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Guitar question ('72 Tele Thinline RI)

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Chris P.:
There's a lot of technical knowledge here about guitars too, so I just ask this.

My girfriend has a MIM '72 Fender Telecaster Thinline reissue. She likes it a lot and soundwise it's fairly close to her Korean Epiphone Sheraton (with a lot of Gibson hardware).
At Harmony Central a guy posted he changed the 250K pots of his '72 RI to 500K ones. It sounds logical to me. A humbucker needs 500K and I guess Fender almost only uses 250K ones for Teles and Strats.

Could it be a wise idea to change the pots of this guitar? What will happen to the sound. Will there be a big difference?

angrymatt:
I've heard the same recommendations for my '72 Tele Deluxe RI.  But since the pickups in these reissues aren't engineered to sound anything like the real '72 Seth Lover Wide Range pick ups, just look like them, I think the change would really just be personal preference, and not really get you much closer to a real '72 sound.  I haven't bothered making the switch.

Chris P.:
I know the Japanese Jazzmaster pick ups look like originals, but they have a Strat pick up underneath the P90-a-like cover.

But the Deluxe and Thinline do have humbuckers. Are that like two Strat pick ups wired together? I guess a 500K pot still make sence then?

Dave W:
My understanding is that they're standard design humbuckers with steel polepieces and an alnico bar magnet underneath. Putting them in a '72 style cover is just to make them look like the originals.

Like Matt said, you're not going to get closer to the original sound with 500K pots. The originals had 1 meg pots, but they were completely different pickups -- threaded cunife magnet polepieces and very overwound. Is she unhappy with the tone now? If so, why do you think changing the pots would help?

Chris P.:
No, she loves the sound! Especially cos it sounds a lot like the Sheraton, which she loves. I was just curious!

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