Pot, wiring, and capacitor mods or upgrades to improve tone??

[Jacksonhole wyoming]

I have two Jackson ASM-V guitars. One guitar has SD Pearly Gate HBs in both positions; and the other has SD JB and Jazz HBs. Both guitars have one volume pot and one tone pot; and 3-way switches. I have read that the pots, wiring and caps on some guitars like Les Pauls and Strats can modified and upgraded to improve their tone. Can the pots, wiring or caps on my ASM-V guitars be modified or upgraded to improve their tone? If so how? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. [/FONT][/COLOR]

[DonP]

Define "upgraded". If a guitar is already bright, and you stick in pots and caps to make it brighter, is that really an upgrade?

Pots and caps are for making a muddy guitar less muddy, or making a harsh guitar less bright. What is it you don't like that you want to change?

[straycat]

Les Pauls need better pots and caps to sound better.IMO
Strats to some extent too if you are running a humbucker.
Jackson uses CTS pots in their USA guitars and Alpha or some other vendor in the import guitars which do the job just fine.
Cap values make a difference .047 for single coils .022 for humbuckers.
As DonP says what don't you like about your guitars tone? Too dark? too bright?
You need to know what is in your guitars to start with before making any changes.

[Matt_B]

Every guitar I have has a treble bleed mod on the volume pot(s). I gotta have that because I hate the sound getting muffled when I turn down the volume.

I'm just ordered a variety of resistors to start experimenting with increasing the resistance on volume controls to tweak the tone.

[straycat]

The treble bleed mod is useful on a 3 single coil guitar IF you are using 500k pots.
A tele I built uses a treble bleed on the vol to avoid the mud factor when turning down.Its the only guitar I have built that actually needed it.
I would rather EQ the amp than put another link in the signal path in the guitar.
To each his own and Matt if that works for you its all good.I can see the use of them so not arguing with you.

[dimobag]

Just bought Orange Drops 0.022 and Göldo EL500L and EL500 pots for volume and tone for my SG mutt. Maybe i´ll try that treble bleed one point.

[Matt_B]

The treble bleed mod is useful on a 3 single coil guitar IF you are using 500k pots.
A tele I built uses a treble bleed on the vol to avoid the mud factor when turning down.Its the only guitar I have built that actually needed it.
I would rather EQ the amp than put another link in the signal path in the guitar.
To each his own and Matt if that works for you its all good.I can see the use of them so not arguing with you.

I learn towards a bright tone, whether I'm using single coils or humbuckers, which is why they (treble bleed mods) are a must for me. Besides which I'm running Axe FXs so I'm not worried about how many things are in my signal path.

[Jacksonhole wyoming]

Thanks for the replies. I actually already like the sound of the guitars which are MIJ. The volume pots are scratchy and on one of the guitars the pot shaft has some play which can be heard through the amp. They are definitely not CTS. So I am going to replace the pots and was wondering if improvements could be made while doing this. I am thinking about replacing the pots with CTS 500k audio pots and mallory .022 caps. Any suggestions on the wiring or anything else? Thanks.

[murkat]

^ good choices there, But I would go with a 500k linear for the tone pot.
good copper wire, a good variable temp solder station, and maybe new input jacks while your at it.
good to go.

[dimobag]

Yeah, go for linear pot as tone. Pre heat pots with hair dryer first.

[straycat]

Yep on the linear tone pot, cloth covered vintage wire seems the best to use. Most any good music store should have the wire.

[Chad]

It's all subjective, but I can't stand linear for tone. Audio taper all the way for me.