Does gauge of wire affect tone?

[Andy123]

I was just thinking about the differences between cheap amateur guitars and drool-inducing pro guitars. Obviously quality of timber, pick ups and fit & finish play a huge part. I started thinking about the little things: would the gauge of wire used in a guitar have any effect on the tone?

While we're at it, what about pots? Could one 500k pot sound better than another, or are they all the same?

[Simon Barden]

Any wire between components is vastly thicker than that used within the pickup itself (of which there is a lot), so gauge of wire really won't make much difference. I generally prefer push-back wire that's fairly thick, but it's just easier to work with and far less floppy, so you can run it nicely and keep it out of the way of other components.

The main effect of thin, cheap wire is longevity of the wiring harness. Thin wire is likely to move about more, especially right by solder joints, where the metal will fatigue and eventually break.

Pots really aren't going to make any difference to the sound either. They are basically just resistance. The pot value will make a difference, so cheap pots with a wide tolerance could give a much wider range of sound than a good make with a narrower tolerance band.

A cheap 500k pot with ±25% tolerance could have a resistance value anywhere between 375k and 625k, and so sound a reasonable bit duller or brighter than intended. A 500k CTS pot with a ±9% tolerance could vary between 455k and 545k, though from experience is likely to be a lot nearer 500k than not. The tighter tolerance pots also stick more closely to the ideal taper than the loser tolerance pots.

But that's not to say that a guitar with cheap pots will sound bad because of the pots. 400k may be the best value to get a good sound from the guitar whilst 500k may be just that little bit too bright. But a bad sound is far more likely to be down to the pickups.

[fender3x]

1+

Tone is almost entirely in the pups. I am guessing setup and playing style are next.

I choose wire primarily for the color of the insulation, to help me not get confused when putting it together. If you are doing an ES or something like that, stiffness can be a benefit, as Simon mentioned. Gauge makes no difference.

The name brand pots are identical in construction to cheap Chinese pots. I did an experiment where I took apart a cheap Chinese pot and a Bourns. The parts were completely interchangeable. But the quality control was not the same. There was more variation in the Chinese pots than in the name brand pots I tested (Alpha, CTS, Bourns). My conclusion is they are all made pretty much the same, but the name brands test theirs and chuck the ones that are off spec.

That said, there was quite a bit of variation in the name brands too. My rule of thumb now is to buy more pots than I need, and test them before they go in to try to get values that match.

You can get mil-spec pots that have better tolerances and sealed housings. They should last through the Zombie Apocalyps, but they won't sound different than an ordinary pot of the same value. But it's a lot cheaper to replace ordinary pots when they go bad. Pots do go bad occasionally, mostly from heavy use. That said, I have a few that are 50 years old and still working reasonably well.

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[McCreed]

I have basically nothing to add other than another +1 to the above.

However, there is always someone that is going say that it has to be this wire or that pot to achieve "the" tone, but these are usually the same people that can hear the difference between a Duracell and an Eveready battery in their Tubescreamer [insert palm to forehead emoji].

And don't get me started on the whole $20 capacitor versus 20¢ capacitor thing...

[Andy123]

Thanks guys, that's as I suspected.

[Marcel]

I always have a laugh at this topic. The fact that there is thousands of miles of wire and components and microwave links and active components and tubes and transistors and SMD devices and recording machines between the guitar microphone and the loud speaker that YOU are listening to, yet those few inches of wire inside the guitar are somehow magical and are the only ones that affect the tone of a guitar... Oh 'Sweet home Alabama'... please save me...

Don't get me wrong. There is a sweet symphony between a player, their guitar, their pedals and amp that goes into creating any tone.. but much of the intervening stuff is insignificant. Gauge of hookup wire and brand of pots are very low on the list.

Within a pickup the gauge is hugely important. The thicker the gauge the fewer the winds and a resultant change in inter-winding capacitance and induced voltage at the output. More winding's gives more output, more inductance and more inter-winding capacitance, and thus a different sound. Same goes for different types of magnets... But once that signal leaves that pickup it is what it is until it hits a pedal or input of an amp (curly guitar cords and super long guitar cords excepted)

The main factors in the choice of hookup wire within any guitar are as Simon indicated. Physical strength and mechanical durability. Thin wire will flex, thicker gauge wire will not. The same argument can be used for pots... The shafts of cheaper ones made with pot-metal will often wear and fail earlier, more expensive brass made pots will often last decades. The quality and durability of the resistive and wiper elements of the pots will often be reflected in the price with the better versions being more expensive. It is an important consideration in choice of volume pot due their heavy use, though not so much for tone pots which are often set and forget.

So, the choice of hookup wire is entirely up to the guitar builder. Everything that is likely to be used will be of heavier gauge than what is used inside the pickups used, so it becomes more a issue of convenience to the guitar builder and how much Mojo the builder wants to spend/include in their build. (I cast a sideways look at my Gibson LP with a PCB connecting all the pots, due "consistency of manufacturing quality").... Same goes for the pots, where more expensive pots will often give more consistent performance results though with nil difference in tone... How you wire them pots up, the choice of pickups themselves and a possible inclusion of a 'treble bleed' circuit will have far more effect on that guitars tone.