1950s wiring question - pot taper combinations

[shadowfire90]

This is an easy question I'm sure and I figure I'll get a quicker answer here. With 1950s wiring how the capacitor is hooked up between the two pots is there a right or wrong combination for the tapers of the pots. I base my 1950s wiring off of a very old seymour duncan diagram back when it was black and white images.I noticed how the pots are all A500k and never questioned this until today.

1) - How much of a difference if any would there be for instance using a linear tone pot (B500k) instead of the usual A500k the diagram suggests or is it really only affecting the volume control

2) - what would happen if both were B500k - I know linear pots are already very predictable but say I want that extra punch as premier guitar describes it with 50s wiring would it change how the pot reacts as I turn the lets say volume down at all.

This is the diagram I've based it off of
View attachment 101254

 

[jeremy]

Re: 1950s wiring question - pot taper combinations

i dont think the pot taper will effect anything other than how the pot rolls things off. sometimes i prefer linear tapers

 

[VinceT]

Re: 1950s wiring question - pot taper combinations

Hmmm... happy to stand corrected here but, as I understand it:

Volume pot - treble is bled to ground AFTER the taper (I.e. from the wiper of the pot), so taper of Volume pot doesn’t really change anything for 50s wiring, except in and of itself (i.e, how dark/bright it is as it rolls off).

Tone pot - only sees the treble frequencies that pass though the cap, so its taper will affect how quickly those frequencies bleed to ground - again, this isn’t really going to be very different to the ear than non-50s wiring (though that depends on the ear, of course!)

For both pots, the resistance is going to have more of an effect - for an HB guitar, I would tend towards 500K or 1M pots, so that as much treble as possible goes through. For tone pot on an HB guitar, I would typically aim for a 1M (preferably no load), so that it only removes treble when I want it to.

And, of course, the main factor in 50s wiring is the value of the capacitor used.

Like I say, this is how I understand it, but I could be wrong.


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[AlexR]

Re: 1950s wiring question - pot taper combinations

Jeremy is on the money. Taper merely changes how quickly you roll the pot to get a certain k reading. It changes nothing about the way that k reading affects tone, unlike the way the tone circuit attachment does.

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: 1950s wiring question - pot taper combinations

Thanks for your help guys. Usually I never buy logarithmic pots but it's always good to have some reassurance on this tele style 4 way blade wiring I'm doing later today.