1 meg pots

[DangerousR6]

anyone ever used any 1 meg pots before? I got a set on the way and was interested to see if others have used them.... :dontknow:

 

[line6man]

This is a really vague question...

What information were you hoping to gain from other people's experience with 1M pots?

 

[DangerousR6]

This is a really vague question...

What information were you hoping to gain from other people's experience with 1M pots?

I was really just a general question, tone, gain, likes dislikes.....etc

 

[GoDrex]

I've never used them, but I honestly don't see a need for them. 500K work well enough for me with humbuckers (250s can even be good with certain ones n some situations). Can't see why I'd need 1meg pots - beyond wanting to hurt someone with sound.  :laughing7:

 

[line6man]

I've never used them, but I honestly don't see a need for them. 500K work well enough for me with humbuckers (250s can even be good with certain ones n some situations). Can't see why I'd need 1meg pots - beyond wanting to hurt someone with sound.  :laughing7:

Switching from 500K to 1M won't give you much difference, but it's when you start adding pots to the circuit that you start to see the difference.

For example, the difference between two 500K pots and two 1M pots is slight, but if you go to four pots, four 1M pots will give you the same sound (assuming all knobs on 10) as two 500K pots.

I explained pot resistance in this thread:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494664

 

[DocNrock]

Let me know what you think when you try them, but I would imagine it would be like putting 500k pots on single coils. 

 

[blue313]

Let me know what you think when you try them, but I would imagine it would be like putting 500k pots on single coils. 

The funny thing is, my set of Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat pickups came stock with 1M pots in the box.  I honestly cant say I tried 250k first, but they sounded fine while I had them in.

 

[DangerousR6]

well from what I've gathered about them, they're supposed to be used for only high output pups. Like 13 ohms and up. Not sure if most singles are high powered enough for them.... :dontknow:

 

[line6man]

Not sure if most singles are high powered enough for them.... :dontknow:

I think you have it backwards.
If you have overly hot/bright pickups, you want a lower value resistor to tame it out a bit.
If you have pickups with a dark sound or a lower output, you want a higher value resistor to avoid removing too much treble.
This is the reason why single coil pickups are most commonly used with 250K pots, and humbuckers are most commonly used with 500K pots.

The only reason to use 1M pots with very high output pickups is if you want an extremely bright and hot sound, similar to going straight to the output jack.

 

[DangerousR6]

Not sure if most singles are high powered enough for them.... :dontknow:

I think you have it backwards.
If you have overly hot/bright pickups, you want a lower value resistor to tame it out a bit.
If you have pickups with a dark sound or a lower output, you want a higher value resistor to avoid removing too much treble.
This is the reason why single coil pickups are most commonly used with 250K pots, and humbuckers are most commonly used with 500K pots.

The only reason to use 1M pots with very high output pickups is if you want an extremely bright and hot sound, similar to going straight to the output jack.

No, I believe I read it right. It clearly said that 1 meg pots are to be used with high output pup's. If you think about what you just said....

 

[JaySwear]

i thought that i had read that 1 meg pots were the next best thing to wiring straight to the output jack  :dontknow: 

"Get the most out of your guitar with a 1 Meg-ohm pot. All pots bleed a certain amount of the signal to ground, this "attenuation" can be used to warm the sound of your guitar's pickups, but you can also run your guitar "wide open" with these 1 Meg-ohm pots! Split shaft with coarse knurling." from stewmac.

 

[bbl4ck]

This link to the Les Paul Forum [LPF] has quite a discussion regarding potentiometer values vs. sounds:

http://www.lespaulforum.com/pots/lpfpots.html

I am anxious to hear about your experience with the 1000K pots myself.  I am using some 500K no load pots on my V build which I think will likely result in a similar response. 
Anyway Doug, please let us know how they turn out...
:rock-on:

 

[line6man]

Not sure if most singles are high powered enough for them.... :dontknow:

I think you have it backwards.
If you have overly hot/bright pickups, you want a lower value resistor to tame it out a bit.
If you have pickups with a dark sound or a lower output, you want a higher value resistor to avoid removing too much treble.
This is the reason why single coil pickups are most commonly used with 250K pots, and humbuckers are most commonly used with 500K pots.

