Es 335 pots

[turtle]

Ok, the volume pot I thought was good is kinda beat. Not working properly. The other seems scratchy. I'm going all out and doing new ones. Are these 300k or 500k audio taper? Also what do you guys like more? While I'm in there - 50's or modern? I know difference in use/sound but I wonder if I should do a full over haul with tone and volume wired 50'sstyle. Any info on players who know both I would appreciate feedback. Cheers.

[Pesh]

Ok, the volume pot I thought was good is kinda beat. Not working properly. The other seems scratchy. I'm going all out and doing new ones. Are these 300k or 500k audio taper? Also what do you guys like more? While I'm in there - 50's or modern? I know difference in use/sound but I wonder if I should do a full over haul with tone and volume wired 50'sstyle. Any info on players who know both I would appreciate feedback. Cheers.

 

Hi Turtle.

 

There are many choices with this sort of thing; as you may well know that 250K pots are used with single coils to help make them less-bright sounding, while 500K pots are used with humbuckers to help brighten them up. 300K pots are quite often a middle ground, used by Gibson and other on some humbucking pickups and P90's. So it's quite common that on a modern Les Paul, 500K pots will adorn the innards of the control pocket.

 

However with a naturally-bright guitar such as an ES-series; you could try switching the neck tone and volume for 300K pots, so as to warm them up a bit. You could do the same for the bridge if you were so inclined. And then atop this you've got choices between linear or logarithmic taper potentiometers.

 

The same goes for your capacitors; you quite often find that you'll get 0.022uF caps for a humbucker; 0.047 for a single coil. However, Gibson have been putting 0.015uF capacitors on their recent ES-series guitar neck pickups.

 

So you've got a few options with how you shape your tones with the components, not just the wiring.

 

I would say go '50s, everytime. I personally think you get more out of it in tone, especially if you're using a tone control.

 

I even know a modification to '50s wiring which will decouple the pickups in the middle position; this negates the issue that, when your pickup selector is in the middle position and both pickups are active, lowering just 1 volume kills both signals. With this modification I know; you can dial in each pickup individually, without it affecting the other.

 

Let me know if you want some more information; send me a PM or something

[turtle]

Hi Turtle.

 

There are many choices with this sort of thing; as you may well know that 250K pots are used with single coils to help make them less-bright sounding, while 500K pots are used with humbuckers to help brighten them up. 300K pots are quite often a middle ground, used by Gibson and other on some humbucking pickups and P90's. So it's quite common that on a modern Les Paul, 500K pots will adorn the innards of the control pocket.

 

However with a naturally-bright guitar such as an ES-series; you could try switching the neck tone and volume for 300K pots, so as to warm them up a bit. You could do the same for the bridge if you were so inclined. And then atop this you've got choices between linear or logarithmic taper potentiometers.

 

The same goes for your capacitors; you quite often find that you'll get 0.022uF caps for a humbucker; 0.047 for a single coil. However, Gibson have been putting 0.015uF capacitors on their recent ES-series guitar neck pickups.

 

So you've got a few options with how you shape your tones with the components, not just the wiring.

 

I would say go '50s, everytime. I personally think you get more out of it in tone, especially if you're using a tone control.

 

I even know a modification to '50s wiring which will decouple the pickups in the middle position; this negates the issue that, when your pickup selector is in the middle position and both pickups are active, lowering just 1 volume kills both signals. With this modification I know; you can dial in each pickup individually, without it affecting the other.

 

Let me know if you want some more information; send me a PM or something

Awesome!! I guess there are a few options out there. I do like gibsons wiring that cuts the pickups out if one volume is rolled off. I'm just used to it I guess. Do you know what the stock volume pot pots values are? And yes I'm a knob twiddler - I like to adjust my tone and volumes and not just throw it on 10. I don't feel the guitar is bright or dark really. Sometimes I wish it had a bit more bite but that could be the defective volume pot. Thanks.

[Pesh]

Awesome!! I guess there are a few options out there. I do like gibsons wiring that cuts the pickups out if one volume is rolled off. I'm just used to it I guess. Do you know what the stock volume pot pots values are? And yes I'm a knob twiddler - I like to adjust my tone and volumes and not just throw it on 10. I don't feel the guitar is bright or dark really. Sometimes I wish it had a bit more bite but that could be the defective volume pot. Thanks.

 

Depends on the year and what model you've got in particular, and whether Gibson actually put the "normal" setup in that particular guitar of yours (low stock of one might force them to use a substitute, etc), but I'd imagine it's currently got 500K pots with 0.022uF bridge and 0.015uF neck capacitors.

