Question re Strat re-wire - 209K for volume?

Megii

So I'm shortly going to start re-wiring a strat style guitar (partscaster) I built. I have quite a few spare CTS pots to choose from, my plan being to use pots labelled 250K for volume, 500K for tone, and a 250K no-load for a blend. Just been testing various pots, and I have one which actually measures 209K - so the question is :would this be fine to use for the volume pot, or is that 209K value just too low?

The pickups are an alnico 2/5 set by Q pickups, 5.5K neck 5.9K middle and 6.5K bridge, and I'm using this circuit:

ICBM

It will be fine. Contrary to popular belief, you probably won't be able to hear any difference.

I did some testing on this using extra resistors to modify the pot values, with a switch to compare it in real time. The smallest difference that was clearly audible was about 25% below the stock value and 33% above it. 209K is only 16% below 250K so I doubt you'll hear it.

There is a good reason why commercial pots are usually made to 20% tolerance.

Megii

The very man I was hoping to hear from, and your advice much appreciated and cheers @ICBM

Funkfingers

This is another one of those topics that would benefit from somebody making a practical video demonstration to debunk the widely circulated misinformation. There is already one comparing capacitor values and materials. (Snake oil in paper, anyone?)

Megii

Funkfingers said:

This is another one of those topics that would benefit from somebody making a practical video demonstration to debunk the widely circulated misinformation. There is already one comparing capacitor values and materials. (Snake oil in paper, anyone?)

It would be interesting to see a demo that showed at what point the pot value did start to have an audible effect. Afraid I have a job lot of Russian paper in snake oil caps to use up, so one of those will be part of the re-wire lol

ICBM

Megii said:

Afraid I have a job lot of Russian paper in snake oil caps to use up, so one of those will be part of the re-wire lol

Better to use them in a guitar than in an amp where they'll probably fail .

There's nothing wrong with using 'cool' caps in a guitar at all... just don't pay too much for them in the belief that they will give you The Magic Tone .

I'm always happy to use the 'right' vintage-types in reissue or genuine vintage guitars, for the simple reason that they look right - nothing else. NB, for many of the most sought-after vintage guitars including most 60s Fenders and Gibsons, that means cheap ceramics .

Megii

ICBM said:

Megii said:

Afraid I have a job lot of Russian paper in snake oil caps to use up, so one of those will be part of the re-wire lol

Better to use them in a guitar than in an amp where they'll probably fail .

There's nothing wrong with using 'cool' caps in a guitar at all... just don't pay too much for them in the belief that they will give you The Magic Tone .

I'm always happy to use the 'right' vintage-types in reissue or genuine vintage guitars, for the simple reason that they look right - nothing else. NB, for many of the most sought-after vintage guitars including most 60s Fenders and Gibsons, that means cheap ceramics .

Indeed! and they will only get used in guitar projects. Really they don't even look right, because Russian PIO caps weren't used in vintage Fenders, or any other type of guitar I'm aware of. Still, I've used them a few times now in guitars, and they do work just fine. If I was less scrupulous perhaps I'd re-sell them on evilbay for a tenner a pop lol.

ICBM

Megii said:

Russian PIO caps weren't used in vintage Fenders, or any other type of guitar I'm aware of.

There might be a few in this!