500k Pots vs 250k Pots

500k Pots vs 250k Pots

In my opinion, there are two basic reasons that 500k's tend to be more popular in here than 250k's:

1) THE MOST BASIC AND OBVIOUS: Les Pauls and other humbucker guitars use humbuckers (obviously). By their nature, 99% of humbuckers have a thicker/beefier tone than 99% of single coils and so the rule of thumb since the beginning has been to use 500k pots to keep as much treble in the signal as possible to prevent humbuckers from sounding dull or muddy, while Tele and Strat style single coils use 250k pots to allow some treble to leak away so they don't sound shrill/brittle/ice-picky.

2) THE MARSHALL PLAN: I would bet that at least 2 out of 3 play their LP's primarily through a Marshall or a Marshall-like amp or stompbox in which you are often fighting for as much treble/presence as you can get to cut through mix and avoid sounding muddy. 500k's help with this.

If you play primarily through a Fender or Fender-style amp as I do, you've got treble and presence to spare so you can get away with, or you might even prefer 250-300k pots.

As you can see, a lot depends on the type of pickup and amp -- but a lot also depends on the tonal nature of the wood in your individual guitar. Sounds like your LP may be a touch on the bright side, in which case you should first try just rolling your tone dials back just a touch. (I know that usually doesn't work because that tends to also remove some freq's you want to keep, but it's worth a try.)

If that doesn't work, give some 250k's or 300k's a shot. If that doesn't work, you probably need to try some darker/smoother pickups.