P bass and 500k pots?

[lavmonga]

I've got a highway1 P bass and it sounds pretty good. I feel like the pickup could use a little more oomph though. I have some 500k pots laying around, does anybody use 500ks in their p-bass? what's the sound like? too high output or ok? I was also curious as to the difference (soundwise) between the Alnico II's (hwy1) and Alnico V's (USA standard) Any help is appreciated. I don't have time right now to swap pots in an out or I'd just check it out for myself, thanks.

 

[Ric5]

Here's some info from the Stewart Macdonald web site ...

"Your tone is affected by the control pots you use. Not just the tone control — the volume pot influences tone, too.

250K vs. 500K pots
250K pots give a slightly warmer tone than 500K because the 250K bleeds off some of the high frequencies.

250K = warmer
500K = brighter
1 Meg = brightest

Usually, 250K pots are used with single-coil pickups and and 500Ks are used with humbuckers. If you want to hear your guitar "wide open" with all the highs, try 1 Meg pots.

25K pots are used with active systems."

 

[lowendgenerator]

I have 500k pots in my P bass, it's pretty damn hot. Almost too hot, but I suspect that has something to do with the old Dimarzio pickup I threw in there. 250k is supposed to give you more treble and clarity I thought. IDK, I try to stay ignorant to these things and just play lol.

 

[Ric5]

One of the reasons the old Rics were bright is they had single coil pickups and 500k ohm tone pots with 250k ohm volume pots.

 

[line6man]

FWIW, this may help:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494664

 

[lavmonga]

anyone else with eprsonal experience dealing with 500ks and p basses?

 

[black_labb]

for a tone pot i always suggest a 1M pot, as it acts as a variable resistor. you get from 0-250kohms like a 250k pot, and all the way up to 1m. most people just turn the pot to full, but being able to be brighter than you needs is good as you dont lose those extra highs permanently.

as for volume pots, a larger value pot will make the capacitances from the lead more noticeable, but give you a bit more volume. i ususally use 500k for everything.

 

[line6man]

for a tone pot i always suggest a 1M pot, as it acts as a variable resistor. you get from 0-250kohms like a 250k pot, and all the way up to 1m. most people just turn the pot to full, but being able to be brighter than you needs is good as you dont lose those extra highs permanently.

as for volume pots, a larger value pot will make the capacitances from the lead more noticeable, but give you a bit more volume. i ususally use 500k for everything.

Although i am normally pretty big on bright wiring options, 1M sounds a bit high to me. You wouldnt get into the traditional territory until the lower range of the pots rotation...
(Assuming a linear taper) The traditional "250K tone pot on full" would be at 2.5/10 of the rotation.

I prefer to use a push/pull to bypass my tone control when its not needed. When I am after a bright tone, i bypass the control, which eliminates the capacitor from the circuit.

 

[higgi]

I just removed 500k pots because my P bass was too hot and bright. I have a SD quarter pounder, a very hot pickup.

 

[GeneralElectric]

I find them too bright and trebley.

 

[Bass Mule]

I've got an SD QP pup in my MIM p, and I put in 500k pots in last summer. I hate it. I'm constantly rolling off the tone just to tame the brittleness. I'm switching back to 250k (and probably switching pups to a '62 RI).
YMMV.

 

[Busker]

anyone else with eprsonal experience dealing with 500ks and p basses?

Most Asian P Bass copies will have 500K pots as factory equipment. So maybe try out a few of those?

I think Squiers utilize 500K pots, and I had a Schecter P bass (Korea) that had 500K pots.

Your bass would be a little brighter using the 500K.

I agree with those who say 500K is too bright. But then again, I don't like too much treble. I usually roll off most of the treble.

 

[jwymore]

In my experience with several basses unless your bass sounds muddy and dull now don't go to 500K pots, they are almost always too bright sounding.

 

[lavmonga]

I got it sounding pretty nice, thanks everyone. I stuck with he 250's.

