p bass pots questions

[steelhead2]

ok been wanting to go over the pots on my MIM P i bought last summer,has a 500K volume pot with an obviously longer shaft than the tone pot(knob has a large gap between it and the PGuard and when i put that on(the PGuard) it looked obvious that the volume pot had been replaced by looking at solder joints

and it has a 250K tone pot,i asked a question on here months ago and someone said it should have a 500 K pot there,,so,a seller with tone pot`kits'on eBay is touting his 250K pot is the shiznit=cleans up up mid harshness'(or something along that line)

=what would you recomend for tone/volume pots and what about this shaft length`issue',how do you know if you are going to get shafts that are a quarter inch too long for a nice proper fit?,i'd rather go with J knobs as i like the fit down close,,,the beer caps glued on the orig knobs sort of match the tort guard(that's what people tell me)but i've never liked em,,,and on my J they have set screws?,the P they push on,,any dif. there or is it the same shaft?,,

thanks to anyone that could clarify all these POT questions,hope i don't have short term memory loss

 

[calebbarton]

So, I guess the actual mid (or general frequency range) would be a combination of the two pots AND tone capacitor installed on the tone pot. Generally, I prefer 500k pots on both volume and tone. That is just my preference though. 250k pots will tame the high end and mid quite a bit but so will turning off the tone pot. Turning down the tone pot will reduce the frequency because the resistance of the pot is cut at that point. That will affect the frequency range.

If you are attaching tone pots to a standard fender pick guard, I would go with shorter shafts. This would probably also be a good time to figure out weather or not you prefer audio taper or linear taper. There are quite a bit of posts on the subject here, do a search.

The knobs will vary depending on if its a split shaft or solid shaft. If you are going to go with split shaft, push on knob will be best. If you are going with solid shaft pots, the set screws will work best.

once again, this is just my OPINION. Dont noone freak out

 

[line6man]

Turning down the tone pot will reduce the frequency because the resistance of the pot is cut at that point. That will affect the frequency range.

Since a tone pot only places a series resistance between the signal and a capacitor running parallel to that signal, the pot value does not change the frequency cutoff of the LPF, it only varies the amplitude of the cut.

 

[calebbarton]

Since a tone pot only places a series resistance between the signal and a capacitor running parallel to that signal, the pot value does not change the frequency cutoff of the LPF, it only varies the amplitude of the cut.

Yes I suppose I stated that incorrectly, It does not change the LPF.

 

[steelhead2]

clear as mud,,,it plays fine!

and yes i WAS going to add`aural or linear' on the question(forgot)

it's just one of nagging things i want to do,those components are that much money.every time i play that P and look down at that dif. in knob height i tell myself`gotta get back in there',,(i'm going to do a string change and thought i'd do some more)but i think i'll practice on it this morning and see if i have a FILE or a grinder handy

thank you

 

[darkstorm]

I prefer 250k pots for P pups and everything else pups wise. 500k give more treble to the voice. Pot replacements are very inexpensive, dimarzio among others makes nice pots in both 500 and 250. They can also help the sound overall if our replaceing cheap pots imo.

 

[walterw]

i like 500ks for their grindy rock tone. 250ks are more the classic sound.

either way, all you have to do to get the knob heights right is pull them out and run another nut onto them before putting them back onto the pickguard.