Pot Values For a Humbucker/Single Coil Set Up

Duppy03

When wiring up Humbucker in the bridge position with coil tap and a single coil in the neck with a single Volume and Tone control, what pot values do you use?

As I understand it Humbuckers generally go with a 500k pot and single could with 250k.

What values are traditionally used in a HSS style Strat?

PhilM

I've always used 250k pots with my HSS Strats.

ICBM

Of the two I would use 250K on the basis that a HSS Strat-type guitar is inherently brighter than a Gibson-type guitar anyway.

If that isn't bright enough - if you want the full-on aggressiveness of the humbucker with a 500K pot - you can use a 500K, but use a 470K (closest standard value to 500K) resistor to simulate a 250K pot when the neck pickup is selected or when the bridge pickup is split.

I would use a 500K tone pot regardless, since it doesn't affect the loading on the pickups and if you want the sound of a 250K, you just turn it down to 8, so it then becomes a bit like a 'no-load' at 10.

Dave_Mc

I'd say traditionally they use 500k- a few guitars use 250k and even fewer use the resistors @ICBM mentioned, but the vast majority (at least that I've come across) use 500k.

The resistors that @ICBM mentioned basically give you the best of both worlds. It's basically the best solution unless you prefer the darker tone of 250k pots for a humbucker in a Strat, or have really dark-sounding single coils (in which case 500k would work better).