A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I know there are some pretty smart cats here when it comes to guitars and wiring so my question to you is:

If you were going to wire a LP with Mini Hums what would be your choice of pots and caps. I would like the result to be a nice smooth full sweep where the volume and tone changes from 0-10. Sometimes it seems it comes on at 3 and stays the same from there to 10. I would also like the tone to be slightly brighter than say a standard LP tone.

Thanks for your input.

tonebender wrote: ↑Fri Sep 30, 2022 4:34 pm I know there are some pretty smart cats here when it comes to guitars and wiring so my question to you is:

If you were going to wire a LP with Mini Hums what would be your choice of pots and caps. I would like the result to be a nice smooth full sweep where the volume and tone changes from 0-10. Sometimes it seems it comes on at 3 and stays the same from there to 10. I would also like the tone to be slightly brighter than say a standard LP tone.

Thanks for your input.

My cats say I used 500k audio taper on my only mini-hum guitar, a thinline strat. And used .33 caps. These mini-hums were very single coil-ish. But being hums I went with 500k. Sounds good.

When I converted my Agile 3010SE from P90 to mini-humbuckers, I went with 500K pots and .022uF orange drop caps. Sounds great to me, anyway. I did try some .033uF caps but I didn't like the sound, same with some .015uF caps. Def didn't get that "Woman Tone" with the .015uF caps.

Thanks for the input fellows.

I would also recommend .022 caps, as with these you can always back it off a bit if it's too bright. As to the type of pots to use, this link below does a good a job of explaining the difference, but it sounds to me like you would probably want linear taper (B500K) for tone:

https://www.hoaglandcustom.com/2017/05/15/hello-world/

tobijohn wrote: ↑Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:35 pm I would also recommend .022 caps, as with these you can always back it off a bit if it's too bright. As to the type of pots to use, this link below does a good a job of explaining the difference, but it sounds to me like you would probably want linear taper (B500K):

https://www.hoaglandcustom.com/2017/05/15/hello-world/

The way Hoaglandcustom.com recommends is the way I've always done it. Log for the volume & linear for the tone.
IMHO anything larger than .022 tone caps makes the sound too dark.

mickey wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 1:50 am
The way Hoaglandcustom.com recommends is the way I've always done it. Log for the volume & linear for the tone.

What's interesting is that import guitars almost always are wired the opposite - linear for volume and audio (log) for tone. The only exception I've ever seen to that is the early new style Agile AL-3100/3200 M/MC guitars which used linear for all....

I'm old school so it's always log for both. Wouldn't a linear tone do nothing till you got less than 5 or 4 or 3?

tobijohn wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:14 am

mickey wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 1:50 am
The way Hoaglandcustom.com recommends is the way I've always done it. Log for the volume & linear for the tone.

What's interesting is that import guitars almost always are wired the opposite - linear for volume and audio (log) for tone. The only exception I've ever seen to that is the early new style Agile AL-3100/3200 M/MC guitars which used linear for all....

I know they are wired backwards and I do not like it. I always assumed the ones that used either log for all or linear for all did so because it was cheaper for them.

mozz wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:56 am I'm old school so it's always log for both. Wouldn't a linear tone do nothing till you got less than 5 or 4 or 3?

Me too. I always end up making this decision with my tone...out of habit. But, it seems to me that my audio tone pot is slow for first half (not nothing, just magnified), then drops off quicker thru bottom end. I dont mind. I get confused reading about it. People tend to say their linear tone pots are like no change, no change, then sudden drop out at 1-2 on knob. But it's stated that our tone perception is linear. It is our volume perception that perceives a more gradual sweep with audio/log vs linear. Having tone with audio/log taper seems delayed at top end to me, but apparently linear tone is much more so.

I tend to use brighter vintage pickups with larger or medium sized caps.
I use .10 for most of my strats...like old school. And .022/.022 for LP style, or .33 if treble is brighter than I want.
So I start out with brighter pups, throw in a big cap, then "magnify" the bright roll off till half way where it then drops out quick. I also tend to put the lowest reading pots within the group in my volume positions to drag the overall resonant peak frequency down a hair.
Thats how I optimistically view my ping-pong approach.

