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Please explain this to me so I finally understand it. Firstly Duncans schematics show vol and tone pots with a 500K pot and a .047 cap. No guitar I have ever owned, including American Jacksons that came with Duncans, have ever had the configuration in the schematics. Currently i have 3 American BC Riches with a 500k pot for each vol and a 250k pot for tone. Dual Vol Single tone on all three. I never turn my tone pot anywhere. Always stay up. So my question is if I were to change my tone pot to a 500K it would:

a.) make the sound brighter
b.) make the sound darker
c.) have no effect at all given you don't use it.

and then my next question if i changed the cap to .047 along with changing the 500K tone pot it would:

a.) have more effect than just the pot itself
b.) doesn't matter as long as theres a cap there
c.) Still doesnt matter since you dont use the tone control but maxed out...

I'm totally lost on this. help.


Originally Posted by h8red442

Currently i have 3 American BC Riches with a 500k pot for each vol and a 250k pot for tone. Dual Vol Single tone on all three. I never turn my tone pot anywhere. Always stay up. So my question is if I were to change my tone pot to a 500K it would:

a.) make the sound brighter
b.) make the sound darker
c.) have no effect at all given you don't use it.

a, Probably a tad brighter, brighter yet with a 1M tone pot, and brighter yet with the tone pot disconnected (though check out Seymour's pot value info linked below...it's actually increasing the resonant frequency). You are also changing the load the pickups are working into with the changing resistance. 500K || 250K = 166K, 500K || 500K = 250K, 500K || 1M = 666K
and then my next question if i changed the cap to .047 along with changing the 500K tone pot it would:

a.) have more effect than just the pot itself
b.) doesn't matter as long as theres a cap there
c.) Still doesnt matter since you dont use the tone control but maxed out...

c, With the tone control maxed, probably not much effect. Bigger cap value means more of the frequency band is shunted to ground when the tone control is turned down. Think of a cap as a resistor with a resistance that varies by frequency, with high resistance at 0Hz (DC) and low resistance at higher frequencies. Small caps have high resistances and pass more top end than low end; large caps have low resistances and pass more and more low end as they get larger. If you have a large cap (or no cap) on the tone control, it will act more like a volume control than a tone control.

Check out from : localhost//website...techtips.shtml on pot values at the bottom. DiMarzio has a short section in their FAQ. And check out from : localhost/www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/voltonecon.php