The volume pot (resistance) is in parallel with the pickup (inductance + resistance) and they all have some capacitance. All together these produce a "resonant circuit", this has a resonant "peak". That peak changes if you change any of the 3 factors, resistance, inductance, capacitance. If that peak is higher up the frequency range your pickup will sound brighter and vice-versa.GrantB wrote: ↑Mon May 24, 2021 5:09 pmSorry - that was brief....so, on full, a volume pot still provides resistance - that rating is at wide open. Plug a pickup into an output jack direct and hear the variance. So, think if it as trying to balance how much signal and upper frequencies you want stop going to ground, and find their way to your amp.
Man this is hard to describe. Anyway...500K pots for those 490 pickups are what's required but Gibson went through some sort of weird phase of selling most with 300K pots. This can deliver a mud tone, especially on the neck p/up. 500K will keep more going to the amp and the pickup will sound a little louder and brighter.
Hope this makes sense. Someone smarter than me please decipher this into more betterer.
This is why a 500K volume pot turned down to 250K does not sound the same as a 250K volume pot, the circuit has a different resonant peak.
The tone pot just bleeds high frequency to ground so a 500K tone pot turned down to 250K does sound about the same as a 250K tone pot.