Strat Wiring: 250K vs 500K Pots (9 Amp Comparison)

#fenderstratocaster #guitartone #stratocaster #electricguitar
If you've ever wondered whether you should try 500k pots in your guitar, this video might help you decide. First I'll demonstrate both sets of pots through the same amp profiles and switch between them as I play. At the end I'l explain how I recorded it and talk about which option I prefer and why.
Born Under A Bad Sign
00:35 - 1965 Fender Vibrolux (‪@ToneJunkieTV‬)
01:29 - 1968 Marshall PA (Tone Junkie TV)
02:19 - Two Rock Studio 35 (The Amp Factory)
03:13 - Trainwreck Amp (The Amp Factory)
Lenny
04:16 - Two Rock Bloomfield Drive (Tone Junkie TV)
05:30 - Top Hat King Royale (Tone Junkie TV)
06:54 - Fender Tweed Twin (Tone Junkie TV)
08:15 - 1967 Fender Super Reverb (Tone Junkie TV)
09:40 - Marshall 1974x (Tone Junkie TV)
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[@Texasbluesalley]

SCAM ALERT: ignore any comments that appear to be from me telling you that you've won something on Telegram or anywhere else. These are SCAMMERS and they will steal your money.

[@barolecaskin8673]

Thank you for making this 🙏🏻

[@JimmyKay1976]

So glad you're my guitar teacher

[@av8tordonny398]

FYI, appeared in my feed within an hour of you releasing. That’s good! Great info.

[@tonecast1]

I really appreciate this video, Anthony. I've got a set of Zexcoils (55/ZVU5/63) being delivered in a couple of days that I'm going to put in a strat. I have a bright touch on guitar so hearing these clips of yours affirms my decision to go with 250k pots. Thanks for all that you do!

[@wjewell63]

Nice man.....I personally like the 250's with treble bleed...but I am very grateful for this video ,I have been wondering about this very thing.....

[@mikemurdock7234]

At 19:14 this is great advice. I don't play a Strat anymore, but with a semi-hollow body guitar, all those same factors come into equation. With a semi-hollow in mind, feedback is one of the biggest obstacles with higher gain/louder amps, and I know from my experience with stock Strat pickups, the buzzing and noise can also be a huge factor.

[@brad4619]

When I switched to Zexcoils, Scott Lawing recommended I change one of my pots to 500k. I took his advice and was glad I did. I A/B'd 250 and 500 and I noticed a difference. Definitely allowed me to appreciate the sound of the Zexcoils more so with the 500k pot.

[@lstierney]

Some really nice playing Anthony

[@Dad-Gad]

Great comparison 👍

[@Longjonsilver2]

🌕 great info... I have been wondering about the diff...what a better way than give a demonstration. Also love that guitar I’m sure the playing helped...beautiful stuff Anthony....though not enough diff in tone for me to change out to 500k it all sounds awesome.🤙

[@Speedster5150]

Damn Damn Damn, that singing 250 and that 500 brightness is something special. Both great!!

[@jackmckee8196]

Thanks Anthony Im an Alley member and was wondering about this exalt thing tonight and u were the first vid in the google search. A friend loaned me his Prs Core 24 and the tone pot cranked up with the coil split on sounded so beautiful it seemed bc the higher frequencies were allowed through much more with the knob cranked so ive wondered about this. I was using Fender amp modules with a n overdriven sound. On one strat i have the king tone switch that gets me closer to this high frequency sound. When i use the Texan Twang pedal im able to get all my strats closer but none quite do what the PRS and the king tone switch strat do even then:( SRV just always sounds cleaner in a more pleasant way and im unsure i can get there with my Line 6 pod go, but my real amp is simply too loud, i have to play with headphones majority of the time.

[@ericrudd]

Don’t forget that SVR was getting some tape compression and high-end roll off from the analog tape and machines. More so depending on how many times the tape was played prior to final mix down. (Of course some of this can be brought back during mixing and mastering). And hypothetically speaking, SRV playing through a NEVE 1073 or API mic pre and EQ is going to sound different than playback from a Kemper. Not intending to start a digital vs. analog debate…just pointing out there is very real shelf life to higher frequencies on an all analog platform that might be part of what you’re hearing. I agree with you that the 250’s sound different, but there are other variables than the ones you mention in your excellent video. You have excellent ears…and are very in tune with your personal sound. As a point of reference, I helped engineer Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall’s Arc Angels album. (for example).

[@Texasbluesalley]

Good points about tape signal degradation.

