pot values for single hotrails pup?

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:31 pm

Hey i have a question regarding potentiometers for the swinger project-- i'm planing to use a GFS hot rail as the only pickup -- what vol and tone pot should I use?

the vintage musicmaster spec looks like 250k tone pot but this is going to use a very different pickup so what should I use?

mixtape · Post by **mixtape** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:36 pm

The rule of thumb I've always heard is 250k for single coils, 500k for humbuckers. I imagine the hot rails would sound pretty muddy with 250k, but I haven't tried it.

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:48 pm

yeah sounds good i read somewhere that it never hurts to use 500k pots w HBs so thats what ill do

George · Post by **George** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:54 pm

+1 on 500k

a sc sized humbucker will still have a bit more twang mind

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:09 pm

I've used both 500k and 250k pots with rail-type pickups.

I had a Duo-strat thing, with a reverse angled bridge pickup, I used 250k pots and I really liked the sound.
You could call it muddy, but I would say more fat/round/warm/smooth,Kind of like Kurt Cobains In Utero tour Mustangs.
An aquired taste maybe?
To my ears, best in the bridge position. Also great with open tunings.

My little MusicmasterII I built with a mini-strat neck used 500k pots, the only guitar I've ever made full use of the tone pot.
Was a little bright on full whack, but a quick turn on the tone pot would tame that little beast.
Overall, with the 500k pots I was able to make a good facsimile of neck or bridge pickups, just by twiddling the tone knob.

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:47 pm

AddamInsane wrote: My little MusicmasterII I built with a mini-strat neck used 500k pots, the only guitar I've ever made full use of the tone pot.
Was a little bright on full whack, but a quick turn on the tone pot would tame that little beast.
Overall, with the 500k pots I was able to make a good facsimile of neck or bridge pickups, just by twiddling the tone knob.

this is what im hoping to achieve since the swinger will only have 1 pupper

mkt3000 · Post by **mkt3000** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 11:38 pm

My Musicmaster has 1 meg pots.. I found that even with a 500k pot, it was still too muddy. The 1 meg did the trick.

crazydave911 · Post by **crazydave911** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:59 pm

Of course you may not like a little twang, but I like to toss things up on a rails, 500K volume, 250K tone, and a .022 or .033 cap, depending on what I'm going for

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:02 pm

250k on a humbucker? lol wtf like wow no offense 2 u homie

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:13 pm

I thought I read somewhere that since the strat size rails did ok with 250k pots because they were made to go in strat spaces and that is normally what strats have. No idea for sure though.

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:16 pm

well i bought 500k pots so thats whats gonna go in this project unless they sound very gross and bad which i dont think they will

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:17 pm

HNB wrote:I thought I read somewhere that since the strat size rails did ok with 250k pots because they were made to go in strat spaces and that is normally what strats have

That's not how that works at all

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:34 am

Well it is how SD says to wire them....

Wiring Instructions

Just saying you don't have to start at 500k if you don't want to with them just because full size humbuckers normally have 500k pots.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:47 am

250K for alnico Fender-style single coils
500K for ceramic cheapo Fender-style single coils and P90s
500K for humbuckers

and HNB is correct that many install hotrails in Strats with the stock 250ks remaining, though I personally feel this is a mistake rather than an often-suggested course of action.
Billy Corgan used 250ks with lace senors and dimarzio rails, his DiMarzio sig assembled Strat guard comes that way, so it's not unheard of. I think it's far too muddy really, but then I also have to bust out one of my Les Pauls (Super Distortion or Burstbucker V through 500ks) to get even within the ballpark of Pumpkins sondz (and I own the exact same type of Strat he used on Siamese Dream/Mellon Collie/their tours) so I guess it works for the exact application he's after.