The bits you usually find in a guitar

Ok, so you want to know what does what.

There's lots more to it and there are far more informed people than I teaching...so this is potted electronics for guitarists 011..(011 is a course below 101)..

Simple explanation: your guitar's volume and tone control knobs are connected (fit on to) the shafts of potentiometers (pots).



A pot is a form of variable resistor.

They come in two types.



1.) Linear (marked as B) and

2.) Logarhythmic (marked as A).

Linear are for volume controls and logarhythmic are for tone,in general,ALthough LogCan be used for both. In genral a linear pot will drop off the volume much more quickly as you turn down.

If you ever have to remove one you'd see something like "B500k",stamped into the back of it. This means it's a volume pot suitable for a humbucker or will make your single coils sound brighter andpossibly shrill,on which point....

Some common pot values..

Measured in Ohms,unit of resistance - 250K ohms is 250,000 Ohms,asking for a 250K volume pot is a perfectly acceptable way of doing things. The symbol for Ohms is .

250K: loses highs,sucks humbucker range..Excellent for old/low impedance single coils such as vintage type Fenders and Squiers,Yamahas and/or copies.



500K:Suitable most humbuckers in the range of 10-12 K Ohm DC resistance..*[See pickup page for more details on DC resistance etc]..OK with better made single coil pickups as well.



1 meg (1000K Ohms): Suitable for Hot humbuckers and jazzed up shiny go faster mofos,such as distortion humbuckers. Although I have used them with vintage singles -that guitar will cut your eardrums with it's razor treble if you're not careful.

.

Remember: The higher a pot value the less of the treble is attenuated,so the perceived effect is more "Nashville" and less "NU-Metal". As with all things, tastes in pots is subjective.

People experiment a lot with values to get their tone right.

Demystificating the common twiddly bit or "dials" as they are so ignertly refered to..or more on potentiometers..here...













Capacitors(caps)...Common values. Capacitance is measured in farads,and more usually in Microfarads written as Uf or mf .

Usual guitar cap values.

0.10Uf = Bass,P bass, or dealing with a very trebly guitar.

0.047= twin humbucker guitar, goes with 500k pots like pie and chips.

0.022=Strat/tele type, goes with 250k pots like fish goes with chips.

I've found a 0.033uf to be a good compromise..

Remember: The LOWER a capacitor value the less of the treble is attenuated -exactly the opposite of pots. A capacitor is usually only in circuit from "9" on the knob downward.



"Here is a quick list of common values, with the corresponding numeric label on the device (such as a ceramic disc capacitor):

(Thanks to the FDP for this one).

value: label:





100pf (picofarads) 101

470pf 471

.001uf (microfarads) 102

.0047uf 472

.01uf 103

.022uf 223

.047uf 473

.1uf 104

.22uf 224

.47uf 474 "





pace.



So you can see that a 0.022uf guitar cap will have the number 223 printed on it.

This is how pots and caps go together.

See Guitarnuts for more details

"Typical" Gibson wiring diagram

Guitarnuts.



Excellent site,turn cookies on and have a rummage in the menu section.





Electronics theory, not really that advanced or scary.





Top electronics course,kudos..Explains Capacitance and that kind of cantankerous malarky.







Basic pickup anatomy.



Extra:

Soldering a 500K Ohm resistor across the outside two terminals (lugs) of a 500K pot gets a "parallel" result,(ie a 250k pot).

This may be useful for someone to know if they want to try different value pots with their pickups.

[Science bit...........concentrate.. The maths works like this (paralel resistance): pot= 1/500 resistor=1/500

Therefore pot=0.002.res=0.002, added to get combined resistance =0.004, reciprocate (divide one by this number) so

1/0.004 = 250[K]................

Fiddling with the figures means you can lower the pot value to more or less the figure you want,saves money in buying lots of different value pots anyway.

Folks may also like to know that series resistance is nice and simple and you can just add a 250K resistor to a pot and boost it's resistance to 500K..

ANy two [pots,resistors,resistances] in series equal the combined value,ie, a 500k resistor and a 500k pot =a 1 meg pot.

Here's how: .

Solder one end of the resistor to the ground at the back of the pot..

Next [slightly tricky with a strat] solder all the ground leads together and join them to the other (free) end of the resistor..

Tape it up to make sure the resistor can't short anywhere.That's it.done.

See the electronics theory links and similar.