[@sologuitarra]

excellent video I congratulate you, what color of pickguard is it, it looks very good

[@edcaouette5180]

Sound advise 👍

[@picksalot1]

I preferred the 250k pots, as there was a warmth and sweetness that captured the vintage Strat tone that sounds great with SRV tunes. Thanks

[@fartexplosion4480]

I have a Player Series HSS and switch the volume pot to 500k. Gives the humbucker a little more brightness. While I thought the neck pickup was too bright and nasally when I turned the tone knob all the way up, dropping it to 7 or 8 fixes that problem

[@LottimusMaximus]

I love the 500k sound

[@TheVatonaught]

Thanks for showing me to leave mine alone...was thinking of doing the change.

[@TheLowest]

Feel like i prefer the 500k, but if i ever missed the darker sound I'd just adjust the tone. Thanks for the comparison, very helpful

[@clgmafnas]

Nicely done... not surprisingly, the 500k sounds more "open" as opposed to the 250k, which sounds slightly more nasally and darker.

[@ToddHoward3]

that orange strat is a beauty!

[@Texasbluesalley]

Not bad for fake flame effect decals. That FotoFlame stuff wasn't perfect, but it sure was pretty.

[@michaelarmstrong1730]

Thanks for the comparison. I was going to ask you if you tried turning the tone down on the 500k pots to match the tone of the 250s, but you answered that question in the video. I switched to 500k pots about a year ago and I've been turning the tone down. You know that old saying that treble can't be added to the guitar (without the assistance of pedals), but can always be taken away. So I put in 500s thinking that I'll always have that extra high tone sparkle if i needed it. But I think you are correct. Maybe too much harshness coming through? I'm going to switch back to 250s. You make a lot of sense. Thank you.

[@michaelarmstrong1730]

I switched back to the 500ks after putting the 250ks in it. This strat sounds better with the 500ks.

[@guitarsfunmods3986]

To my ears, both are interesting, a matter of taste or what suits better for certain song. I like them both. The 250k has a very unique mid tone I like it so much, very suitable for blues. But that mid disappears with the 500k pot, but it's very open and airy, rich with overtones, I think suits best for pop and jangly music.

[@kitjasonsahay1570]

Does the harshness stay when you roll back the tone knob....?

[@JumboJimbo015]

To my ears, as "brighter" the amps got, the less the effect of the pots were clear. It was very evident on the darker amps, in both clean and dirty examples. I wonder how much of a difference 1 meg pots would make compared to 250k pots. A neat fact, Fender started using 1 meg pots in the later half of the 60's on their guitars.

[@Livi_Noelle]

I thought it was just a given that singles got 250k and humbuckers got 500k. Like so many other rules, when broken, this one provides a pleasant outcome.

[@Texasbluesalley]

Make sure you watch to the end. Although it may sound pleasant here, depending on your pickups and how you play, the extra "air" from 500k pots may not be that pleasant.

[@Livi_Noelle]

@@Texasbluesalley the rules I like to break are putting drive in front of my wah and my chorus in front of my delay. The same is true for both of those as well. Doing either can quickly go from pleasant to grating really quickly.

[@user-wu8up5bj9d]

​@@Texasbluesalleyeven the most unpleasant 500k tones werent bad to me and seem like they would great in a mix. 500k on all my guitars.

[@mattbrid]

Forgive me if you said something about this, but was the volume up all the way with these tests? I always thought the pots made minimal difference when the volume is up all the way, but really start to affect tone when the volume is rolled off. Thanks for the video, very interesting. I'm sure this video took many hours to produce and I appreciate that.

[@Texasbluesalley]

Great question. Yes, my volume was all the way up.

[@mikemurdock7234]

This is a great question. Lace Sensor Strat pickups have a far different tone when the volume is not at 10. I've found that the Lace Sensors sound drastically different on half volume, or around 6-7. It is certainly a factor with vintage style wiring in Gibson guitars with humbuckers.

[@StratMatt777]

Matt, the tone pots make no difference when they are all the way up because, at 10, they are not shunting any of your signal to ground through their caps. Not until you come off of 10. However, when the volume pot is all the way up the amount of treble that is bled off/shunted to ground is determined by the value of the resistance in your pot 250K/500K/1 meg etc, because, even at 10, the signal is going through the pot. Check out Dylan Talks tone channel for a deep explanation where he has taken a pot apart. That's where I finally was able to learn and understand it.

[@chuckplainview4085]

Its almost not even a question of High end in my opinion, it's more of a clarity thing for me. The 250k pots have a much warmer tone, but simultaneously almost a more "vintage" fidelity to them. The 500k is much clearer sounding to me and you could very easily be more reductive with eq settings to match the two pretty close. I'm herein more "bell" or "chime" from the 500s. I might have to throw some 500s in my strat now!

