250k?

[sbk12]

Originally posted this thread in the wrong place.Anyway....

Hello all,I have just finished building a Warmoth strat and have a quick question about volume pots.I put in a Rio Grande Hum and a Rio vintage tallboy in the neck.I used a 500 k pot and at this point,I am not completely happy with the results.Would using a 250k pot be the answer to my problems?Its seems the way it is now,I am getting alot of shrill type noises and its not really that smooth.I know the Rio`s where not meant to sound like this.Oh yeah,it is set up for one volume and no tone controls.Any help would be much appreciated.
 

 

[mayfly]

decreasing the pot will increase the load that the pickup sees, so it may make a difference. 

Another thing to try is to put a 500K resistor and 0.1uf cap in series between ground and the pickup hot wire.  That is, make a little non-adjustable tone circuit .  That should bleed off enough highs to take the edge off.

 

[tfarny]

Quick and easy adjustments that may adjust your tone a bit before you give up on the pickup:
1. swap your capacitor for a different value. going with a .022 might be the ticket.
2. change your pot value as you suggest.
3. mess with the pickup height.

Sounds like you just don't like the sound though, especially if it's both pickups and not just one. I had a Rio 'jazzbar' that I didn't like, I swapped for a lollar and wow what an improvement. It was powerful but all mids, no highs. turning down the tone control was like unplugging my high b and e strings, it was weird.
To each his own though, I'm glad we don't all sound the same.

 

[Superlizard]

I am getting alot of shrill type noises and its not really that smooth.I know the Rio`s where not meant to sound like this.Oh yeah,it is set up for one volume and no tone controls.Any help would be much appreciated.

Along similar lines, "shrill" is exactly the reason why strats (with single coil in bridge) are modded by switching the mid single coil tone pot to the bridge pickup.

The strat bridge single coil pickup has no tone control in stock form.

I don't know if you've the tone pot disconnected (or non-existent), but if you have one, or can put one in there, give that a whirl.