hard Ash body, Airline reissue "valco" pickups, 300k pots and 33mf tone cap

[scootertrampjr]

I have recently purchased a Hard Ash Musiclander body with a two humbucker configuration. It has a recessed tune-o-matic string through set up. The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard.  The pickups are the Airline recreations of the Vintage Valco pickups found on old Supros and Nationals ( jack white uses the originals).  These pickups are single coils that look like humbuckers but sound similar to fatter single coils and P90s from what Ive heard.  Because of the strange nature of these pickups I wasn't sure what pots to get .  I bought  two 300k's because I know that hard ash is already bright and these pups being a single coils I was afraid 500k's would give me too much brightness but 250k would be too mellow.  I'm also using  a 33mf  tone cap because I understand caps with that value only cut out a small amount of brights and has good mid range.
I want a guitar that has chime ,growl and sustain. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK
Ive put a lot of thought into this setup and this is my first time with Warmoth and the second guitar Ive built.  Tell me what you think and please give me any suggestions you have especially regarding the pots and caps because they will be the variables easiest to change once my Warmoth parts get here.           

 

[sundin4prez]

lets see some pictures :headbang:

 

[jackthehack]

I'd start out trying wiring them like an old LPS/SG Special; that would call for 500K vol pots, 250K tone pots and .022 capacitors. You can always play around with the capacitor value. What is the impedence in Ohms of the vintage pickups in question?

 

[onedrop]

I say wire it up with the components you have, and see if you like it. The 300k / 0.033uf combo is kind of middle of the road and might just be perfect, but you'll have to try it and see  :toothy10:

 

[scootertrampjr]

i cant find any specs on the pickups anywhere. I emailed myrareguitars.com/ eastwood guitars and they said they use 500k pots. The PUPS are meant to be an upgrade for eastwood's airline guitars with mahogany bodies and the main reason they had 500k pots before the upgrade was because they come stock with humbuckers. The guy I talked to was a sales rep and said he was going to cc my question to the technical department so they can answer my question better.  I think I may buy a few spare pots and play around with it.  I am thinking maybe 300k tone and 500k volume. who knows maybe I'll stick a 1meg into the volume position.

 

[scootertrampjr]

I just found out the pick ups are 10K and 12K impedance. how do I enter this into picking the right electronics 

 

[bpmorton777]

the sales rep didnt know enogh about guitars to answer the question himself? :icon_scratch:

Brian

 

[jackthehack]

I just found out the pick ups are 10K and 12K impedance. how do I enter this into picking the right electronics 

Those are pretty high output, higher than a lot of HBs. I'd go 500K volume pots. 250K tone pots and .047 cap to start. Try changing the cap value if you don't like the bandwidth cut on the tones, you might even want to go to 500K tone pots as well, but may need to experiment a bit.