Pots and Caps

[derekb]

Hell,
Perhaps Charlie or any other elctronics expert could help me with this.
I'm rebuilding a Squier Strat and will be putting Fender Custom Shop 54 pickups on it.
I thought it would be a good idea at the same time to re-new the wiring, pots and caps.
There seems to be plenty of wiring kits on the market already made up, with soldering the pups the only work left to do.
However most of the kits I've seen give you the choice of 250k or 500k pots and a choice of .022 or.047 caps.
Can anyone tell me what difference a larger pot or cap will make to the sound and which would best suit the 54 pups to give me the "sound".
Thanks,
Derek B.

[garyallen]

Hi Derek, to give you an idea, Fender put 250k pots and a .1uf capacitor in their custom shop models,54 p/ups are bright and clear so tone control on the bridge p/up is a good idea,you can experiment with other pots/cap values but theyll probably make the sound a little brighter. hope this helps..gary

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Derek,
I would use 250K pots and a 0.1uF cap. A larger value pot for the volume control will make the sound brighter at full volume but more muddy when the volume is backed off. I don't think the CS54s need any help with brightness. I sold mine because they were far too bright for the ash bodied Strat I thought they would be suited to. A larger value tone cap will make the sound slightly warmer with the tone control on 10, but will remove a lot of mids when backed off, this is vintage correct, but not really useful, and the bridge pickup will not be affected with a tone control at all with stock wiring.
My personal preference for Strats is 250K pots and a 0.1uF tone cap, plus a 0.022uF cap across the unused connection of the switch to the next terminal along, the one that has a wire going to the lower tone control. This give all the stock sounds except in the bridge pickup switch position you have tone control with useful mids when the lower tone control backed off.
Regards,
Charlie

[derekb]

Hello Charlie,
Thanks for the info regarding my query on pots and caps.
Wondered if you could send me a rough diagram of the .022uF cap wired into the unused connection of the switch.
I only need this as I'm ordering a ready madeup wiring kit and the tech needs confirmation of the exact position this .022 has to go.
Thanks,
Derek B

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Derek,
Look at the picture in this link:
www.premierguitar.com/articles/strat-bridge-pickup-tone-control-1
Where it shows a red link on the switch, don't link with a piece of wire, but link the same terminals with the 0.022uF cap instead. Solder it so it can be bent back or it will hit the inside of the body cavity.
Everything else should be wired exactly the same as a vintage Strat.
Regards,
Charlie

[derekb]

Hello,
Thanks to Charlie and Gary for their help with the pots and caps question I posted.
Regards to all,
Derek B