[@bluwng]

500K sounds louder not sure if it’s because more frequencies are co ung through or the pot acts as a voltage divider giving it more power transfer.

[@charlesfitzgerald3201]

Awesome video , brings me to a question about strings , now I’m getting old so I’m going down in gauge , which usually brightens up a strat , so in theory 250k should work better for lighter strings and single coil pickups ? And a fender deluxe ,, your thoughts , you’ve played everything ,, I haven’t.

[@Texasbluesalley]

Yes. Thinner strings will have more higher order harmonics, which could be come quite brittle sounding with 500k pots. I forgot to mention it in this video, but I'm playing a set of D'adddario EXL110 strings here which run 10-46.

[@charlesfitzgerald3201]

@@Texasbluesalley Thanks man , really good video here .

[@MathewsGuitarWorks]

I’ve made hundreds of custom wiring harnesses and wound a lot of pickups in my day. The answer is yes, 500k pots on average strat single coils makes them sound really harsh. The reason why p90’s don’t have this issue with 500k pots is because of coil shape which induces more mids, low mids and less highs.

[@Texasbluesalley]

Would you say that higher quality boutique pickups that have cleaner treble might be tolerable with 500k pots on certain guitars?

[@MathewsGuitarWorks]

@@Texasbluesalley It probably has more to do with how they are wound, what type of wire they used, how many winds and coil shape than whether they are boutique. So if we compared two strat singles, one I made and say a cheaper far east mass produced pup. Both A5 magnets, same size magnets, same number of winds with same-ish wire and same basic construction. There would probably be a subtle to slight audible difference between the two. To say good or bad, I don’t know because we all understand that to be subjective. I’ve had some really excellent import pups but that’s another story all together. The sound from my pup is likely going to be clearer sounding all together due to the way I build my coils (how the wire is laid on the coil as it is wound), which has everything to do on how it induces voltage and pushes the voltage out. Mass produced pups are generally machine wound and this builds the coil in a way that increases inductance. Even the best hand wound pups have a less controlled wind pattern compared to a machine wind and this hand winding decreases inductance. My pups will be brighter and clearer sounding most of the time compared to Machine wound pups. This might be due to less low mids and bass consuming the signal allowing for less compression and pushing the mids, high mids and highs through a little better. So to answer your question, it depends on the pickup and a number of factors. However, the brighter the pup the less it will play well with higher value pots. I would agree that any pup that has less treble or a smoother treble response may be more tolerable with higher value pots because the treble signal is more manageable. Lots of factors going on here.

[@nickkelley8546]

how is tone/output affected if you were to keep 250k in your tone knobs but put a 500k in your volume, rather then keeping 250k in all (asking for a single coil strat)

[@MathewsGuitarWorks]

@@nickkelley8546 gonna be more bright/brittle sounding and maybe slightly louder. Not anything I would recommend personally but I know people who prefer brighter sounding strat single coils. It’s not pleasant sounding to me. More importantly, the taper on the volume is not optimal using a 500k for volume imo.

[@nickkelley8546]

@@MathewsGuitarWorks thank you for the insight, im just starting to understand the inner hardware of guitars and how it affects sound, so do you personally just prefer 250k all around for single coils?

[@13thAMG]

Limited reproduction through my phone but I'm gonna say the 500k pot strangely has a slight boost of high midrange and can sound a bit muddled in that range (probably due to harmonics). But would need to listen through proper systems to be sure. 🙂

[@RobCmusic]

It's all about context. If you start out with a 500k pot Strat and then build your amp and pedal chain around it for playing live, you'll dial it in to sound right for the context in which you play. I think it's worth trying out different configurations for different situations.

[@Texasbluesalley]

Good point.

[@jjulch]

I like Zexcoils, but I bought some of their cheaper sets that were "compatible' with 250k pots. I found they don't sound good at all so I sold them. Still hae a set in another guitar, but it has 500k pots.

[@carsgunsandguitars]

Good video, but dont the pickups really dictate this? If you put 500K pots in traditional alnico pole strat pickups it will be too bright and 250K on traditional PAF style humbuckers or P90s too dark, correct?

[@Texasbluesalley]

The type of pickups will affect the end result, but the tonal differences between the two will be the similar in the sense that 500k pots will add brightness in some potentially uncomfortable frequencies.

[@gunkanjima3408]

Any reasonable answer that Jazzmasters come with 1meg pots? Seems strange

[@santanafan1713]

I like the 250k pots because they sound warmer

[@GregWitt]

Definitely a difference between the 250k and 500k - the 500's seem to have some bright artifacts, and while that does not detract from the tone, I prefer the 250's.

