What you are attempting is taking a normal resistor and putting it in between the yellow wire and the bl/wh wire. There will be a series of colored bands that will indicate what the rating is. Don't worry about which way to orient the resistor, both dirrections will work the same.
As far a the Pl type, it's not complicated. There are several different types of resistors, the PL type is one that looks like below...
http://www.audionote.co.uk/comp/imag...ntalums_01.jpg
Radio shack will have them, prob under a buck!