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E.g. to "convert" your 550KΩ pot to 450KΩ, put a 2.5MΩ resistor across it.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tools/parallel-resistance-calculator/
I’ve done some direct-switching experiments with extra resistors as SteveRobinson describes, and there was no audible difference until the drop was more than about 25% of the original value. (Or higher by about 33% of the value.)
There is a very good reason why the standard 20% tolerance on pots was chosen.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The video upset a few punters.
By now, there ought to be a similar video comparing pots for volume and simple treble roll off applications.
There is also an American guy (can't remember his name) who talks about how pots work and the pros and cons of different values but it's really aimed at novices
There’s also some evidence that the quality and physical size of the pots can affect the tone - because pots have ‘stray capacitance’ which is related to their construction and dimensions - but that’s harder to test with switching.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
https://youtu.be/8t_eqST1pWQ
There's a series of videos here where exciter coils are placed over the pickups and then a switching box is used to demonstrate the effect of various changes to the electrics. First one is to do with pot value.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8dp9clGe-I
Coincidentally I was experimenting with pot, capacitor and resistor values only yesterday evening. The Tele I recently put together with Filtertron pickups was wired with the component values recommended by TV Jones but I was not altogether happy with the results. Bear in mind that TV Classics have fairly low coil resistance. After playing around with a bag of caps and several pot types/values I arrived at something more pleasing to my ear. Likewise, without a treble bleed circuit on the vol control the pickups quickly became muddy as the volume control was backed off. TV Jones recommended a .001 cap in parallel with a 150k resistor but I found that made the sound too thin at lower volumes so, retaining the .001 cap, I increased resistor values until the backed-off sound was reasonably close to the full volume sound and settled for 330k. All done by ear, but seeing results on screen as in those videos adds interest.