25k vs 500k vs 100k

[eakinj]

Ok, I tried to search for into but I didn't really find the answer.

I put an SH-6 in my RR3R with a 500k pot for the volume. It sounds fine to me. The reason I swapped the volume out was because I am a horrible horrible failure at using a soldering iron and melted the one that was already in the rr3r.

Anyway my question is what is the real difference between the different rated pots? 500k, 25k, etc? Why would I chose one pot over another?


I honestly haven't the foggiest idea and I'm failing pretty hard at finding the answers online. I want to be much more self reliant at repairing my stuff but the only people I have locally I can ask is the people at GC and judging by some of the past answers they have given me I think I'll pass on that.

Sorry about making a new thread, I am guessing this has been covered, I just can't find it



I'm going to guess someone has a link that'll cover it (I hope)

I'd appreciate any useful info

[Sunbane]

The values you mention are values of electrical resistance, counted in ohms.

Traditionally, you'd use 500k ohm pots with humbuckers, and 250k ohm pots with singlecoils - but the only reason why this is so, is because Fender used to make guitars with singlecoils and 250k ohm pots, and Gibson made guitars with humbuckers and 500k pots. Nowadays the boundaries aren't as strict, and people will mix and match pickups and pots. (Btw, I think nowadays Gibsons come with 300k volume pots.)

Generally speaking, a higher ohm rating will not bleed off as much of the signal as a lower value pot. A 500k pot will give you more treble and slightly higher output than a 250k pot for instance. This, at the expense of controllability; if you use too high value pots, they will act more like an on/off switch than a pot. This gets very noticable if you put a 500k pot where there should be a 25k pot, for example.

25k, 50k and 100k pots are typically only used with active low impedance systems, like EMGs, the Jackson JE boards, and the active Duncans. For traditional, passive pickups, you typically use pots ranging from 250k ohms to 1M ohms.

I think most Jacksons come with 500k ohm pots.

[eakinj]

The values you mention are values of electrical resistance, counted in ohms.

Traditionally, you'd use 500k ohm pots with humbuckers, and 250k ohm pots with singlecoils - but the only reason why this is so, is because Fender used to make guitars with singlecoils and 250k ohm pots, and Gibson made guitars with humbuckers and 500k pots. Nowadays the boundaries aren't as strict, and people will mix and match pickups and pots. (Btw, I think nowadays Gibsons come with 300k volume pots.)

Generally speaking, a higher ohm rating will not bleed off as much of the signal as a lower value pot. A 500k pot will give you more treble and slightly higher output than a 250k pot for instance. This, at the expense of controllability; if you use too high value pots, they will act more like an on/off switch than a pot. This gets very noticable if you put a 500k pot where there should be a 25k pot, for example.

25k, 50k and 100k pots are typically only used with active low impedance systems, like EMGs, the Jackson JE boards, and the active Duncans. For traditional, passive pickups, you typically use pots ranging from 250k ohms to 1M ohms.

I think most Jacksons come with 500k ohm pots.

Cool, thank you very much

[straycat]

If you have a humbucker that seems too shrill try a 250 to 300k vol pot it will tame the highs.