Recycled Rocker Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Hiya blokes, This may have already been covered before but I can't find it. I know there is always talk and questions about replacing the pots, I'm unsure what sound each pot gives out. I realise that the wood from each guitar will have a different sound, as does the neck fitting, (bolt, set etc) and body shape. I have read many posts about the the pot, Humbucker, P90's etc, so what is the primary reason for changing the pots and what sort of sound would be expected from different wood types?, are they replaced for a better quality pot or sound? Thanks in advance for you assistance.......... Regards Ken RR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcwillow777 Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Pulling out a 500K pot and relpacing it with another 500K pot won't affect the sound. Bottom line, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I did replace the pots in several of my Epis, but I was putting in new pickups, so I just changed all the electronics too. The jacks in the Epis that I have weren't very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 You mostly change pots for increased reliability and feel. You can, however, tweak the pot values for an effect on the tonal range; basically a larger (1 M) tone pot will give you a somewhat brighter tone and a smaller (250K) tone pot will give you a darker tone. Sometimes people go to a 300K volume pot so as to get a faster response 'off the zero'; sometimes a 500K won't unload enough resistance to allow some output until 2 on the dial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recycled Rocker Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 jcwillow & Rot, thanks that now makes a lot of sence to me, OK are pots and pickups the same ?? Yeh I know sounds like a stupid question !!! Thanks blokes. RR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RotcanX Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Not sure I get that question. Pots are the electronic devices that your knobs are attached to. Basically a variable resistor, these allow you to control the volume and the tone of your guitar. The pickups are the devices that convert the vibrational energy of the strings into an electrical signal which can then be amplified. While swapping pots has a limited effect on your 'sound'; swapping pickups can be like night and day. While there are a lot of factors that influence a guitar's sound, and all have some level of effect, I'd have to say that the major influence will be the pickups followed by the materials (the woods), and the construction (solid vs hollow vs semisolid) and the finish (thin nitro or polyurethane versus thick polyester). The next biggest influence would be the string type and gauge. The rest of it, as in pots/caps/switches/wiring, will have a significantly smaller effect. So, pots and pickups are definitely 'not the same'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesstringer Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 jcwillow & Rot' date=' thanks that now makes a lot of sence to me, OK are pots and pickups the same ?? Yeh I know sounds like a stupid question !!! Thanks blokes. RR[/quote'] If you don't know the answer, the question is never stupid bro. The pots are the volume and tone controls and the Pickups are the square things on epis that transmit the sound from the strings through the guitar and then through the amp. The pickups are what the volume pots turn up or down and that the tone pots give more or less treble. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recycled Rocker Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 OK thanks blokes, I'm more understanding now and my question should have been "do different pickups make a differance..." Thanks RotcanX, it makes more sence to me now, so with all these different types of pickups do they have different applications and sound?? I understand that the wood and body type and shape will effect tone and sound, what of the pickups. Bluesstringer, thanks for the positive comments. Thanks again blokes for you help. Cheers RR Ken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcwillow777 Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Yes, different pickups will defintely sound different. You can go to Seymour Dunan's site and listen to different pickups to make some comparisons and figure out what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansmitchell Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 store.guitarfetish.com GFS pickups are a massive improvement over epis as well. Some are on par with seymour duncan's. The price, you can't go wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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