Basic rundown on volume/tone pots (and caps)?

[dNA]

I'm just wondering if someone can direct me to a good source for all the basics I would need to know. I've read bits and pieces here and there but a solid guide for the functions of different pots and caps would be great.
I'm wiring up a tele w/ a standard tele pup in the neck and PAF in the bridge. Standard 1 vol 1 tone. I know I want some kinda treble bleed cap on the volume, but I don't know about values or anything for the pots and caps - I'm guessing I would start with whatever's brighter.

anywho, pointers would be good. I got a little unexpected extra money and I'll probably order the last of the parts for my build once i know what I need.

 

[OzziePete]

OK..

This webpage has info you are asking about, and similar info is available on other websites around too (like Stewart Macdonald).

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources.wiring_faqs/

The usual traditional Tele neck pickup is one of the weaker neck pickups around, and matching with a PAF humbucker might present a challenge if sharing volume and tone controls. By that, I mean that the PAF may be quite a bit more powerful sounding than the neck pickup and when combined the PAF will simply burst through and leave you with little neck pickup sound in the mix. Also it is a traditional understanding that humbuckers use 500K pots and single coils use 250K pots. That doesn't mean you have to do that, just that that is the tried and tested method. You could maybe look around and see if you can find some 300K pots to kinda sit in between those two values, or choose to go with concentric pots and have vol/tone (500k) and vol/tone (250K) so you can have individual volume and tone for each pickup.

 

[tfarny]

Look, the different "varieties" of pots and caps all do the same thing, especially in the context of a guitar circuit - pots split the signal so that some of it can continue through to your amp and some of it is directed to ground, and caps allow high frequencies to pass through and block passage of low frequencies. Higher cap values, like .047 uf and higher, also allow substantial midrange to pass through as well, while smaller values such as .022uf and under to .001 uf or so, let less of the midrange through. Understanding these facts and looking at some diagrams is really about all you need to know about pots and caps.

I'd suggest, for a tele with a bridge bucker and neck tele, you get good 500k volume pots and a .022 cap for a start, then if it sounds not to your liking, do some experimentation. I see no advantage to 250k pots especially with the pickups you're talking about.

 

[dNA]

Thanks guys!
Whatever bucker goes in the bridge definitely will not be anything hot so I'm hoping I can get it to balance. I'm going to wire it so that the center position is neck+1 coil from the bridge. If it doesn't balance, then I'll just have to reconfigure the neck position to fit a strat size single coil which I don't really mind. I haven't really had any experience with single coils so i figure I'm at an experimental phase.

I'm really looking forward to trying different values and finding what works best with the different configurations. I just needed a good reference point to start. thanks again.

 

[tfarny]

As far as volume balance, that won't have anything of consequence to do with your pots or caps. Adjust the pickup heights the best you can, and pick a lower-output bucker and a somewhat higher-output single coil. You tend to get more volume from the neck position due to string vibration physics, so a weaker neck pickup isn't as hard to manage as a too-strong neck pickup.