Mixing 1 Meg And 500k Pots

[chennik]

I've got a new, albiet rather complicated and cluttered wiring plan in my head for the new axe. This is how it goes.

2 Humbuckers with 3 way switch

1 master volume(value TBD)

1 blend (500k)

2 tones on 500k push pull pots, idea is to use the push pull pot to vary the cap value, when down it is a brigher cap, when up, a bit darker (.022/.047 for neck, .01/.022 for bridge)

I also want to incorporate a separate DPDT on/on/on for each pickup for series/split/parallel, and another DPDT for phase switching.

Now, I know this sounds like an awful lot of wiring and switches (which it unabashedly is) but this combines pretty much every wiring feature that I've come across and liked. My question is this, for all of this wiring, am I better off using a 1 or 2 meg pot for the master volume, or would the difference between a high value pot and a 500k be barely noticable? I generally use 1 meg pots if I can to keep the overall sound bright and crisp, but I have used 500k for push/pulls and blends, since that is generally the highest value available. Do you think with all this wire, switches and all these 500k pots there is anything to be gained by using a higher value pot for the master volume?

I'd like to know everyones thoughts, particularly if any of you have tried a setup similar to this before.

[gibsonsg26]

i put a one meg dimarzio pot in my yamaha strat and i hate it. it is almost like an on off swithch right when you touch it it is all out pickup at its loudest. you really cant use your volume to mellow your sound at all. thats just my opinion though so id wait and see what others have to say before deciding.

[Hugh]

I don't see it making a massive change either way. If you like the sound of 1 Meg, then put it in there. It should all work together fine with either one.

For the tone control, are you planning a contour setup, where the hot signal hits the center lug of the pot and the two outer lugs bleed to ground through the two different caps? In my experimenting with a contour control, I've found it clipped my output volume a lot. (I've only done it in an active system, never in a passive system like inside the guitar)

It will be interesting to hear if it works well like that. My guess is it will clip some of the treble all the time, though.

Might be cool to use a 500K linear tone pot and etch away the center portion of the contact area... making it a no-load pot at the center. Then you could adjust in either direction to use either cap and a 250K linear sweep.

Cool idea you have there. Anyone use it with any luck yet?

Edited July 7, 2007 by Hugh

[chennik]

Hugh, I gotta hand it to you, the idea of doing the contour setup with modified pots like that never occurred to me. I'll have to experiment and see if that works, that might be a nice alternative to using the push/pull pots. Given that I generally use 500k tone pots, i could use 1 meg linear taper pots for this and it would still give me the effect of a 500k pot to either side... from a 'switchology' perspective, that might be a bit more user friendly than the push/pull pots given all the bells and whistles worth of switches I want to incorporate in this design. I'll have to play with that when i get a chance and see how it works.