Sounds like you have a great idea of what you want, which is good. Check out www.stew-mac.com for some books on guitar wiring. It would be beneficial. As for your question on pots... 500k pots give a warmer tone by "bleeding off" less treble than 250k pots. So 1m pots would bleed off even less. 250k and 500k pots are the most common because most pickups are designed to work with one or the other. Single coils work best with 250k pots and humbuckers work best with 500k pots. That doesn't mean you can't mix and match. It's possible that on a Les Paul style setup (independant tone and volume controls) that you can use 500k pots for the neck humbucker and 250k pots for the bridge humbucker controls... giving you more tonal options when wiring... Capacitors also "bleed off" treble different values bleed off different amounts. I suggest looking into a book, it will explain all that in more detail. As for your comment "As in lower quality pots, when you turn them down a few notches, you don't hear much difference in volume or tone, whatever it's controlling."..... there are different kinds of pots as well. You are probably hearing the difference between an audio-taper pot and a linear-taper pot. Most pots are audio-taper which means the sound increases exponetially as you turn the knob up or down. When turning the vlume down on an audio-taper pot the difference in volume is greater from 10-5... then after 5 you may not be able to hear much of a change until its completly off. In a linear-taper pot the change is at a 1:1 ratio. This means that the turning of the knob will directly reflect in the sound. The change in volume is the same from 10-5 as it is from 5-0. Most people can't physically hear the difference because sound itself is exponential (dB are measured exponentially) to the human ear. But most musicians can hear this difference. So now that you know the basics on pots, check out some different books and good luck with your project bro!