Fender 500K/250K Dual Pot - worth the install? Find out here!

I love playing Stratocasters, but I've always preferred a Hum-Single-Single - or better yet, a Hum-Single pickup configuration instead of the standard Strat Single-Single-Single. Everybody knows SSS gets 250K pots and HH gets 500K pots, but what do you use when you've got an HSS or HS setup? 250K pots make the humbuckers sound muddy and 500K pots make the single-coils sound ice-picky.
The fine folks at Fender came up with a solution - two pots on one shaft, complete with separate lugs! One part is a 250K pot for your single coil pickups; the other part is a 500K pot for your humbucker.
I received the suggestion to try these pots in a well-known online guitar discussion forum straight from Ron Thorn, Principal Master Builder for the Fender Custom Shop. When Ron makes a suggestion, you can bet it's going to be a good one - and it was as you'll see in this video.
You can see detailed wiring diagrams in another of my videos: • Fender Strat Wiring Mo...
For the best explanations on KZbin about guitar wiring - especially how 3- and 5-way switches work, check out Breja Toneworks: / brejatoneworks
Tone test of the Fralins in this guitar and my other HS guitars (Fender and PRS) coming soon!
Pickups: Fralin Modern PAF, Fralin Twangmaster (Yes, I realize I call it a Twangbucker repeatedly in the video. Sorry, Lindy!!)
LINKS!
Metro Guitar Service: www.metroguitar.com/
Fralin Pickups: www.fralinpickups.com/
Fender: www.fender.com/
Dual Pot: www.fender.com/en-US/parts/co...
My band - 7th Grade Girl Fight! 7thgradegirlfight.com/

[@santosp2117]

Looking forward to the sound test video. I’m planning to do the same with an old Yamaha guitar. I plan to use two dual pots, one for volume and the other for tone. With a split coil switch for the humbucker. Other alternative is to have two tone knobs and make the humbucker a pull knob for coil splitting.

[@chiba131]

I'm not sure you can find a push-pull dual pot, but if you do, please leave a link!

[@tonekilltech]

Glad I'm not the only person that leaves length on the pickup leads. Sure, trimming them down looks nice and tidy on the inside of the guitar where no one can see it, but if you've ever had to deal with short leads on used pickups, you'd appreciate the lead length left intact.

[@chiba131]

Especially if you swap pickups a lot - I used to, so that's when these habits got ingrained.

[@controluce01]

Thanks man, i've been trying to find a solution for an HSS strat for a long time... i didn't even know of the existence of stacked pots

[@chiba131]

Somebody pointed them out to me - I believe they're a recent addition to the Fender parts catalog. I'd never seen anything like this before either!

[@kenmarold6029]

Is there a version of this that also has a push/pull function to do series/parallel switch on the humbucker?

[@davespin9034]

Love your video. I bought the same Fender stacked volume pot to convert my SSS Mexi Strat to an HSS with a Seymour Duncan Trembucker. I also went to a single volume single tone for 2 knobs to move them away from the high E string because Strat trem arms hit the volume knob on dive bombs, not to mention my hand which is annoying. Problem solved. 2 knobs is better, less crowded too. Thanks for confirming the 250k pot is further from the shaft 👍

[@chiba131]

I ran my Strats like that (2 knobs in pos 2 & 3) for many years until I got on a kick of putting them back to looking "normal." There's a lot of benefits to having nothing in that first position if you use the trem bar a lot!

[@davespin9034]

@@chiba131 yup, And I use the trem a lot, surprising Fender introduced the Stratocaster with a tremolo bridge where the arm hits the volume pot. Besides that the volume knob rubs against my baby finger.

[@ToneHound126]

Greg/Metro does great work. I'm not crazy about the knobs, lol.

[@iankinzel]

Hi Moto Chiba, I believe I am now your 700th subscriber. It is an honor. I feel honored. Do you know if it's possible to set up a toggle switch to select between the different halves of the dual pot? Like, toggle in one position & you're in 500k, toggle in the other position and you're in 250k? I got this idea in my diseased mind from thinking about the Jaguar and how the different volume pot values contribute to the DAAAAAARKNESS!!! of the rhythm circuit. I dunno, just something I've been thinking about. If you see this before Jan 1, 2025, I probably haven't gotten to my project yet. Good luck and godspeed to you, good sir.

[@iused2bfast153]

Great video guys! Since you have 2 pickups not 3, can you just add a 470 or 500k resistor from the hot single coil lug on the switch to ground so the single coil 'sees' 250k, and no double load issues?

[@chiba131]

I suppose that would work OK, but I didn't think of it.

[@jmnthe3rd]

I'm actually thinking about building an HS Strat. And apparently there's a video for everything. Fender made a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates HSS in the 90s. I'm wondering what they did in that. I doubt they used something this complicated.

[@chrisdecouteau7394]

I have a Tele that the previous owner installed the Seymour Duncan Humbucker made to fit, but it had a regular neck pup. I bought the SD str2 hot rhythm for the neck. The wiring diagram would be the same as yours then? Just wondering.

[@chiba131]

Yes - AFAIK the STR2 is a regular single coil, just wound hot, so it would work best with a 250k pot while the humbucker would work best with a 500k pot.