 

[vat]

Here's some info from the Stewart Macdonald web site ...

"Your tone is affected by the control pots you use. Not just the tone control — the volume pot influences tone, too.

250K vs. 500K pots
250K pots give a slightly warmer tone than 500K because the 250K bleeds off some of the high frequencies.

250K = warmer
500K = brighter
1 Meg = brightest

Usually, 250K pots are used with single-coil pickups and and 500Ks are used with humbuckers. If you want to hear your guitar "wide open" with all the highs, try 1 Meg pots.

25K pots are used with active systems."

for a tone pot i always suggest a 1M pot, as it acts as a variable resistor. you get from 0-250kohms like a 250k pot, and all the way up to 1m. most people just turn the pot to full, but being able to be brighter than you needs is good as you dont lose those extra highs permanently.

as for volume pots, a larger value pot will make the capacitances from the lead more noticeable, but give you a bit more volume. i ususally use 500k for everything.

Gathering from these 2 comments, is my understanding correct that it's better to use a "brighter" 500K or even 1M pot to allow fuller transfer of signal from the pickups to the amp and cut back the excessive treble using the amp's treble control, rather than using a 250K pot that trims off the signal permanently and prematurely?

 

[jwymore]

Gathering from these 2 comments, is my understanding correct that it's better to use a "brighter" 500K or even 1M pot to allow fuller transfer of signal from the pickups to the amp and cut back the excessive treble using the amp's treble control, rather than using a 250K pot that trims off the signal permanently and prematurely?

What is correct is what gives you the tone you want.

In a volume circuit the pot is not a variable resistor as far as the load the pickup sees. The pickup always sees the total pot value as a constant load. The higher the pot value the higher the frequency and amplitude of the pickups resonant peak will be. This will increase brightness but can also make the pickup sound harsh or brittle. It's always a design trade off.

The key is to find a pot value that loads a pickup of a given resonant peak to provide the tone you want. In the case of most low to mid output single coil bass pickups 250K seems to be the established industry standard. Of course, experimentation to find "your" tone is always something worth trying and indeed other values may give a tone more suited to your style and the equipment you are playing through.

 

[wyleeboxer]

I've got an SR500 and SR950 P/J 250K pot passive basses with hot SD and Dimarzio pups. I've felt the bridge pups always sounds weak when compared to the P pups, even with the P lowered and the J raised. Does it help to replace the 250K with a 500K for the J bridge pup only? Just trying to get more output and get the highs and output of the J to compete with the lows and output of the P pups...

 

[jwymore]

I've got an SR500 and SR950 P/J 250K pot passive basses with hot SD and Dimarzio pups. I've felt the bridge pups always sounds weak when compared to the P pups, even with the P lowered and the J raised. Does it help to replace the 250K with a 500K for the J bridge pup only? Just trying to get more output and get the highs and output of the J to compete with the lows and output of the P pups...

You may get a little bit more output with the 500K but in my experience not enough to make a big change. Weakness of the J pickup is always a problem in a P+J setup so you need to choose the pickups wisely. Go for a lower output P-Bass pickups and then match it with a higher Jazz bridge pickup to help this issue. Even at that you may have to raise the Jazz pickup closer to the strings and keep the P-Bass pickup fairly low.

 

[walterw]

i like 500ks for passive basses. they add high end without taking away bass, so the instrument just gets a little more full-range. this translates in a band mix to the bass keeping more of its identity; instead of just hearing "bass" when the band is playing, you really hear "p-bass" or "jazz bass" or whatever. also, your tone knob now becomes more useful, as you can go from as dark as ever to brighter than before, all with no batteries.

and forget what else you've heard, if you're going to try it, you need linear volumes and audio tones. otherwise, all your volume change will happen at "9", and all your tone change will happen at "2".

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I also like 500K pots on passive basses. It shifts the resonant frequency of the pickup up slightly, so it sounds brighter. You can roll the tone back a notch to go back to the 250K tone.