300K pots for strat project?

Megii

Putting together a strat build - alder body, all maple neck, pickups are fairly normal single coil type: A3 5.9K neck, A2 6.4K middle, A2 8K bridge. So before I order the pots, are there any views on the merits of using 300K vs 250K? Cheers!

FelineGuitars

All pots have a 10% tolerance if not worse - so you may find that a 300k pot could read 270k which is like a high tolerance 250k.

I have just checked all my CTS 300k pots and they all range from 260k to 300k with most falling in the 275k range 

NONE were over the rated 300k though.

ICBM

No point at all.

Megii

FelineGuitars said:

All pots have a 10% tolerance if not worse - so you may find that a 300k pot could read 270k which is like a high tolerance 250k.

I have just checked all my CTS 300k pots and they all range from 260k to 300k with most falling in the 275k range 

NONE were over the rated 300k though.

ICBM said:

No point at all.

Cheers gents - @ICBM, is this because the difference is not detectable audibly, or because strat pickups are made with 250K in mind? It seems to me that if I buy 300K pots, I at least make it unlikely I'll receive any that measure substantially below 250K.

ICBM

Megii said:

@ICBM, is this because the difference is not detectable audibly, or because strat pickups are made with 250K in mind?

Because it's not audible, at least from a reasonably close-tolerance 250K pot. When I experimented with directly switching different values I found that it needed about a 33% difference upwards (ie over about 330K) to even be audible at all.

Megii said:

It seems to me that if I buy 300K pots, I at least make it unlikely I'll receive any that measure substantially below 250K.

That's true, but since Strats are inherently bright guitars and you're not putting in any very high-wound pickups (even the bridge), I doubt lack of top-end will be a problem.

Megii

ICBM said:

Megii said:

@ICBM, is this because the difference is not detectable audibly, or because strat pickups are made with 250K in mind?

Because it's not audible, at least from a reasonably close-tolerance 250K pot. When I experimented with directly switching different values I found that it needed about a 33% difference upwards (ie over about 330K) to even be audible at all.

Megii said:

It seems to me that if I buy 300K pots, I at least make it unlikely I'll receive any that measure substantially below 250K.

That's true, but since Strats are inherently bright guitars and you're not putting in any very high-wound pickups (even the bridge), I doubt lack of top-end will be a problem.

Much appreciate your further reply to what is probably a fairly trivial question, but at least I have a reasonable understanding of things now, and I guess I'll leave this one at that, cheers

Megii

@ICBM ; - if I could just beg for one more bit of your kind advice - I went ahead and ordered a couple of Bourns 250K audio pots, and I measure them at 245K and 225K. Simple question, for the sake of any difference it might make, which would you use for the master volume and which for master tone? (The 3rd pot is to be a blend control, for which I already have a "no load" 250K pot ready).

Megii

Embarrassed to find, after a search, that I already asked this question re pot values for volume/tone, but in case of interest https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1629302/#Comment_1629302