Cap./ Pot question..Humbuckers and single coils together...

[Superbeast520]

Could someone explain to me how I could use just one Volume and one Tone controll on my Strat with a Humbucker in the bridge and single coils in the neck and middle.....

I know they use different Capaciter or pot values....so do I have to compromise with one or the other or???

If not..... could I wire a Strat traditional with one volume and two tone controlls, and wire the Humbucker with its respective Capaciter or pot values, and the Single coils with their respective capaciter or pot values, and still retain a traditional Vol/tone/tone control setup???

 

[line6man]

What are you talking about?

If all your pickups are passive, they can share the same pot values without issue.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Well, not so much...  The values for pots for humbuckers are 500K and singles are 250K in general.  The cap values of 0.022 uF for humbuckers and 0.047 uF for singles.  The 250K pot will bleed off high freq's and the 500K will keep more better suiting the tonal properties of the pick up to what we think sounds correct. 

I would use the 500K pot because the mid and neck pick up will be less "ice pick in the ear" even if the pot doesn't bleed off the highs.  As far as the cap, I don't know.  But you can get quite a variety of caps and run the caps in parallel if you want to sum smaller values to get a specific value.  I would buy nice a nice cap or caps for the tone control, I was impressed at how big of a difference I heard when I tried a nice cap.
Patrick

 

[tfarny]

Unless you want to get complicated, you do have to compromise but it's not any big deal. Just use 500k pots and .046 caps (decent ones). Your strat pickups will retain a bit more of their brightness which you can dial down using the tone pot or make an amp adjustment, or leave it in. I'll never use 250k pots again.

 

[Superbeast520]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate that info, I know there are other places to get it but I just wanted some feedback.

I think Im gonna just use one of the tone controls as a volume control for just the Humbucker, as I want to keep the pot and Cap values true to their respective pickup. So I can have True single coil and True Humbucker tones.  

So I guess it makes sense to just wire the singles to a Volume and Tone control with their proper values and have the Humbucker wired with just a seperate volume (ie: the remaining knob) and keep it looking Standard Strat, control wise. :icon_thumright:

If Im not mistaken (please correct me) I can use Just the volume for the Hum. and still wire in a Cap on its volume control and still have its true Humbucker tone just without a tone adjustment, can't I ??? or is the tone control neccesary to keep the Humbucker True???

 

[tfarny]

that's the thing - if you actually want to keep the value "true" to the original, you have to replicate all the original properties. Most people don't bother to do this, instead  they just copy the individual values for the parts.
So, an SG or Lester has four 500k pots, for a total impedance of 125 k or so. That's the "true" value - you could get to 125k by using two 250k pots instead.

So all the one-knob humbucker guitars out there "should" have a 125k volume pot, but they don't, and Eddie did OK with it I think. It's no big thing, it just gives more signal to your chain.

 

[-CB-]

Just use 500k and .022 and you'll be fine for them all.

 

[Superbeast520]

Thanks guys for all the feedback...... :icon_thumright:

 

[scottosan]

depending on the switch you got, you make the single coils see 250k and the humucker see 500k.  You will need the superswitch.  It is typical setup higher end guitars like Andersons and Suhrs

 

[Dan025]

your choice on pot/caps, you can use (A) a bright sounding humbucker and fender style controls or (B) use gibson style controls and use the tone to help mellow out the single

optiion (C) you can also use the side of the strat switch that usually switches tone controls to short a 500k resistor to ground. the tone pot itself can even be used for this but it will alter the taper of the tone for the single coils making have no high end bleed off at all, when at 10 but at zero will have the full effect. no super switch needed!
like this. excuse the water mark, that's the cost of a free program.

 

[Dan025]

the wiring in the pic/option(C) should be 500k pots i forgot.

 

[Schlieren]

Unless you want to get complicated, you do have to compromise but it's not any big deal. Just use 500k pots and .046 caps (decent ones). Your strat pickups will retain a bit more of their brightness which you can dial down using the tone pot or make an amp adjustment, or leave it in. I'll never use 250k pots again.

It's the opposite of cooking something: once you add too much salt, it's too late.  You can't take it back.

With a guitar, you can always take away high end, but if you never have enough in the beginning, it's difficult to get more.