Doing pickups justice with Pots. New to it!

[beaubrummels]

Pretty sure Fender pots are CTS?

*EDIT* Oh, I see someone beat me to it.

DiMarzio pots are also CTS, BTW. I think Gibson too?

My understanding (from CTS) is that Gibson got their own tooling and took over making their pots in house. But it's based on and identical to CTS. CTS does make Fender - they just stamp Fender codes on them. When I had CTS make particular pots for me, they had to do drawings and the part number of the drawing became the pot code stamped on them.

The big things that differ between pots, and it's not necessarily different by brand but more by spec, the tolerance and the cycle life of the pot. I'd get as low a tolerance as I could afford and pick the brand that has the highest cycle life.

[GuitarDoc]

I'm not sure about the DiMarzio pots, it's possible that they are made by CTS (I don't think they are just rebranded CTS pots), but they have always seemed just a little bit different than CTS...a slight different rotational feel and the knurls seem a bit different too.

[ArtieToo]

I like CTS and Bourns. I also prefer the smoother "damped" feel. The Bourns Sean Silas pots are sweet. (Mentioned here: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/foru...ts#post6048223)

Note also that many "log" pots, especially cheap ones, are actually two joined linear tracks. Good article here: https://sound-au.com/pots.htm

[Mincer]

I'm not sure about the DiMarzio pots, it's possible that they are made by CTS (I don't think they are just rebranded CTS pots), but they have always seemed just a little bit different than CTS...a slight different rotational feel and the knurls seem a bit different too.

I am not sure, either, but I always liked DiMarzio-branded pots.

[GuitarDoc]

Wow, that's interesting. I never knew that there were dual linear (commercial log) pots.

Is there any way of telling whether you're buying a true log pot or the "commercial log" pot?

[Chistopher]

I like CTS and Bourns. I also prefer the smoother "damped" feel. The Bourns Sean Silas pots are sweet. (Mentioned here: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/foru...ts#post6048223)

Note also that many "log" pots, especially cheap ones, are actually two joined linear tracks. Good article here: https://sound-au.com/pots.htm

Had you not posted this graph I could have happily gone the entire rest of my life without knowing log and "antilog" pots have the names backwards. Also the commercial log pot has an audio base (10) and the normal log pot has a base of less than 10.

[Mikelamury]

Uh no? Linear turns down directly proportionally to sweep of the knob. Audio turns down quicker.

I see your graph but I don't know how to explain it any other way than what my ears here. In all my guitars with 'A' pots it seems like the taper is more gradual and natural. In my guitars that come with 'B' pots(get replaced with A pots) it seems like the taper is more sudden like you would want for a volume swell. That's just show my ears perceive the taper. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

[beaubrummels]

I've found the opposite. A linear pot on volume produces an even ramp of the volume. An audio pot on the volume produces a significant effect initially, then very gradual effect after that. That is with modern wiring, typical voltage divider wiring. If you are doing 50's wiring, I think there's a possibility the interactions with the tone control could mask what the taper is doing on the volume.

[Clint 55]

I see your graph but I don't know how to explain it any other way than what my ears here. In all my guitars with 'A' pots it seems like the taper is more gradual and natural. In my guitars that come with 'B' pots(get replaced with A pots) it seems like the taper is more sudden like you would want for a volume swell. That's just show my ears perceive the taper. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

Do you mean turning up?

[Mikelamury]

Do you mean turning up?

Turning volume up or down. Now that I think about it there was a little bit of taper with little effect before the volume started to tank with the linear pot. So I would say from about 9-5 is where I hear most of the taper with little effect on the lower 1-3 part of the taper with linear pots. I'm also using 50's style wiring with most of my guitars so idk if that has any effect on the taper as mentioned above either.

[Clint 55]

I don't notice that with linear pots and playing clean. What I notice with the distortion box on is linear takes forever to turn down and clean up, so audio has a more even sweep.

[Rex_Rocker]

Question, does a *good* pot sound better? Or is it just more heavy duty and can have a longer life? And tighter tolerances?

[Mikelamury]

Question, does a *good* pot sound better? Or is it just more heavy duty and can have a longer life? And tighter tolerances?

From my understanding a "good" pot is going to last longer and have tighter tolerances but I think they all sound the same given the same values.

[jeremy]

id agree with that. two pots that measure the same value should sound the same

[GuitarDoc]

+1