Which pots to use?

[Larry Marchino]

I am restoring/repairing an old Custom Kraft guitar that was under a bed when a house burned back in the 60s. It got so hot that the plastic buttons on the tuners were melted. The finish on the head and neck was badly blistered, but not burned. The body of the guitar is in remarkably good shape considering, but the binding is a little more yellowed than would be normal for a 50 year old guitar and the finish was very dirty from smoke damage. The neck is attached with screws so that makes it easy to work on. After the fire it was disassembled and the fingerboard removed from the neck for later repair and it has been sitting in a box since. It was not an expensive guitar when new, but it is an exact duplicate of my first guitar that I got in 1963 and I'm finding it to be a fun project. So far I have cleaned and replaced the buttons on the tuners and have striped the finish from the neck to be refinished (or I may decide to make a whole new neck). I have cleaned and polished the body of the guitar. (Normal guitar polish wouldn't touch the smoke that was baked on and has set for all these years. I found that tooth paste applied with elbow grease had just enough abrasive to clean up the finish.) I don't want to put a lot of money into this project, but I am going to put in all new electronics. I have some used single coil Gretsch pickups I plan to use. I am fairly handy and not a novice at working on guitars or general woodwork (I have replaced a truss rod before and I have put TV Jones pickups on my 6120DSW). But, I am a novice at knowing what components to use for guitar wiring. I have read what I have been able to find regarding wiring a standard 2 pickup four knob Gibson Style system - which this is.

Now for my questions: The standard Gibson style wiring kit I'm considering comes with four 500k pots for use with humbuckers, but I have read that usually 250k pots are used with single coil pickups. The info I've read also says that you can use either depending on the sound you want but that the 500k pots produce more treble. Should I just use the 500k pots or get all 250k pots? Should I use 250k pots for one pickup and 500k for the other or is it not advisable or possible to mix them? If I did use one of each which one for which pickup? Or can you use a 500k for volume and a 250k for tone or vice versa. What else do I need to be thinking about? If these are stupid questions please forgive me. As I said I am a novice when it comes to electronics. Thanks in advance for any and all advice, suggestions and further education regarding the electronics or any other part of the restoration.

[David King]

Pots are cheap and what value you decide to use probably has more to do with the cable capacitance of your guitar card and the input impedance of your amp than with the pickups. I would buy a small selection and mix and match them until you are happy with the results.