o checking it, I would have thought the pup was bassy and dark!

Good pots are worth it ! seek them out ! Don't be stubborn about it!!!!

:D

By the way, I may be forced to use a pot thats 525k ohm as a tone control on a single coil, what value of cap would you use ???????

Edited by flatfinger
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Its all subject to what you like hearing out of a guitar. I am building an all maple tele and I was afraid my overall tone would be on the high, trebly side. Bridge pickup is a SD '54 Vintage and neck pickup is a SD Hotstack. Using 250K pots and experimented with .022, .047 and .1 capacitors. I don't know why but I got my best range with the .047 cap, so there it stays. :D

Anyway, I dug up some info to help your decision. Thankfully, this end of guitar building is dirt cheap, so we can all afford to experiment with different parts. :D

Edited by Southpa
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FWIW, and with all due respect to Mr. Kinman, the difference between 250K and 210K is not significant. According to a quick run with the simulator, the difference between the two response curves at 20 Hz is about .0625 dB, and consistently narrows to basically unmeasurable ( with my "freeware" simulator) at 60Hz. Since 3 db is the smallest audible change that the average human can hear, this represents about .02% of an audible difference two octaves below the lowest note on your guitar, and even less in the range of sounds that the guitar can actually produce. In other words, it's a difference that makes no difference in this particular application. It's important not to obsess about details that have no effect on the desired result. That leads to madness, and spec'ing silver wire and 50 year old capacitors. :D

Now, if it was 110k, I'd consider it a potential problem, but less than +/- 20% is unlikely to get the attention of anyone, even Eric Johnson. :D Remember, all those great vintage guitars were made with 20% tolerance components - there wasn't anything else available.

Edited by lovekraft
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