School me on pots!

Socrates

Socrates

New member
I'm putting a custom strat style guitar together piece by piece (just purchased body and neck from USA Custom Guitars) and I don't know much about pots except what they do (even though I work with electronics :smack: )

I know that 250k is generally for single coils and 500k is for humbuckers, but I'm having trouble buying the right ones because I don't know certain things (split shaft/solid shaft? bushing size?) do any of those things matter?

Is there a difference in tone pots and the volume pot?

So pretend I don't know anything and give me your knowledge on potentiometers :)

Thanks
 
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Re: School me on pots!

The main idea is that volume pots are wired as a voltage divider to ground and so their resistance loads the inductance of the pickups, flattening and lowering their resonant peak. Lower values result in smoother treble and attack. A 500k volume with vintage singles may result in ice-pick ear bleed.

A 500k tone pot with vintage output single coils may not start to perceptibly bleed treble until you've turned it a bit, so 250k is preferred. A 250k is actually a little bit low so it's like you always have the tone rolled off a teeny bit. I prefer to wire strats with a bridge tone control - it tames the bridge pickup a bit.

Pots are nearly always log("audio taper"), though tones can sometimes be linear. Some guys who use a lot of distortion prefer a linear volume as it controls the highly compressed distortion signal better.

Strat and LP knobs are made for split-shaft pots. Beware cheap import pots - they may have a finer spline that won't match US-compatible knobs. Most Teles and Fender basses have set-screw knobs for solid shaft pots.

That's all I can think of that I know about pots.

Oh, yeah - you probably know this but pots are all over the place with regards to resistive element quality and taper, and in a guitar circuit the differences are pretty audible. A lot of cheap pots have a terrible two-stage non-taper that results in a very non-smooth volume control. They can also make your pickups sound muddy, especially when you turn the volume down.
 
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Re: School me on pots!

What he said.

I use audio taper for volume and linear for tone. Works great for me.

Side note - CTS are definitely worth it. If you like to work the guitar volume, then the taper of that pot is very important. Most mid-quality guitars I've played have average at best pots. It really sucks when you want to roll down your guitar volume to 5 for a clean sound, and it makes almost no difference.

Side note - most import pots I've used (or at least, the pots on import guitars) are very stiff. I personally hate that. Aftermarket pots are usually a bit better, but if they're still a bit stiff for you, do what I do: take the casing apart (I use tweezers or something similar to lift the metal tabs) and remove the goop on the bottom. The less goop, the quicker you can turn the knob.
 
Re: School me on pots!

http://bcsguitars.com/?page_id=2219
so worth it.
I just replaced the wiring in my gibson 335 and the work this guy does makes the factory work look amateur. It has also made the volume and tones smoother and easier to use...moch more gradual and less "knotchy". A big improvement for me because i use the volume and tone knobs constantly, for shading etc.
im not lazy about wiring...ive rewired dozens of axes. This guy's work is top shelf tho, and his expertise is worth it.
If you really want to do the work yourself tho and do all the wiring id still say that bourns pots are really worth it. Better than CTS even. Smoother, nice taper. really slick pieces of gear.
A cheaper option is ALpha pots (imported) which are good, but the bourns are the kinda "rolls royce" of pots.
Sprague Orange drop caps are good, and so are the old fashioned (expensive) paper in oil caps.
When you add up the cost of a few pots, switched and caps its not much really. You might change pickups a few times, but the pots stay in your axe, and every time you spin that dial, you will be glad you got the nice ones.
Get split shaft in regular. The long shaft ones are for les pauls.

p.s. that link also tells you what tapers and values to get if you are going to do it all yourself.
 
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