Change pots?

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
M

Mr Thunders

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2005
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Location
Sweden
Hey Guys,

I've got a tj-65 loverock junior. Its a real sweet guitar and I love it, especially since I swapped the rather dull stock p-90 to a Peter Florance Voodoo. Now it really screams. But... (its always a but when youre a guitar geek, isn't it). I think the sound is kinda on the bassy side. I want a more defined and toppy treble. So the questions is...
Do you think it would be a good idea to change the jap pots to american cts ones? And possibly throw in ones those bumblee-bee capacitors (original 50's and customs shop gibbos have em)? Or would I just be wasting my money?

The existing (japanese) pots have 500K stamped on them. But I heard that american pots really make a differance. What do you think? Any help would be greatly appriciated.
 
Hi, nice question because in the quest of the right pot and cap there even more 'voodoo' around than on pickups. You can follow this on discussions on lespaulforum.com/tonezone.
Fact is if you dont fiddle around with your pots: The higher the resistance the more highs you have and more volume too. And the lower the cap values, the more highs you will have. So with P90 and Humbuckers you have normally 500k pot and .22uF with the bridge tone and .15uF with the neck tone pot.
If you fiddle with the pots it definitly will make a difference to have different charateristics (linear, log or these fake logs) and/or brands.
If you have too much bass with the P90 i would try to set the pup lower and raise all screws to have a nearly same distance to the 4 high strings, but leave the low E down and only come bit up with the low A - to taste. This should help to get a more even sound.
 
I just swapped out the japanese Alpha 500k pots in my LC80 for 500k CTS ones, and replaced the stock caps with .022 Orange Drops. The difference in the tonal quality is immeasurable. Absolutely superb :D
 
while rewiring is a highly recommended mod, it won't make things more trebly. You should tinker with the polepiece height first.
 
I'd highly recommend changing the pots/caps.

I've heard from a good buddy of mine that Bumble Bees/Vitamin Q's give a bit darker tone, whereas Orange Drops brighten it up a bit (all else being equal).

I use Vitamin Q's in my LP's.
 
frpax said:
I've heard from a good buddy of mine that Bumble Bees/Vitamin Q's give a bit darker tone, whereas Orange Drops brighten it up a bit (all else being equal).
Click to expand...

I don't think this is true. Tone caps are there to remove parts of your signal, not process it, so there's no way they could make things brighter or darker.

Another idea for this guy to try would be a treble bypass cap - 1000pF across the volume control would make things a bit brighter and make the vol more useable too.
 
Paladin2019 said:
frpax said:
I've heard from a good buddy of mine that Bumble Bees/Vitamin Q's give a bit darker tone, whereas Orange Drops brighten it up a bit (all else being equal).
Click to expand...

I don't think this is true. Tone caps are there to remove parts of your signal, not process it, so there's no way they could make things brighter or darker.
Click to expand...

It's just what I've heard...but different tone caps DO make things sound differently.
 
frpax said:
It's just what I've heard...but different tone caps DO make things sound differently.
Click to expand...

They do change the response of the tone pot to an extent but any changes to the guitar's overall sound are so small that they can be considered insignificant. Once you get out of cheapo territory and up to orange drop standard, everything sounds the same (unless, of course, you're talking about changing the cap *value* rather than the brand/type).

Pots and wiring, however, will make a big difference to your sound.
 
Hello!
I just purchased what I believed was an '83 TST. Most of the original hardware is there, The body and neck are beautiful, but I believe someone pulled the old switcheroo on the pickguard, PU's and pots.
Anyway, I'm trying to replace the electronics with the best I can find.
Were all 3 pots originally 250k ?
I'm putting in a set of Fnder Fat 50's PU's. Any ideas?
 
I had Vitamin Qs in one guitar & it made a dramatic difference. The sound seemed more 'open', like the guitar's full sonic capability was being utilised. I had the same experience with an Orange drop, but I've just being cruelly disappointed with a Black Beauty. Way too dark. It may not be supposed to make a difference darkness/brightness-wise, but my ears tell me it does. The stock ceramic disc-jobs sounded better (though I'll be recycling them as a treble bypass to hopefully salvage some use out of the beauties)
 

Similar threads

Voidoid56
For a change: an oddball 1982 Greco Tele
Replies
0
Views
2K
Voidoid56
Voidoid56
4
Rewiring/New pots
Replies
14
Views
11K
mdvineng
mdvineng
Homer J. Simpson
[NGD] Zeus Custom Guitars ZST-60
Replies
8
Views
8K
Homer J. Simpson
Homer J. Simpson
R
Help me identify my Tokai!
Replies
5
Views
3K
Rugsy85
R
S
83 LS60 Pots and Capacitor values
Replies
4
Views
2K
sixk
S

Latest posts

Back
Top