Learn how to choose between 250K and 500K Pots now!
We frequently get asked about pot values when a customer orders one of our Prewired Telecaster Control Plates or Prewired Pickguards. Pot value has a significant impact on your instrument’s final tone; it’s essential to choose wisely. We mainly get asked how to choose between 250K pots and 500K pots. Let’s dig in!
CHOOSING BETWEEN 250K AND 500K POTS:
When choosing between 250K and 500K pots, there is no concrete rule (more on this later), but here’s a good rule of thumb:
- Single Coil pickups sound best on 250K pots (think Strat or Tele pickups)
- Humbuckers and stronger pickups sound best on 500K pots
- 300K pots do an excellent job of filling the gap between 250K and 500K.
WHY?
The pot itself dampens high frequencies from your pickups’ signal. It does this by adding a short across your pickup’s signal. Lower resistance pots, like 250K, will dampen more high frequencies off of your signal than a 500K pot will.
If you were to connect your pickups directly to the output jack, you would notice your tone is louder and brighter. Most instrument manufacturers pick the pot value that makes the instrument sound the best.
A 500K pot provides the most resistance, so high frequencies from your signal are not bled to ground as easily as a 250K pot. Similarly, the 250K pot contributes less resistance and thus bleeds more high frequencies to ground.
But wait: variable resistance is a good thing! Traditional Humbuckers can sound dark and muddy through a 250K pot, and Single Coil Strat or Tele Pickups can sound shrill and “crispy” through a 500K pot. By choosing the correct pot value, we tailor our electronics to the pickup’s true voicing.
LINDY SAYS…
Lindy always says: “the correct pot is the one that sounds the best to you.” This is true for many reasons: you may want your single-coil pickups to sound brighter in the first place. Or, you may have a dark-sounding guitar, and you want to compensate by having brighter sounding pickups. In either case, wiring your pickups through a 300K or 500K pot will most likely help you achieve that goal.
WHICH POTS TO CHANGE?
When you choose between 250K or 500K pots, it’s important to remember that Volume Pots make the bulk of your tonal difference. Your tone pots certainly make a difference as well, but, if you wanted to make a quick and easy change, change your Volume pot first, and then listen.
Well, that’s really about it. It’s a pretty simple topic. The best way to know which pot value works best for you is to experiment! Grab a 250K, 300K, and 500K, and change out your volume pot to see what it does to the tone.
In This Article:
Does all of this apply to the volume as well as tone pots? Should the volume and tone pots always match?
Hey Sean, the Volume Pot will make the 90% of the tonal difference. So, if you’re on a budget, just change the Volume Pot. That said, changing the Tone Pot will make a slight difference (slightly brighter when changing to a 500K, a touch darker when changing to a 250K). It’s a great way to “fine-tune” your pot selection.
Thank you, I appreciate your concise explanation. This was so informative.
Great info! How about which value potentiometer would be best for a gold foil pickup installed on a resonator guitar? I just installed a vintage 1965 DeArmond gold foil pickup on the resonator cover of my resonator guitar and I am shopping for potentiometers. The pickup reads at 9.43, but I honestly don’t know if it is single or double coil. I know that’s not super helpful, but any information at all would be beyond helpful. (By the way, I have had Fralins in two of my other guitars and I love them so very much. Keep up the good work!)
I have an LP style guitar with HBs that split. Does a push/pull change from 500k to 250k to compensate for the SC splits or do they just run (in split mode) unredacted frequencies through the 500k pot?
Is the 250k/500k pot even a thing?
Hey Luke, since the switch and the pot are separate, you are stuck with whatever the pot value is. If you have a 500K Push Pull, you’ll have a 500K Pot when split.
Dimebag Darrel used to put bill Lawrence 500xl bridge humbuckers in the neck position….would the hotter pup in the neck position still produce the bassier tones just with a hotter output?
Good evening, I have owned a Fralin Blues SSH set for many years, I have used it with a traditional Fender Stratocaster wiring but I don’t know which potentiometers or which wiring to use to get the best out of single coils and humbuckers.
Franco
Hey Franco, check out this article here on the subject: How To Mix Single Coils and Humbuckers
I just purchased a set of pearley gates pickups for my Squire which are humbucker type pickups and I want to know which would be the best size pots for them. Also, do you make a pre-wire kit that would work with them w/5 way switch.