[@mountainpeakcloud8442]

How would this work if you have and HSS? Just wondering where you’d connect the 2nd single coil.

[@chiba131]

Not sure. Good question!

[@tangerinesrock90038]

Can you use the S-1 to split coil? I have a tele and I want to split the neck wide range humbucker to single coil .

[@chiba131]

Yes, you can use an S-1 pot to coil split, you just have to figure out which bank of contacts does what and wire it up right. I'm not sure a WR pickup can be split, though. I've never taken one apart to see how it's wired.

[@andrearavoni]

Can you show us the hss wiring for a strat with the dual pot?

[@chiba131]

I will do this as soon as I can - thanks for the suggestion!

[@nonamejones2321]

Do you think that these will work in a Squier contemporary Jaguar HH ST?

[@chiba131]

Yes, but with a HH setup you don't need a dual pot - use a 500K pot for the whole guitar.

[@To.Si.Ma.]

Great. - Would you recommend using a dual pot (250/500) for my 335 neck HB (seth lover)? I play blues and jazz and the lover comes with 500k. Good and bright for blues but for jazz I would like a warmer tone. Greetings

[@chiba131]

No, I wouldn't recommend that. You're likely better off experimenting with tone pot capacitor values than changing the pot itself.

[@vasilvasilev7938]

Can we use this for both volume and tone control(single pot)?

[@chiba131]

You could, but they would both be at the same 1-10 value since there's only one shaft. If you want to get the one-pot look for vol & tone, you'd need a concentric pot.

[@FingerBlaster5000]

Man so glad I found this video. Is there any way you can send me a wiring diagram for an H(bridge) & S(neck) pickups using the fender dual pot and a single tone pot with a 3 way toggle switch? It's going in a Les Paul Junior. I would be very grateful! I can't find any diagrams online. I didn't know this dual pot existed.

[@chiba131]

It's easier than you think. Wire each pickup to its relevant section of the volume pot FIRST - hum to 500, single to 250. (IMO that's the real secret/trick to using these dual pots.) Then run the output of each half of the stacked pot to the relevant lug of the 3-way toggle, and the output of the toggle to the jack. IMO you won't need a tone on the single in the neck position, so wire the output of the hum part of the pot to the tone pot as well (so it will have 2 wires coming out of it) and you should be good to go.

[@FingerBlaster5000]

@@chiba131 thanks for getting back to me. Can you draw a diagram for me? I am a visual learner haha. Some toggle switches look different some lugs need to be grounded to the pot etc. It's easier if I can visualize it. If you don't have time no worries. Cheers.

[@AceBambam]

should the 2nd tone pot be dual resistance too?

[@chiba131]

Not in this case. The volume pot is dual because it's connected directly to both pickups. Each section of the dual volume then goes to its own tone pot, each of which is 250 or 500 depending on which pickup it's being used for. If you had one volume and one tone on the guitar, then yes, you would want to also use a dual pot for the tone.

[@AceBambam]

@@chiba131 i forgot the 2nd tone pot only controls the bridge pick up, so 500k alone is fine, or am i missing something?

[@chiba131]

@@AceBambam if your tone pot is only controlling the humbucker, then yes 500k alone is fine

[@davekiddie4467]

Can you do the same with a concentric pot, or did I buy the wrong one.

[@chiba131]

Yes, you can do the same with a concentric pot BUT! the concentric pot parts are likely to be the same resistance (250 or 500, not 250 AND 500) and you'll have two knobs to deal with.

[@davekiddie4467]

@@chiba131 thx. What I really want to do is wire it up with 2 separate pots, one 250k for the single coils and 500k for the double coil. I never use the tone so I want to take it right out. I believe this can be achieved by wiring the pickup to the appropriate pot first, then to the selector switch rather than the standard strat wiring which is the opposite. Like a Gibson type wiring.

[@chiba131]

@@davekiddie4467 You're correct - if you're taking the tone out of the circuit completely, you're definitely on the right track!

[@AleSuggests]

@@chiba131 there is a concentric pot with 250k + 500k stacked... Fender makes it (or rather it's a CTS rebrand). Mind, you'll need small concentric knobs, not the usual bigger ones which are usually for bass guitars.

[@jokinmyass9446]

This video makes no sense to me...well it does up until you put the blue plastics on. The fender concentric pots require a specially made knob that allows you to make adjustments to concentric pots independantly. and youve just slapped a generic blue plastic on it......sooooooo....WTF?! 🤣🤣🤣

[@chiba131]

Concentric pots do indeed require special knobs. These are not concentric pots - there is one shaft that controls both pots at the same time, so it only needs one knob. Concentric pots have - for lack of better words - an inner and an outer shaft, and thus have two knobs set one on top of the other.

[@ronnieparfait]

That folks is what’s called a “BURN”… 😆🤘🏼✌🏼

[@emirozdemir2037]

when you say the one on the top is 250k, is it the top in the the position it was when you were saying it, which would make it the bottom...did i put that right?

[@chiba131]

500 is closest to the wood, 250 is closest to the cavity cover

[@chappledesign]

Is the inner, taller skinny shaft the 500K pot?@@chiba131