The only reason to use 1M pots with very high output pickups is if you want an extremely bright and hot sound, similar to going straight to the output jack.

No, I believe I read it right. It clearly said that 1 meg pots are to be used with high output pup's. If you think about what you just said....

Your saying that 1M pots are supposed to be used with very high output pickups.
You can use them with whatever the hell you want, there is no rule. It's all about tonal preferences.

But if the options are brightening up regular pickups with 1M pots, versus maintaining an extremely hot output from super high output pickups, it seems to me that brightening up the low output pickups would fit the term "best used" better because it seems that doing so would be a more common occurrence amongst 1M pot users than the other option.
This is just my opinion though, but either way, the point is that there really are no dos and don'ts of using different pot values with different pickups. You use whatever sounds the way you want it to.

 

[line6man]

would be a more common occurrence amongst 1M pot users than the other option.

I realize that i just said "pot users", but for the love of god, no Marijuana jokes!  :blob7:

 

[bbl4ck]

would be a more common occurrence amongst 1M pot users than the other option.

I realize that i just said "pot users", but for the love of god, no Marijuana jokes!  :blob7:

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, He said no pot jokes...  :laughing11: :laughing3:  :laughing11:  Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...  :laughing3: :laughing7: :laughing3: We are a forum of trained professionals...  :laughing7: :laughing11: :laughing7:  Not a forum of musicians and music lovers...
We would never let anything like that happen...  :blob7: :blob7: :blob7: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...  :icon_tongue:  :icon_tongue:  :icon_tongue: No humor allowed here!!!!

 

[DangerousR6]

Not sure if most singles are high powered enough for them.... :dontknow:

I think you have it backwards.
If you have overly hot/bright pickups, you want a lower value resistor to tame it out a bit.
If you have pickups with a dark sound or a lower output, you want a higher value resistor to avoid removing too much treble.
This is the reason why single coil pickups are most commonly used with 250K pots, and humbuckers are most commonly used with 500K pots.

The only reason to use 1M pots with very high output pickups is if you want an extremely bright and hot sound, similar to going straight to the output jack.

No, I believe I read it right. It clearly said that 1 meg pots are to be used with high output pup's. If you think about what you just said....

Your saying that 1M pots are supposed to be used with very high output pickups.
You can use them with whatever the hell you want, there is no rule. It's all about tonal preferences.

But if the options are brightening up regular pickups with 1M pots, versus maintaining an extremely hot output from super high output pickups, it seems to me that brightening up the low output pickups would fit the term "best used" better because it seems that doing so would be a more common occurrence amongst 1M pot users than the other option.
This is just my opinion though, but either way, the point is that there really are no dos and don'ts of using different pot values with different pickups. You use whatever sounds the way you want it to.

I do realize you can use whatever you like with whatever pup you want, I guess it's all a matter of what you want the pup to do...... :dontknow:

 

[DocNrock]

I have no experience with 1 meg pots.  I look forward to your review. 

 

[DangerousR6]

I have no experience with 1 meg pots.  I look forward to your review. 

Should be quite interesting with the D Activators, I think they are just about the hottest pup Dimarzio makes... :evil4:

 

[DocNrock]

I have no experience with 1 meg pots.  I look forward to your review. 

Should be quite interesting with the D Activators, I think they are just about the hottest pup Dimarzio makes... :evil4:

Close...you forgot the X2N  :icon_biggrin:

 

[JaySwear]

I have no experience with 1 meg pots.  I look forward to your review. 

Should be quite interesting with the D Activators, I think they are just about the hottest pup Dimarzio makes... :evil4:

Close...you forgot the X2N   :icon_biggrin:

yeah, besides the X2N. my old guitar teacher said he wanted to try the hottest dimarzio had to offer (he was a die-hard dimarzio fan) and told me the X2N wasn't too bad, but you would hear EVERYTHING you played (and some things you didn't mean to).

i'm definitely looking forward to the 1 Meg experiment too!