 

If you're one that uses the tone controls; I'd suggest getting linear taper pots for these

. On a logarithmic pot, if you go from 10 down to 8, you're pretty much halving the tone or volume, so it's not precise if you're fine-tuning. Linear will give a different read at each interval on the knob, so is a bit more 'controllable'. Linear taper pots usually have a "B" (examples: B500K, B300K), and logarthmic pots have an "A" marking (A250K, etc). The attached shows you the curves on the control and how they operate at different settings. 120 degrees is about 5 on your control, for reference:

 

However for a volume pot; I find that logarithmic "A" pots work better. Your ears hear sounds in a logarithmic pattern, so a sweep through the volume pot with a log pot sounds smoother than one through a linear pot.

 

Regarding pots themselves; get CTS or Bourns - a high-quality pot.

 

I'd also say you can possibly even out the pickups and you might find there's more bite in your tone; you can fine-tune humbuckers so the poles read off at about the same volume, and then adjust the height for output. This means that you're getting the same volume out of the thin and sometimes quieter strings, as you are from the loud bass-y strings.

 

It's a bit of a trial-and-error game with this; trying out different combinations and such. Just to throw a curveball; you could also consider things like a mid-range capacitor; something around 0.033uF, which is closer to a strat tone circuit and might introduce some more 'snap' in the tone.

[turtle]

Depends on the year and what model you've got in particular, and whether Gibson actually put the "normal" setup in that particular guitar of yours (low stock of one might force them to use a substitute, etc), but I'd imagine it's currently got 500K pots with 0.022uF bridge and 0.015uF neck capacitors.

 

If you're one that uses the tone controls; I'd suggest getting linear taper pots for these

. On a logarithmic pot, if you go from 10 down to 8, you're pretty much halving the tone or volume, so it's not precise if you're fine-tuning. Linear will give a different read at each interval on the knob, so is a bit more 'controllable'. Linear taper pots usually have a "B" (examples: B500K, B300K), and logarthmic pots have an "A" marking (A250K, etc). The attached shows you the curves on the control and how they operate at different settings. 120 degrees is about 5 on your control, for reference:

 

However for a volume pot; I find that logarithmic "A" pots work better. Your ears hear sounds in a logarithmic pattern, so a sweep through the volume pot with a log pot sounds smoother than one through a linear pot.

 

Regarding pots themselves; get CTS or Bourns - a high-quality pot.

 

I'd also say you can possibly even out the pickups and you might find there's more bite in your tone; you can fine-tune humbuckers so the poles read off at about the same volume, and then adjust the height for output. This means that you're getting the same volume out of the thin and sometimes quieter strings, as you are from the loud bass-y strings.

 

It's a bit of a trial-and-error game with this; trying out different combinations and such. Just to throw a curveball; you could also consider things like a mid-range capacitor; something around 0.033uF, which is closer to a strat tone circuit and might introduce some more 'snap' in the tone.

 

Thanks for reply. It's a 2009. Believe it or not it was an NOS. Was at store at the store for 5-6years. The guy bought the guitar, wanted a les paul and I traded him my goldtop for it. there's a little history on it. I registered it with gibson as new👍.

I think the problem was oxidation. I ended up taking the knobs out and spraying with electrical/contact cleaner. Good as new. I might still get new pots if they fail again but the guitar sounds great!!! You guys were right in my other post- these guitars are just amazing!! Glad I didn't give up on it. Also while contact cleaning, I cleaned the tube sockets in my tweed deluxe 5e3 and a static buzz went away. 2 for 1. Haha. It was a good productive weekend. I've never had to contact clean my gear before, but it was used a lot more. Now stuff sits and probably tarnishes easier. Thanks for all the help👏👏👏

[Pesh]

Thanks for reply. It's a 2009. Believe it or not it was an NOS. Was at store at the store for 5-6years. The guy bought the guitar, wanted a les paul and I traded him my goldtop for it. there's a little history on it. I registered it with gibson as new👍.

I think the problem was oxidation. I ended up taking the knobs out and spraying with electrical/contact cleaner. Good as new. I might still get new pots if they fail again but the guitar sounds great!!! You guys were right in my other post- these guitars are just amazing!! Glad I didn't give up on it. Also while contact cleaning, I cleaned the tube sockets in my tweed deluxe 5e3 and a static buzz went away. 2 for 1. Haha. It was a good productive weekend. I've never had to contact clean my gear before, but it was used a lot more. Now stuff sits and probably tarnishes easier. Thanks for all the help👏👏👏

 

You're welcome glad it's all sorted out OK.