250K or 500K pots for a Dimarzio Chopper in the bridge position on a strat

steven70

Hello,

I'm replacing the bridge pickup in my standard strat with a DiMarzio Chopper.

Rapidly disappearing down a rabbit hole on whether to have 250k or 500k pots. 
There are lots of different opinions out there, so I'll ask here...

Am I OK to leave the 250k in place or do I need a 500k or something more complicated?

For reference, I'll have a DiMarzio Injector in the middle.
Not too fussed about the neck pickup right now, can come back to that.

I'm after warmer 'vintage' (whatever that means) tones rather than modern, 'always on' drive, using the guitar volume to clean up.

I'll be asking a tech to do the swap, but like to keep things as simple as possible.

All thoughts much appreciated. Thanks.

Funkfingers

Try with the existing 250k. If you dislike it, then, consider changing to 500k (or, maybe, a -10% tolerance 440k).

It is possible to configure a 500k pot and a resistor or two so that the Strat pickups "see" 250k and the Chopper "sees" 500k.

steven70

Thank you @Funkfingers, much appreciated. I'll give it a go with the 250k. 
Cheers

Funkfingers

I have two DiMarzio The Chopper pickups. One in a Mexican Fender Stratocaster. The other in an elderly Ibanez RS405. Both guitars had 250k pots as standard. When the volume pot in the Ibanez got crackly, I changed it to a 500k to listen to what difference it made.

ANSWER - Less than one might have hoped. Certainly no more than changing to fresh strings.

I cannot remember whether the Chopper in the Stratocaster auto-splits when combined with the middle pickup.

All three pickups in my Ibanez are DiMarzio "Track" types. I did not bother with coil splittage.

fretmeister

The Chopper is also a really good neck pickup. 

Funkfingers

I prefer the Pro Track and Satch Track for that position but, what do I know?