AG-1 perhaps i am Tony Iommi?

[OliSam]

looks like the push pull pots are going to fit.
I also measured them with a multimeter. both came in at 520. interesting, eh? as theyre marked as 500K pots.

[Simon Barden]

looks like the push pull pots are going to fit.
I also measured them with a multimeter. both came in at 520. interesting, eh? as theyre marked as 500K pots.

All pots have a tolerance value associated with them. Unless specified otherwise, assume +/-20%. So a 500k pot can be 400k to 600k. In practice the values are normally closer to 500k than the outer limits. CTS do a guitar range with a +/-9% tolerance, but that’s still 455k to 545k. Higher than 500k is almost always considered to be best for making humbuckers sound their best.

I have found that almost all my recent 500k pots have been 500k+. There was a time when CTS pots were almost always nearer 450k than 500k, so maybe they’ve adjusted their manufacturing after bad feedback. The Alpha pots I’ve used normally sit on the higher side of 500k.

[OliSam]

All pots have a tolerance value associated with them. Unless specified otherwise, assume +/-20%. So a 500k pot can be 400k to 600k. In practice the values are normally closer to 500k than the outer limits. CTS do a guitar range with a +/-9% tolerance, but that’s still 455k to 545k. Higher than 500k is almost always considered to be best for making humbuckers sound their best.

I have found that almost all my recent 500k pots have been 500k+. There was a time when CTS pots were almost always nearer 450k than 500k, so maybe they’ve adjusted their manufacturing after bad feedback. The Alpha pots I’ve used normally sit on the higher side of 500k.

thats very interesting Simon.
So if i put in 600 or 700 or 1Meg pots in as volume pots i would get a brighter?/louder?/better? sound?
just thinking out loud cos i will definitely use the ones that i have bought (500K push/pull).

[Simon Barden]

thats very interesting Simon.
So if i put in 600 or 700 or 1Meg pots in as volume pots i would get a brighter?/louder?/better? sound?
just thinking out loud cos i will definitely use the ones that i have bought (500K push/pull).

The higher the pot value, the higher the pickup's resonant peak moves up and the brighter the sound, but there's no real point putting more than a 1Meg pot in as you get into smaller and smaller exponentially decreasing increments. With more resistance between the signal and ground, you get a tiny bit more output (some people fit a 'blower' switch which bypasses the volume and tone pot for maximum pickup output), but it's not a huge amount. You won't get any brighter than the pickup with no volume pot attached.

1 Meg pots are really for overwound, high output pickups to try and add as much treble back as you can. If you've got a pretty standard PAF-level humbucker, then 520k-550k is about right. You can make a pickup sound a bit too bright for its own good. And intermediate value pots between 500k and 1 Meg are hard to find and not guitar-orientated, so you may find PCB mounting ones, but not a standard guitar sized one. You can fit a parallel resistor on a 1 Meg pot to get an overall lower resistance, but it also modifies the shape of the taper.

[Andyxlh]

The higher the pot value, the higher the pickup's resonant peak moves up and the brighter the sound, but there's no real point putting more than a 1Meg pot in as you get into smaller and smaller exponentially decreasing increments. With more resistance between the signal and ground, you get a tiny bit more output (some people fit a 'blower' switch which bypasses the volume and tone pot for maximum pickup output), but it's not a huge amount. You won't get any brighter than the pickup with no volume pot attached.

1 Meg pots are really for overwound, high output pickups to try and add as much treble back as you can. If you've got a pretty standard PAF-level humbucker, then 520k-550k is about right. You can make a pickup sound a bit too bright for its own good. And intermediate value pots between 500k and 1 Meg are hard to find and not guitar-orientated, so you may find PCB mounting ones, but not a standard guitar sized one. You can fit a parallel resistor on a 1 Meg pot to get an overall lower resistance, but it also modifies the shape of the taper.

What an awesome response, you really are a mine of info Simon!