Why 1 meg pots?

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mr_sooty
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Why 1 meg pots?

Post by mr_sooty » Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:39 pm

Sorry I'm a Jazzmaster newbie, and I'd seriously wondering why they use 1 meg pots? Traditional wisdom is 250K for single coils and 500K for humbuckers. 1 Meg seems really high for single coils!

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Telliot
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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by Telliot » Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:58 pm

I'm not too sure why, either. FWIW I switched to 250k (in the lower circuit) to soften the harsh tones I was getting and have never looked back.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by HNB » Wed Jun 06, 2012 4:55 pm

Jazzmaster got me really in to 1meg pots. Most of my guitars have them now. To me, it opens up the sound. If I feel it is too bright, I can always turn the tone knob down a bit, but I haven't every felt the need. The only pickups I have tried that I didn't like 1megs in was my MIJ/CIJ Jazzmasters, but I changed the pickups instead of the pots. Those ones are more like strat pickups. I even like humbuckers better with 1megs. I think it is a personal taste thing. I like bright and jangly more than deep and warm.
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DrOctagon
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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by DrOctagon » Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:54 pm

TREBLE! :w00t:

Just use the tone knob if it's too much. Better too much than not enough, right?

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by fisonic » Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:19 pm

More so, why a 50k tone pot in the rythm circuit?

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by Hoops » Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:33 am

fisonic wrote:More so, why a 50k tone pot in the rythm circuit?
To keep things Jazzy 8)

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by mr_sooty » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:27 am

50K? So that's where the mud comes from? So if you want to change the sound of that circuit you have to find different value roller pots? Ye Gads, all my modding plans just went down the toilet!

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by Telliot » Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:37 am

mr_sooty wrote:50K? So that's where the mud comes from? So if you want to change the sound of that circuit you have to find different value roller pots? Ye Gads, all my modding plans just went down the toilet!
I've left the rhythm circuit alone on mine and really like the ability to switch between dark and bright for different parts of a song.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by JamesSGBrown » Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:47 am

I've bypassed the rhythm circuit and am just running a 1 Meg vol. pot atm. Will probably change out the pickups and go to a 500k pot though.

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by astricii » Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:10 pm

JamesSGBrown wrote:I've bypassed the rhythm circuit and am just running a 1 Meg vol. pot atm. Will probably change out the pickups and go to a 500k pot though.
My suggestion to you is try the pots first. then if you still don't like it do the Pickups. Sometimes all you need is the pot replacement.
I have too many jags.

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by ohm-men » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:33 pm

I often wondered about this too...So I went back and forth between 1meg, 500k and 250k.
But I always go back to 1meg (exept on stock MIJ/CIJ Jm pu's, as these sound just too thin). Like HNB said, it opens up the sound, makes it very controlable, turn back the treble when it gets too bitey, lower the volume to get a cleaner Fuzz sound etc.

At the moment I play arround with 3 Jazzmasters, two of them have the 1meg pots, one has 500k pots, I lake the latter the least of all, I always try to get more out of it, it sounds too tight, limeted...where the 1 meg has just the right amounth.
I wasn't impressed with the GFS hot Jm set I had (used 500k pots) so I replaced the pots with 1megs and wow...just what I wanted...

Finally, after 10 years of playing with Jm's, I devoleped a like for the rythem circuit. I asume I wired one of them wrong on my last build, since it sound very clear, with an almost strat bell tone, nothing you normally expect from a Jm rythem circuit.

Every time a play a non Jm, I find myself looking for switches and knobs that aren't there ;D

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by antisymmetric » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:52 pm

^^^ Really useful post. 8) I plan on a JM-ish build one of these days (have a set of Lollar JM pickups waiting) and I've been reading about pot values for JMs, and thought that no way would I ever use 1Ms. Now I think I'll start with them before trying anything else.
Last edited by antisymmetric on Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by tubeswell » Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:12 pm

With a set of stainless flats (which is what JMs and Jags were designed for), 1M pots provide the perfect output impedance for those p'ups.

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by kalipigeon » Fri Jun 08, 2012 9:57 pm

I wire mine backwards now to get the best of both worlds. I use 2 1meg pots in the rhythm circuit and a either 500k or 250k in the lead circuit pots. This way I get a bright switch instead of a mud switch. It almost always stays on the bright side though FWIW.

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Re: Why 1 meg pots?

Post by fisonic » Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:06 pm

Yeah, I'm probably going to swap out the 50k tone for a 1 meg & fit a .022 PIO on it so I can get the best of both worlds, as I also like the stock mud(yes Jazzy), but would like more range. Possibly a .047 on the lead circuit, for more bridge options.

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