New pickup day! Question about pots.

[bfulmercsd]

Hello all! Long time no post. I have a late 2000s model SG faded. I went in to the store and played every SG around that price range and made my selection. A quality made instrument that produced beautiful tones even when unplugged. As time went on I found I didn't care for the 490r and 490t pickups that were in there. I did some research and decided that a p-90 pickup was the way to go. I got some GFS mean 90s and was completely underwhelmed. Frustrated I put the guitar on the wall and sulked for a few years. Recently the gigs have picked up and I have felt sad that such an amazing instrument is left behind each week so I invested into a Seymour Duncan hot rod dead pickup set (the Jazz and jb )!!!. Very excited. If anyone here has any experience with these pickups in your SG I would love to hear about it. Anyway, a friend of mine has offered to install the pickups as well as do a jimmy page mod. I currently have replaced capacitors and 50s wiring mod. Can someone please recommend some push pull volume and tone pots that will fit an SG (not too long and not too short). Thank you for your help in advance. I'm hoping this will be my dream guitar and I can share it with y'all!

 

[Col Mustard]

Keep the SD pickups as real hum buckers and skip the Jimmy Page mod, IMHO. The SG is extremely versatile as designed, and should never be made into something that it's not. Those SD pickups have a lot to offer.

Then if you want a hum bucker sound, play the SG. If you want a single coil sound, play a Strat. Your music will be better for it.

If you simply MUST garble up your hum buckers with unnecessary extra choices, here's a link to StewMac's page of wiring kits.
http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Wiring_Kits/

And at some time, you may decide that an SG with P-90s should be part
of your musical arsenal. Good choice! But get one with real P-90s and don't try to add them to a Humbucker guitar IMHO. There are many ways to get
an SG with real P-90s, including buying a bare SG body with the correct rout
and bottom plate, such as one that had mini-humbuckers. Then you build
your dream guitar from the body up, adding only the coolest parts.

SG with P-90s is a totally classic sound, always useful.

 

[syscokid]

Funny... I just bought and received a couple CTS 500k push/pulls from The Art Of Tone. They look beefier than the Alpha Push/Pulls. Profile of the CTS pot with the switching circuit is not as big as the Alphas.... and for some SG's, that's a good thing. I have not installed these yet. Hopefully I'll get a chance within the next couple of weeks.

eBay link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222297016538

 

[plankton]

Keep the SD pickups as real hum buckers and skip the Jimmy Page mod, IMHO. The SG is extremely versatile as designed, and should never be made into something that it's not. Those SD pickups have a lot to offer.

Then if you want a hum bucker sound, play the SG. If you want a single coil sound, play a Strat. Your music will be better for it.

I agree, my G400 Pro came with push pulls which started to pop right out when pulled up. I replaced them with standard pots as I didn't care for the coil split option anyway, besides the big volume drop, the sound wasn't really a good single coil sound. I have a Strat for when I want that.

 

[cerebral gasket]

Push-Push pots are also available as opposed to Push-Pull.

I'm in the camp to keep the SG pickup wiring simple without coil splits and use other guitars for that.
Have one SG with HB and one with P90. Best of both worlds.

Maybe change the 300K volume pots to 500K, adjust pickup height properly and if large pickguard, place foam
shims underneath pickups to even the top plane of pickups with strings.

 

[Madmatt]

I agree, my G400 Pro came with push pulls which started to pop right out when pulled up. I replaced them with standard pots as I didn't care for the coil split option anyway, besides the big volume drop, the sound wasn't really a good single coil sound. I have a Strat for when I want that.

The g400 pro pots do that yes, but it's because they are exceptionally cheep. Every random low cost push pull I've bought has held up better then the stock ones from my g400.

 

[bfulmercsd]

Thank you all for your responses. I am still trying to find push pull tone pots that will fit. I have found some volume pots but not sure about tone pots.

 

[bfulmercsd]

Also I am interested in these push push pots you speak of .

 

[cerebral gasket]

Push-Push Pots

https://www.allparts.com/EP-0296-000-500K-Push-Push-Audio-Pot_p_1312.html

I have one of these in my G&L ASAT Deluxe II to split the neck pickup.
Has the JB / 59 combo.

I just measured the depth of the pot and unfortunately they would not fit in an SG with the control cavity cover in place.

 

[D.L. Luna]

Also I am interested in these push push pots you speak of .

I have a push-pull installed in a Les Paul for out-of-phase... advice from my experience: I'd def look into push-push. Push-pull works fine, but can be awkward if you have top hat knobs (I do) and want to engage it fast. Speed knobs might be better with more to grip onto, but the top hats are a bit of a pain.

 

[Madmatt]

Push-Push Pots

https://www.allparts.com/EP-0296-000-500K-Push-Push-Audio-Pot_p_1312.html

I have one of these in my G&L ASAT Deluxe II to split the neck pickup.
Has the JB / 59 combo.

I just measured the depth of the pot and unfortunately they would not fit in an SG with the control cavity cover in place.

I have found that even normal push pull pots do not fit in my sg future, it is very thin.

 

[cerebral gasket]

I have found that even normal push pull pots do not fit in my sg future, it is very thin.

That's good to know as I have not tried modding any of my SG's with coil splits.

Alternative methods to split coils...

1. Replace the 3-way toggle with a 6-way rotary switch like the ones found on the SG3.
2. Convert the tone pot to a blend pot. (0 = split, 10 = full HB, anything in between is blend)

 

[Paul G.]

I've had a number of guitars with coil splits, phase switches, series-parallel, etc.

Inevitably, they get yanked.

A decent pair of pickups and Gibson's 2-vol, 2-tone or even 1-vol, 2-tone controls gives me everything I've ever needed.

P.

 

[cerebral gasket]

A decent pair of pickups and Gibson's 2-vol, 2-tone or even 1-vol, 2-tone controls gives me everything I've ever needed.

P.

I agree.
Best to keep it simple.
All my SG's have their stock pickup and wiring configurations.

 

[Raiyn]

That's good to know as I have not tried modding any of my SG's with coil splits.

Alternative methods to split coils...

1. Replace the 3-way toggle with a 6-way rotary switch like the ones found on the SG3.
2. Convert the tone pot to a blend pot. (0 = split, 10 = full HB, anything in between is blend)

Or, you can do what I did, and go with Seymour Duncan Triple Shot rings.

You'd have the options of parallel, series, slug coil split and screw pole coil split positions in each Triple Shot. Even better is the fact you can use regular pots with tighter tolerances than you can typically get with push / pulls while avoiding any potential fitment issues. YMMV.

 

[cerebral gasket]

+1 on Triple Shots.
I forgot about those.
Works really well with small pickguard.

 

[Dave_Death]

I have a Mojotone 500K push-push pot that I tried to fit in one of my SGs. It definitely doesn't fit any recent SG cavities, at least not the standard sort (I can't speak for oddballs like the Zoot Suit SGs).

 

[Raiyn]

+1 on Triple Shots.
I forgot about those.
Works really well with small pickguard.

Indeed they do.

Just don't wire 'em tired, that's all I'm sayin'.