Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

[ItsaBass]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

I find the audio taper to be better suited to how I use a volume knob. That is either as a kill knob, or as a manual tremolo knob. In those cases, the less I have to turn it to get the biggest effect, the better. I rarely turn it down and leave it set below 10 when I am playing, so precision is not a factor for me.

However, I find the finer, more precise, and more consistent control of the linear taper to help with making the tone controls better tools.

I do prefer audio for volume and linear for tone, however it isn't something to get that hung up on IMO. I can deal with a linear volume just fine, and though an audio tone is always somewhat annoying to me, it'll do the trick.

 

[lordraptor1]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

Choosing audio (log) vs. linear depends on what you will be using the pot for. You should always use audio pots for volume control, otherwise you will find that the volume does not change smoothly as you turn the pot up and down. With a linear taper pot, you will find that the volume increases slowly from 0 to about 60 or 70 percent, then increases rapidly from that point on. This is because there isn't a direct relationship between resistance and volume in a passive circuit (which is what a guitar with passive pickups is). Audio taper pots compensate for this, and give you a consistent volume change throughout the sweep.

A tone control, on the other hand, works best with a linear taper pot. The role of a tone control is to feed part of your signal to a capacitor that bleeds the treble to ground. In order to have a smooth transition from bright tone to mellow tone, the pot has to be linear. You can use an audio taper pot in a tone control, but you won't find the tone roll-off to be as smooth as it could be.

Regarding capacitors: a guitar's tone circuit is what is known as a passive low pass filter. The capacitor only lets high frequencies through, and it dumps these frequencies to ground. Whatever is left (low frequencies) continues on to the volume control and out the jack to the amp. This is why it's called a low pass, because the lows "pass" through the circuit while the highs are blocked.

As Jeremy said, the value of the cap determines at what point in the frequency spectrum the frequency cut-off occurs. The higher the cap value, the lower the cut-off point will be. In other words, higher value caps will make your tone darker when the tone control is set below 10. Strats and Teles generally have .022 uF caps and Les Pauls generally have .047 uF caps. I have seen guitars with caps as high as .068 and as low as .010.

This concludes today's lecture

I would like to add to the cap statement here in regards to les pauls, more and more people ( myself included) are using .015 on neck pickup and .022 on bridge pickup personally I have Sprague orange drop caps and also odd is I got lucky because my epi lp standard plus top pro came from the factory like that (had to because I was told by GC it was new and I confirmed with epi the guitar was brand new that I was the original purchaser). i read somewhere that Gibson started putting orange drop caps on all Gibson models in 2014 but i believe they were .022 on both neck and bridge.

best thing i can tell you for tone caps is try a few different ones and see which sounds best to you

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

I find that Carvin and Ibanez use Linear volume and Audio taper tone

I prefer mine this way

 

[David Collins]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

I find that Carvin and Ibanez use Linear volume and Audio taper tone

I prefer mine this way

Gibson has run their controls this way since the 70's as well. Most imports and a few other US makers run linear volume and audio tone, but very few (save for mistakes and oversight) will come with linear tone controls. Videos 2 & 3 in this series go in to how different tapers react differently in these applications.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO33g8sM_b8V2Z25rI2VPWFOb00X79wIn

 

[lordraptor1]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

personally on my les pauls i use .022 on the bridge and a .015 on the neck ( sprague orange drops). i must also point out that my 2014 was purchased brand new in the store and the aformentioned combination (.022 bridge/.015 neck sprague orange drops) are what was installed on it .

 

[Driverfrown]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

I prefer the tone pot to be audio taper not linear for variable tone. The reason for this is I lose significant resonant peaks using linear taper except for the 3-0 range ccw motion. At which point I might as well just install a fixed cap switch instead of wasting the space for a pot.

 

[Zombiwoof]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

There are different audio pot tapers (like 10% and 30%), the ones from the vintage days, 50's and such were different than the modern stock audio taper. That is why there are many custom taper pots on the market now. I don't like the modern CTS audio taper much, but you can buy a custom taper pot that has a vintage audio taper and it is much smoother in the change in volume or tone. The current DiMarzio custom taper pots are good and not much more than a stock CTS, they are the vintage dished-back CTS pots with a custom ordered audio taper that is more like the audio taper on the vintage pots. There are many other custom-taper pots, also look for ones with a better tolerance, stock CTS is 20% tolerance, which means for instance a 500k pot can measure anywhere from 450k to 550k, look for ones with at least a 10% tolerance or better. Many are also tested to be within a certain amount of resistance from the stated taper, these cost a little more but it makes a difference. I like audio pots all around, but I also prefer the custom vintage taper type, which are not like the modern "on or off" type of taper.
Al

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

I’ve been using the 10% ones from guitarelectronics.com

 

[Zombiwoof]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

I’ve been using the 10% ones from guitarelectronics.com

That means they are 10% tolerance, meaning they are within 10% of the stated resistance value (250k or 500k, etc.), not to be confused with 10% or 30% audio taper. Just to clarify.
Al

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

That means they are 10% tolerance, meaning they are within 10% of the stated resistance value (250k or 500k, etc.), not to be confused with 10% or 30% audio taper. Just to clarify.
Al

Correct

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

Can only play with zero tolerance!!!
Or the icepick will skewer me hand!

 

[jeremy]

Re: Audio Taper vs. Linear Taper (whats what) and Cap Questions...

seems like .005 is a good place to start, eh? i dont usually go below .01 since that is subtle enough for me, loses highs and a bit of upper mids but doesnt turn super bassy