Airfish

Hi there.
A friend of mine has a 2002 Gibson Les Paul Classic and since he doesn´t speak English, he asked me to post this question. What kind of pots should that guitar have? 500k or 300k? For bridge/neck/volume/tone?
And one more q: are there any other original Gibson pots, that could brighten up the sound a bit, compared with the original ones? Without changing the pickups.... Which pots, suitable for that guitar, coud make the sound more bright/lively?
Thanx in advance for all your replies.

MrFlibble

Basically, higher pot value = brighter, but gives you less fine control. If you're after a really bright tone and don't think you'll ever use the tone controls, simply disconnecting the tone controls is a good option. If you want a very bright tone but want to keep both volume and tone controls, try using two 1meg controls, or one 500k and one 1meg control.

As for the Gibson, stock it uses a 300k linear volume control and a 500k tone control (linear or audio taper, Gibson seem to pick randomly when it comes to tone controls).

Also consider lowering the pickups. The lower the pickup is the more sustain, clarity and overtones you get, resulting in a livelier and brighter tone; the closer the pickup is to a string, the more mids and bass you get, giving a more compressed tone. Simply changing the height of the pickups is often the easiest way of altering the tone of a guitar.

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Airfish

Thanx! ....so if one 500k and one 1m pot, then where to put each of them? Neck or bridge? Or just wherever my friend wants to get a brighter tone?

hminh87

The tone pot only affect the pickup it wired to. That's a given isnt it?. You can try to find a schematic that let both pickups be wired to the same tone pot if needed. A good place for references is http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

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RMB

Put the brightest pot on the pickup which you want to add the brightness too

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MrFlibble

Pots do indeed only effect the pickup that they are wired to. So if you want a brighter tone in the neck, change the neck's controls; changing the bridge's controls won't have any effect on the neck.

If you're going to mix values, like 500k and 1meg, usually you'd put the 500k as the volume control and the 1meg as the tone control. But bear in mind that the guitar currently has a 300k and 500k control; simply swapping just the 300k for a 500k may be enough to change the tone, combined with adjusting the pickup height.
You could also try temporarily disconnecting the current tone control. One 300k control by itself effects the brightness of the signal about as much as having one 500k and one 1meg together. So by disconnecting the current tone control, leaving you with just the 300k volume control, you can get an idea of whether the 500k/1meg combination will sound right.

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Airfish

wow, dammit! now this is one hell of an alchemy....
Guys, I hope I can transfer your advice to my friend without screwing up....
Thanx again!

gregs1020

just tell him to put all 500K pots in it.

Airfish

OK, then:

1. lower the PUs
2. disconnect the tone pots (if he doesn´t use them)
3. put 500K pots all over the place

Thanx!

Roc8995

If you're disconnecting the tone pots you don't need to replace them.

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