Guitar wiring question (Humbucker split)

[Tremster]

A question for you geniuses.
I have a Tele Partscaster with two Humbuckers, two 500k pots.
I want to use two push-pull pots so that one of them will split both humbuckers at once so they're single coils, and the other one to do serial/parallel operation.
It's this wiring diagram.
Now, some say that it would be a good idea to add a resistor so that the pickups - when split - "see" a 250k pot (of sorts), and not 500k.
But there are several diagrams online that are quite different, here, and here, and here.
Where on my diagram would that resistor go? What value (I guess 470k or 510k)? Or any idea why that's not a good idea?
Thank you!

 

[tegendemuur]

Why not a 500k resistor?

 

[Tremster]

I only have 470 and 510 on hand ...

 

[tegendemuur]

Ah okay, sure!

Doesn't hurt to stock up on 5k, 25k, 50k, 125k, 250k, 500k so you can make custom tapered pot values, or play around with ideas such as yours here.

 

[darwin999]

OK, a stupid/crazy thought for which I have not put pen to paper to decide if it's workable - but here goes... Can you use a 250k dual pot(s), and use them in series for the humbucker mode and singly for the split mode? You would of course need a separate switch to have enough poles to both split the pickup as well as the pot(s). As one of my former profs used to say, "I invite the interested person to figure it out". I know, that used to piss me off as well, lol. Good luck!

Edit added: probably means too many switch poles...

 

[andrewsrea]

I am a 'keep it simple - keep it musical' player, recommending you don't bother with strapping the pot with a resistor to make it more like a 250K and get fast on the tone pot instead. Quickly setting it on '8' from '10' will achieve the same effect as strapping the pot.

Theory behind that recommendation: Without getting too geeky, your potentiometer acts like a resistor + capacitor (RC) tone filter. The lower the pot value, the less of the pickup is transferred to the amp. That process favors the powerful lower frequencies, at the expense of the high frequencies. Accordingly, a 500K pot on '10' sound brighter than a 250K pot at the same setting. Since single coils have a high resonant frequency, the 250K shaves off some of the harshness. Which makes your objective, some 'darkening' which is the exact function of a tone pot.

Next and as someone earlier pointed out, strapping a pot with a resistor changes the pots taper behavior. It makes it behave more linearly versus algorithmically (audio taper), so the effect of the volume pot has less 'action' from '5' to '10' and will develop a sudden drop out at '3'. Some people like that - I don't. I am a volume control abuser, playing cleans from '2' to '5', crunch rhythms from '5' to '7' and solos at '9' or '10'.

 

[DailyDovetails]

I have some guitars with splits and the way I like to use them is almost like a boost. When I’m in humbucker it’s usually either dirty or distorted and when I go to single it cleans right up. I don’t think I would bother with the 250K single coil mode. I think if anything I might play with switching the caps on the tone control. The high pass filter calculator here https://www.digikey.com/en/resource...sion-calculator-low-pass-and-high-pass-filter can give you a rough idea of what the different values would look like and you can adjust up and down from there.

 

[Aentons]

Which pot do you want to become 250k? Volume or Tone

 

[Tremster]

Thanks everyone. I have the pickups in and played it and it sounds surprisingly alright in split mode, so I'll not put in that resistor. It sounds amazing in parallel mode, I've never tried humbuckers in parallel mode before. They are Tonerider AC2 by the way.
I just have to figure out what I did wrong because serial/parallel doesn't work on the bridge pickup, splitting does ...

Which pot do you want to become 250k? Volume or Tone

I thought Volume.