Pot advice

barnsleyboy

Morning All,
Would changing the pots on my guitar (Fender Flame Master Series) from 1Meg to 500K make much of a difference to the sound? Comparing between other humbucker equipped guitars that I have, I find that the Flame is quite trebly, It still has the stock Schaller pickups in it which have their own sound (somebody once described them to me as quite industrial and Germanic!).
Many years back I looked at replacing them, but they are a bit non standard, with glued on pickup rings so I didn't want to ruin the look of the guitar. Another option could be to get them rewound/ magnets changed, but I wonder in the first instance if a pot change may work.

normula1

It's worth a go. I've a pair of wide-range humbuckers in a guitar and they really needed 1M pots.

tanihhiavlt

barnsleyboy said:

It still has the stock Schaller pickups in it which have their own sound (somebody once described them to me as quite industrial and Germanic!).

Very punctual upper mids, then

barnsleyboy

tanihhiavlt said:

Very punctual upper mids, then

Unlike my playing though, still working out which end to blow down!

Funkfingers

barnsleyboy said:
the stock Schaller pickups … have their own sound … quite industrial and Germanic!

My recollection is that their Golden 50s model was not as "fruity" as a good Gibson. Their DiMarzio Super Distortion clone was loud but bland. Schaller bass guitar pickups were even more "sterile" - as if they were designed for use with onboard active EQ circuitry.

If the Schaller humbuckers have sufficient output conductors, it should be possible to add partial/tuned coil splittage or series/parallel mode switching. 

barnsleyboy said:

changing the pots … from 1Meg to 500K make much of a difference … the Flame is quite trebly

If the Flame sounds annoyingly trebly, the 1Meg volume pots could be the cause. Another possible source would be a TBX tone control. If your FFMS has these, turn them down to the centre detent and test the guitar again.

If you are inclined to change some of the pots, might as well get push-pull ones.

Stratavarious

I changed the schallers in my master series fender to a SD JB/Jazz combo early on.. the schallers were missing that fire.  It’s a great instrument to play.

The original rings lifted easily and les paul rings fitted fine. Just need care with the screw holes. 

Testing 500k pots would be easy to test though.  Just do it.   Mine has push pulls for parallel / series and a phase reverse switch I added.  You might see the routing for the switch on a flame already  inside.

ICBM

You could add two 1M resistors to the existing pots to simulate 500Ks without having to change the pots - much less work and easily reversible if it doesn’t give you what you want.

barnsleyboy

Funkfingers said:

If the Schaller humbuckers have sufficient output conductors, it should be possible to add partial/tuned coil splittage or series/parallel mode switching. 

Ah yes, I have a 3 way switch for each pickup for all that shenanigans. It also had a 3rd switch which did the phase reversal stuff on one of the pickups, but it was removed some time back when I had the switching done properly instead of the way the muppet did it originally.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/183293/swapping-pickup-magnets/p2

The sad thing is that all these switching options are a bit rubbish really. I don't know if it's the pickups, the pots, or something else. The phase reversal thing was the most useful feature, and the different switching options other than the full humbucker mode are so similar that I wonder why I bothered!

I've watched a Chris Buck video on YT where he tries out the slightly more upgraded version of the Flame which has fine tuners and coil split switch. When he splits the coils it sounds much better than mine. Admittedly his playing is phenomenal, and his sound recording interface and mastering for the video probably makes a massive difference. 

I don't have a TBX on my model, and as I've already committed to the switches, push pulls are a bit superfluous. I'm gonna try new pots on it and see if it makes a difference. May get the capacitors changed for something a bit better too while I'm at it, and the control cavity looks like someone has started open heart surgery on R2-D2 and given up halfway through, so needs a spring clean!

barnsleyboy

ICBM said:

You could add two 1M resistors to the existing pots to simulate 500Ks without having to change the pots - much less work and easily reversible if it doesn’t give you what you want.

Good call @ICBM, I might just do that!