Strat pots

[Rampdog]

Now, my question is, if I change out the pots on my strat, what type should I use and does changing out the pots do anything for tone on the strat. I need some input here on that... I like the feel of the old Tele pots, smooth and easy...

Thanks...

[The Geoff]

Any high quality brand should be good enough.

 

Strat pots are 250K - this actually cuts a bit off the top end and a 500K pot will make it sound (even) brighter.

 

A 1Meg vol pot coupled with 250K tone pots and .47 caps should give you all the range you'd ever need.

 

For the vintage sound, tho', it's 250K all the way with .47K caps (or the originals if they are OK).

 

G.

[Michael Patrick]

I'd definitely go with pots from RS Guitarworks. They sell high-quality CTS pots, and they screen them to make sure they measure 250k. They also sell whole wiring kits, if you want to go that route.

[Quixotica]

Most people seem to think that 250k pots sound warmer than 500ks which in turn sound warmer 1ks, etc. and I agree.

 

A few months ago I replaced the bridge pickup in my Classic 70s Strat with a DiMarzio SDS-1. I thought I might try a 500k tone pot for it, but the sound was too edgy and humbucker-esq (It didn't sound bad, just not what I was shooting for with my strat. When I a wanna rock, I pull out the Les Paul!). So I went back to the 250k pot and a vintage bumblebee tone cap (.05mf)and it sounded really warm and fat. Like a P-90.

 

Oh yeah, I rewired my my strat so that the neck tone pot now controls the tone for both the neck and the middle, while the former, middle tone pot now conrols the neck pickup. I also wired up the tone caps independantly (like my les paul) so that I could use the bumblebee on the bridge and and an orange drop (.022) for the neck/middle.

 

I've been thinking of installing one of the new Fender "no-load" pots for my neck-middle tone control. The "no-load" pot allows you to switch the pot and capacitor out of the circuit by simply turning the knob to "10". I'm not sure if it will really make a difference, but it's not terribly expensive or difficult so why not.

 

I agree with the others, get top quality US made pots. You really can't go wrong with CTS. Callaham Guitars sells "cryogenically treated" CTS pots that they claim are a further improvement on an already quality product. I have no experience with Callaham or their pots, but they don't seem to cost much more than CTS pots from other suppliers. Might be worth a shot.