Higher Value Tone Pot

jaymenon

 I’d like to squeeze a little bit more “brightness“ out of a two humbucker guitar.  Otherwise it sounds rather nice...

I find myself wondering whether increasing the value of the tone pot (from 450K to 500K) will make a difference or do I need to go up to a 1K pot?

Expert opinions deeply appreciated 

Jay

gary_mac

No matter how good your hearing is, you won't hear any difference between 450 or 500.

jaymenon

 I rather suspected  that.

I was just hoping that it would make a similar difference to that between 8 and 10 on a tone control...

ICBM

1M might make a small difference, but still not much. A no-load control would make slightly more.

But using a lower-capacitance cable, or just shorter, would be at least as effective probably.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

1M might make a small difference, but still not much. 

Furthermore, because most of the action is between 10 and 7, the 1Meg tone pot is no fun to use. 

IMO, the only place where a 1Meg pot makes a significant difference is in a Fender Jaguar. It is still terrible to use but, in those guitars, nothing else sounds right.

sixstringsupplies

450k-550k - no difference
500k pot to 1Meg pot - probably a difference, but negligible
have you tried changing capacitor value or as @ICBM suggests using different cable.

yes as Gary suggests, I’d even wager no audible difference (to the human ear) between 400k-600k 

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

Furthermore, because most of the action is between 10 and 7, the 1Meg tone pot is no fun to use.

If you get a proper Log pot - as opposed to a cheap one that aren’t - then they’re fine. Turning down to about 8 brings it down to 500K and then it works just like a normal 500K pot.

sixstringsupplies said:

I’d even wager no audible difference (to the human ear) between 400k-600k 

That’s about where you start to hear it, but only just. When I did some direct-switching testing with extra resistors, the minimum difference that could be definitely heard was about 25% below the base value, and 33% above. 600K is 50% above 400K so I think you’d hear that.

Roland

It’s also worth thinking about increasing the value of the volume pot too.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

If you get a proper Log pot - as opposed to a cheap one that aren’t - then they’re fine.

I wouldn’t call CTS or DiMarzio Pro Parts particularly cheap.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

I wouldn’t call CTS or DiMarzio Pro Parts particularly cheap.

Then I'm very surprised they don't work properly. The CTS one I put in my PRS was a very smooth, perfectly even taper all the way down, so every number setting was distinguishable from the one above or below - and that was a push-pull too! Often notorious for not being as good as a normal pot.