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If you do want to measure it, it’s fairly easy - turn the volume to zero, select one pickup only, plug a cable in and measure the resistance from tip to sleeve at the other end. It should read 0 ohms. Now turn the volume up slowly, watching the resistance - it will peak when the control is at about 7 (with a Log pot) and then go back down to the DC resistance of the pickup when the knob is at 10.
Take the peak value, multiply by 4 and subtract the pickup resistance - that gives the pot resistance.
The treble pass network complicates things slightly if the resistor is in parallel with the cap, but I think it just moves the position of the peak rather than changing the value. (I would need to draw it out and do some calculations, but I think that’s right.)
But - and you aren’t going to like this - the most common cause of dull tone on a Fender-type guitar is too much shielding...
"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
Re: shielding, on my guitar it involves only one coat of graphite paint. Is that too much?
It’s not the thickness of it, it’s how close it is to the pickups and wiring. It could also be the shielded cables to the pickups, I think I remember you said it has those.
Capacitance is a function of area and separation - the larger the area and the closer it is, the higher the capacitance.
Try temporarily disconnecting the cavity shielding and see if it improves - that will at least help to identify where the problem is.
"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
Now to disconnect the shielding and see what happens (the bright switch on my amp pretty much solves the problem though),
Thanks very much...
That's code for saying I tried it and I don't think it worked, it still just read 500k. Is there any way to test if the resistor has worked for the correct selector switch setting? I have an awful habit of wiring blade selector switches backwards for some reason and I don't want the humbucker to be seeing 250k while the neck single coil will be seeing 500k... and it's a subtle enough difference that I don't want to trust my ears!