This guitar came with P90's. Not the normal Gibson P90's you know and love but these were some variation made especially for the 2014 Melody Maker. This was sort of a tribute version of the Melody Maker same as the LP's. Very little nitro, etc. and made to be more affordable. I did not like the P90's and so I thought why not turn it into a "sort or Deluxe" with the Gibson mini hums. @uwmcscott posted a thread recently seeking an AD model Agile and it got me to thinking about my Melody Maker so I got it out of the closet. I took it to rehearsal just to run it through the gears again.

In the last few years I have come to use the volume knob quite a bit. I set the tone on 10 and forget it but I leave headroom and use it as needed with the volume. I had not played the MM since starting to do this. I noticed the volume would come on hit a level at about 3 and remain that way to 10. I had not adjustment. I popped the cavity cover off yesterday and found that it is all Gibson pots and looks like a quality wiring harness. I did it but I do not specifically remember what I did. I am not sure if I just wired in the pickups and the pots were for the P90's or if I replaced with a LP wiring harness. The pots could be 250K if they were for the P90's. This could be the issue, I just don't know. I am inclined to take it in and just have a pro set it up like I desire. I really don't mess with them anymore.

tonebender wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:05 am ...The pots could be 250K if they were for the P90's. This could be the issue; I just don't know. I am inclined to take it in and just have a pro set it up like I desire. I really don't mess with them anymore.

Wel, if you just want to satisfy your curiosity as to what exactly they are:

TJ, I got my meter out and tried to determine resistance and what type pots are in it but for some reason I was not getting readings that made sense like in the video. I have a feeling I just wired the hums right in with the pots that were in there for the original P90's so that would not be a good set up.

Just up the road from me is Somnium Guitars, here is there link, they do some interesting things there. Here is their link if anyone is interested in their approach to pickups.

https://somniumguitars.com/

There is a guy there that has done some set up work for me on acoustic guitars. His work has been awesome. I think I will just take the Melody Maker to him and have him work the magic. They actually purchased my Vox Night Train from me when I put it on CL. They wanted to use it for demos at their both during trade shows.

tonebender wrote: ↑Fri Sep 30, 2022 4:34 pm I know there are some pretty smart cats here when it comes to guitars and wiring so my question to you is:

If you were going to wire a LP with Mini Hums what would be your choice of pots and caps. I would like the result to be a nice smooth full sweep where the volume and tone changes from 0-10. Sometimes it seems it comes on at 3 and stays the same from there to 10. I would also like the tone to be slightly brighter than say a standard LP tone.

Thanks for your input.

Just validating what others have said: for PAF type (screw pole pieces & slugs, w a bar magnet) mini-hums, 500K audio taper for both volume and tone. 0.018 to 0.022 for the neck tone cap and 0.022 to 0.033 for the bridge tone.

Firebird type mini-hums (two bar magnets, instead of slugs and poles) are much brighter and louder pickups. You can go with darker caps (0.022 to 0.047) and they sound good with 300K Gibson linear tapers, but will not really reduce loudness until '4''. You can also stick with the 500K audio for bright or try 250K audio for darker.

For all pickup set ups, I prefer attaching the tone lead to the middle #2 lug of the volume pot (50's wiring) vs. to the #3 far left lug (modern wiring). Modern gets dark when you roll-off volume, more so with higher value pots. 50's wiring retains brightness and mid-range.

The pups are like the firebird or 70's Tribute Gibson mini hums without the pole screws. They are bright but not too much, sort of between a Tele and an LP. I like that just fine. Most of all it is a nice thin mahogany body with a maple cap. The body seem slightly thinner than an SG or maybe the same and it is ever so slightly contoured for the belly.

I dropped the guitar off with Jay at Somnium Guitars and he is going to fix it up for me. I tried to work up the interest to do it myself but I just could not.

I appreciate all the input from you guys. As usual AGF rocks!

tonebender wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:08 pm
...I dropped the guitar off with Jay at Somnium Guitars and he is going to fix it up for me. I tried to work up the interest to do it myself, but I just could not.

A sure sign of a good manager is knowing how to delegate...

tobijohn wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:12 pm A sure sign of a good manager is knowing how to delegate...

With age comes wisdom.

I got the Melody Maker back from Somnium and it is awesome now. Ray fixed me up again. I can hardly wait to take it to rehearsal and run it through the gears.