[@Texasbluesalley]

Same

[@nitemirror1]

👍

[@fram5199]

Which zexcoil model are?

[@Texasbluesalley]

This is the Vintage 5 Hot set.

[@jwpercy]

I felt like the 250k was tighter and warmer. The 500k felt crispy around the edges of the notes with a small amount of break up.

[@MikeMara]

Not sure which i prefer, i guess it varied based on the amp preset but i think i lean toward 250k, though. I just put a Vintage Inspired Pickups 280k pot (had a scratchy vol pot) in my guitar, and i do think it's nice how it's a bit more open on the high end. Let me have the additional treble, and it'll balance it out with the amp!

[@suprjudy]

I'd be interested in downloading a lossless file of recordings of the different amps, as youtube's tone probably outshines any fender or marshall, etc amp tone with the compression.

[@StratMatt777]

The difference is quite apparent as long as you have studio monitor-like speakers. I'm just using 15 year-old M-Audio AV40s which were only $100 or so when I got them. I can definitely hear the difference. Good headphones should work too.

[@peterhughes8699]

Anthony - as you should have known I could only hear very slight tone difference using studio quality headphones on youtube. Everything sounds the same on youtube - always. All tone comparison videos are a waste of time on youtube. I'm sure you heard a signficant difference live. But I know from experience that 500k pots are too bright for a Strat and 250k is too dark for humbuckers. I would never use either in those guitars. People who prefer exceptionally bright guitars may prefer 500k in Strats/Teles though :)

[@davidbeau6715]

I think I prefer the 500k

[@markc4967]

250k

[@southboundguitar]

My '94 MIM 'Squier Series' Strat came with 500k dime pots. I replaced everything and completely rewired the guitar with quality components, wiring, and soldering. I replaced the two tones with 250k CTS pots, and I replaced the volume with a 500k CTS. I used a MojoTone Vitamin T PIO cap tied to both tone pots, and a treble bleed on the volume pot. It made the stock ceramic pickups sound better for sure. I then replaced the pups with Fender PV 59's...and wow. Great smooth sounding guitar. It's hard to put it down.

[@EM-km8em]

Where are you located? Do you do work on guitars

[@riokinsey2134]

I'm wanting a lil more brightness out of my strat. What are YOUR suggestions? Is there a way to have the 500k brightness, just be able to roll it off SMOOTHLY for warmer tones?

[@UnremarkableMarx]

I wish pots were manufactured for 350k

[@iamthat787]

You could do this! I did...you gently pry open the tabs on the pot (I had fender CTS). The black carbon ring provides the resistance. You gently scratch it away in the tiniest amount. Less carbon, less resistance. Keep scratching the black carbon ring evenly , delicately on the outside of the ring. Your 250k will start rising, alternate inside (inner) / outside (outer) parts. Revealing the inner carbon track. By removing the tiniest amounts of carbon with a razor blade you can move a lower value up to 350k. It's easy. I put a delay pedal in my guitar and modified guitar mini pots to exactly match the odd values the pedal pots had, worked perfectly. it's easy and fun. Not rocket science ...just need a digital multimeter and some patience.

[@karlhorton185]

It would be realy good if you used a "clean" sound.

[@MoJoeClips]

500k sounds like it already has a compressor..😯

[@axelrov]

The wrong in these test It s you play only a solo. You must play chords, open chords and we understand better the differenze beetween 250k and 500k. When you play each stringe at time we don t have idea the basso stringe how suond!!! Remember the silos Is not good for understand a sound of Guitar.

[@user-wu8up5bj9d]

Prefer 500 across the board

[@BeyondTigerMilk]

Guitarists are very good at convincing themselves they hear things that they don't. If you think there's any notable differences here you are delusional

[@Texasbluesalley]

Uh, if you can’t hear a difference, you might want to get a hearing test, lol.

[@miklu26]

@@Texasbluesalley you will not make a great community by attacking replys. I like ur content but the attitude towards others is pretty arrogant

[@BeyondTigerMilk]

@@miklu26 I didn't think he was out of line at all. I started it anyway lol. I'm kind of stoked he even replied to me. He's the most famous person to do it haha

[@Texasbluesalley]

@@miklu26When you read my replies, how that voice sounds in your head says more about your own internal wiring and issues than it does about me.

[@michaelarmstrong1730]

@@Texasbluesalley I agree....There is a definite difference

[@captainkirk70]

Stopped watching once I realized you weren't going to play anymore...Why the neglect of the bridge position????