Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

jrbowen81

jrbowen81

New member
I've never owned a guitar with a push-pull coil tap pot until very recently, and I have a few questions about them. The 2 volume pots on this guitar are 500k Alphas, which I've heard are pretty decent. I'm guessing the tone pot is Alpha as well, but I need to have a better look to be sure.

I'm just having a couple of minor issues with the tone pot.

1. The volume pots have a decent "feel" to them. Not as firm as CTS, but still pretty smooth. The tone, on the other hand, feels a little too easy to turn. Maybe it's just made that way? I'm not sure.

2. The taper of the tone doesn't sound right. It's like from 10 down to about 3 or 4, there's hardly a noticeable difference, but as soon as you get past there then you hear a drastic change.

So do I need to look into replacing this with another 500k Alpha push-pull pot? Does Bourns or CTS have better feel and better audio taper?
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

WD Music make a new Push Push pot that is superb.

Much easier to use than a Push Pull :friday:
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

Slight thread hijack but mostly on topic and I guess helpful to the OP in any case.

What size are the DiMarzio push/pulls? UK/US knobs needed? What guitars will the DiMarzios fit? Specifically, will they fit an Epi LP (1998 I think)?

My research has come up with competing answers but mostly a distinct lack of info out on the net. Even the guitar shop couldn't help properly, although they suggested they would not fit my Epi! It's the only bit that's holding me up finally replacing my pups.
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

All you need to do is ream out the hole a bit, no big deal. I only use US sized pots.
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

wolf5150 said:
WD Music make a new Push Push pot that is superb.

Much easier to use than a Push Pull :friday:
Click to expand...

Wow, that WOULD make it much easier to switch, especially mid-song! For some reason, I was thinking push-push pots were only for boost circuits & such. Very interesting. I just wonder how tricky it would be to tell whether the switch is "in" or "out" before playing in a live situation, for example. Do they stick out more from the guitar like a push-pull would?
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

Bezza said:
Slight thread hijack but mostly on topic and I guess helpful to the OP in any case.

What size are the DiMarzio push/pulls? UK/US knobs needed? What guitars will the DiMarzios fit? Specifically, will they fit an Epi LP (1998 I think)?

My research has come up with competing answers but mostly a distinct lack of info out on the net. Even the guitar shop couldn't help properly, although they suggested they would not fit my Epi! It's the only bit that's holding me up finally replacing my pups.
Click to expand...

Yes, very helpful! Thanks for bringing that up. A lot of people probably forget to factor in whether their guitar is US or foreign/metric.
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

they work exactly like a push pull would so you'll be able to see if its on by the height of the knob. They also make two hole sizes. Its a really superb pot and i've just received one that will replace my Anderson's push pull tone pot.
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

Ok, so regardless of which brand I end up getting, do I need to go with coarse or fine splines? Import guitars use fine don't they? Reason I'm asking is because I'd rather not replace the knobs if it can be avoided. These are unique and I know Schecter doesn't sell replacement parts. Most of the pots I've found online that I would want are US spec.
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

Most any good pot will be US spec, like I said, you just need a step bit or a reamer to enlarge the holes in the body. As for splines, the stock import knobs will probably not work, I've got a whole mess of LTD knobs that I can't use. The splines on bournes pots are different than on CTS/DMZ/Alpha US pots, but they're the same overall OD (3mm, I believe), so knobs don't seem to be a problem, or never have for me.
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

King IzzO))) said:
Most any good pot will be US spec, like I said, you just need a step bit or a reamer to enlarge the holes in the body. As for splines, the stock import knobs will probably not work, I've got a whole mess of LTD knobs that I can't use. The splines on bournes pots are different than on CTS/DMZ/Alpha US pots, but they're the same overall OD (3mm, I believe), so knobs don't seem to be a problem, or never have for me.
Click to expand...

Good tips. Thanks!
 
Re: Push-pull Pots: Which brand/type is best?

my Ibanezes came with the 10mm Asian pots
I replaced one of tones with a 3/8 Push-Push from Mojo Musical Supply
here is the second one I installed in the same guitar
on the Push-Push there is a warning to make sure the knob is in the
UP position before trying to remove the splined knob
it will strip the mechanism if you PULL on a Push-Push

100_0166.jpg

100_0167.jpg
 
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