Guitar Pots Technical Questions

[jauernis]

I just bought two Yamaha Aes 620's used and one has the original pots in it (my favorite) and the other has upgraded alpha pots (good tone but very bassy and much muddier than the my favorite aes).

1. Can pots make a difference in tone?
2. The upgraded pots well one is super loose and switching to the neck doesnt work at all....no sound. This was shipped from guitar center!! I have to call them tomorrow arrghh.
3. If pots do make a difference what could I place in their to give it back its brightness back?
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-AES620-Electric-Guitar?sku=518191

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Potentiometers are purely resistive in nature and therefore theoretically cannot alter the tone, of course poor manufacturing or higher resistances can cause a diminish in the signal however this is a very small amount of high end that would be lost (this i even a smaller loss than using copper wiring rather than pure silver). It won't be a night and day kind of thing even in the worst case scenario. I am pretty sure the problem is something else with the guitar, most likely an issue with the pickup quality within that guitar. Also its good to note that no two guitars will sound the same, the same two guitars that are one number off in the serial number might have a slightly different shape and a total different feel and sound, a character all its own.

I would go as far to say that the variances in the electronics would be more stable and consistent than the different qualities of wood, hardware and winding differences of the pickups.

 

[rockerjeff]

I suggest taking off the back control cavity plate, then look carefully at all the solder connections to make sure everything is connected securely. If everything seems to be connected, then take closer notice at the color of the solder. It should, ideally, be almost shiny. If it's really dull and not smooth/shiny in appearance, you may have some "cold solder" issues, which will negatively affect your tone and overall output signal strength. Lastly, if there are any burn marks, the POTs can be damaged due to overheating during the intial install at the factory... Hope this helps

 

[iraobryan]

This may be a stupid question, but are the resistance values the same on the 2 different sets? The solder connections should definitely be checked as mentioned above. It could even be the difference in the pickups or wood. The pots won't do much to your tone, taking into account the previous answers on this thread.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Yes, pots can make a difference in tone. If you ever remove a tone pot entirely from the circuit in the guitar, you'll notice how it instantly sounds brighter and ever so slightly less bassy. This is what I did with my Ibanez which had rather dark stock pickups, to open them up a bit before I could afford to replace them with the actives that are in there now.
What resistance value are the pots in each guitar?
It sounds like in the Yamaha with upgraded posts they may be 250K rather than 500K pots. 500K is recommended for humbuckers.