Re: 250K,500K or 1 Meg, what's the real differance?

ohm-men · Post by **ohm-men** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:38 am

Hi,

I'm still working on my Hagström - Jazzmaster, which I build up from leftover parts. Since I didn't have 1 Mag pots, I used a set of 250K CTS pots (that came from a strat) The pick ups are a stock MIJ JM neck and and a SD Hot Bridge, which sounds really weird (even in my JM with 1 Meg pots, the 250K is a tad better)

Since the guitar needs a refin (it was originally some kind of Sonic Blue, judging by the colour of the neck pocket) so I will probably go with Sonic Blue.

So, anyone ever used 500K pots with JM pups?

Thanks!

P.S. Pics will follow soon.

Post by **Orang Goreng** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:50 am

Well, if you had a linear 1 MOhm pot, "10" on the knob would correspond to 1Mohm, "5" to 500 kOhm, and so on; if you install a 250 kOhm pot, the effect would be the same as turning the knob on the 1Mohm pot to 2.5.

But of course audio pots are logarithmic, so there if "10" is 1 MOhm, 500 k and 250 k are somewhere between "10" and "9". So the effect is pretty minimal. You lose some highs and (barely) some volume.

Pumpkin · Post by **Pumpkin** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:04 am

Well i put 500k pots in my jag and i hated the sound,it lost all the distinct jaguar qualities,so i put the 1meg back and even with 1meg turned to 3/4 it sounds better than 500k,and not too bright.
I feel 1megs are better because you can always turn it down but with 250k+5ook you have no room to move.
Id like to have 500k in my mustang but its orig vintage so i cant bring myself to rip out the 250k pots,not that it sounds bad,i just prefer options with my sound.
Go the 1meg dude.

Guitarded · Post by **Guitarded** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:24 pm

ohm-men wrote: a SD Hot Bridge, which sounds really weird

The SD Hot sounded "weird"? How so? I have one on order that I'm waiting for. I love my Jazzmaster but the stock Fender reissue pickups are awful. A few people told me the SD Hot JM sounds a bit fuller...like a P90 with less mids. Hoping that's somewhat true.

ohm-men · Post by **ohm-men** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:18 pm

Well, this guitar is starting to grow on me. I guess a piece of wood made in 1964 does have it's sound qualities....
So far it"s like a stock Jazzmaster, neck, pick ups, trem, bridge, etc..., but with a different body.The sustain of the Hagström body is also very nice. (It does have a much thinner body then a regular JM)

After some tweaking with the "SD Hot fror JM", it sounds pretty nice (still with the 250 K pots, though) It's more like a stock JM pup with more meat imo.
Not really a P-90. It also works great with a stock CIJ JM neck pup (always like the sound of the Japanese JM neck pup, hate the bridge though.
For some reason I could not make the SD Hot work on my Jazzmasters....guess it's just me.

Still need to find scews for the pick up covers, as the AV RI's I had don't fit in the CIJ pup covers....

I promise, pics are comming soon (if I can just rmember where I left the battery loader for my digital camera....)

enormous · Post by **enormous** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:44 pm

I used to own a Jazzmaster that had 250k pots, I always thought it sounded weird and sort of muddy. I fought with it for a long time before I opened it up and saw that someone had changed the pots. To sum it all up, I really don't like 250k pots in a JM.