Potentiometers - What have you discovered?

[ShredCow]

So... I've tried a couple of pots, back when I was DIY-ing my own wiring and stuff... Here's what I've found regarding tapers & overall quality.

Dimarzios
Available at Swee Lee. Very sturdy, well built standard sized pots that are actually slightly larger than a CTS pot, if memory serves me well. I remember using them as volume pots.
The taper is very even from 0 to 10... just even volume swell. No jumps. Torque is smooth and firm - pinky-ing the pot is not an issue.
I remember it being incredibly sturdy - I practised soldering on it and it just kept working!
Has a brass shaft which I think feels better.
Not too pricey.

CTS
Available... uh... lots of places. Very sturdy, well built and they are the standard higher quality pots.
However, the QC seems to have taken a dip in recent times - I've had CTS pots where the taper is... ridiculous. 10 to 9, the volume dips to half. Some of them the shafts weren't tight but loose/shaky. The torque seems too tight while some are loose from the packet. I've not tried enough to be THE authority but that's what I've been noticing from the few that cross my path. Reading stuff online (danger!) also indicate that tolerances have shifted.
The newer CTS pots no longer have brass shafts - they use aluminium shafts... not a bigger I suppose but the aluminium shafts don't seem as well made as before.
Well, they aren't too pricey, easily found and if the store will help sieve thru & measure them, sure, why not?

RS Guitarworks
Now some techs say they are overpriced CTS pots... same for Dimarzios btw... but for the set I purchased and judging from the set my friend got, they seem different.
For one, buying CTS pots from them - the CTS pots are specially spec-ed: Brass shafts, tighter tolerances.
On to the RS Superpot - only for volume position - like their custom CTS pots only that the taper has been tweaked.
Now this one I REALLY like for volume tweaking. 1 - 6, even smooth taper. 7 - 10, a steeper, but even, taper. So playing with amps or a volume-sensitive drive (e.g. Seventheaven), twisting the pot back a little, gets your tone cleaned up. The steeper taper isn't confined to a silly narrow margin (e.g. 10 - 9?!?!) so its still easy to get the inbetween settings.
Torque is firm and consistent for both pots.

Gotoh
Well, I didn't like the quality... they don't look as well made and the torque varies from pot to pot. Shaft can be shaky or tight... the thing looks cheap. Looks isn't everything but I'm not a tech, I can only say it looks ... cheap.
And cheap it is!
I can't remember anything about the volume taper actually so ... anyone has anything to say about them?
I remember that they are smaller because of the mm measurements so for those with Ibanez (and other asian) guitars, if you're afraid of widening the holes, then perhaps Gotoh is the way to go to.




What have you discovered?

 

[ShredCow]

A word on Pot-age.

A word on Pot-age

Many many to choose from - Gotoh, CTS, Dimarzios, Alessandro, RS Guitarworks, vintage... stock. Some cost a couple of dollars and some 50USD and the rest the price of a guitar.

Does it really matter in your guitar?

Well, if you're a player that just leaves the pot full on - perhaps you might not want to do anything.

However, if you're a player who utilises the volume/tone controls a lot and your current pots are frustrating you, then yeah, time to check out other pots... they matter more in your context.

If you're going to measure your pots and find that your volume pot measures 515k instead of 500k and therefore, you can't sleep or play Sweet Child of Mine... then... uh... you need a Variax.

 

[digsy]

i'm only to be a thread digger and revive this thread..

I'm currently contemplating changing the pots of my Telecaster... there seems to be something wrong with the Volume pot (stock)... the volume seems to be constant regardless of which "position" i set it at... i don't get any volume swells that i have with my SG (Gotoh)... both guitars are fitted with Orange Drops caps (both fitted by Master Beez).. so is there something wrong with the volume pot?? I can hear the difference with my Tone pot after the orange drop mod but b4 that it was similar to the volume knob.. For my SG, I can clearly hear the difference whenever i turn up the volume/tone knob from 5-7 and 8-10..

from my understanding, a single coil guitar will have 250K pots on them while the humbuckers will have 500K on them... from my "research" from the net and reading form other forums, the difference is that the higher the value the brighter it will sound (correct??) and doesn't affect any volume/tone increase... so if i'm going to be change the pots for my tele, should i change to 500K or simply get better quality pots? was thinking of getting the Gotohs like my SG but reading the above they seem to be of poor quality..

hoping someone out there can help me unravel this? i'm extremely confused with what the other forums are telling me.. any inputs would be much appreciated..

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

If volume drops by half when turning from 10 to 9, it shouldn't be an audio tapered pot. If CTS labelled it as one then that's a big mistake.

 

[PeteC]

Hi There,
I use Alpha pots. made in Taiwan, and very good quality and a great price.
The pots all need to be logarhytmic in the taper and not linear.
To explain this a little better, if you set a 500k linear pot at its centre position, and use a multimeter between the wiper (centre pin) and each of the outer pins in turn, then the reading will be close enough to 250k on each side.
Now if you test a logarhythmic (or Audio Taper) pot in exactly the same way, a typical reading is 86.5k in one direction and 413.5k in the other direction.
These are the pots to use for volume controls.
This is because the human ear does not hear sound in a linear fashion, it "hears" (the brain interprets) in a logarthymic curve.
So, if you have a pot in your guitar, that sounds as if all the volume is scrunched between say 8 and 10, then it is a linear pot and should be replaced.

The interesting part is how you apply this knowledge to your guitar circuitry.

All my guitars are fitted with tone bleed caps on the volume pot. For a humbucker I use a 271 pico farad cap between the wiper and the hot.
This allows the guitar volume to be incrementally turned down without losing any prescence.
How many guitars do you own that only sound good with the volume turned to max???
I'm guessing a lot of them.
What is really cool about this, is when you are playing through a gain channel on your amp (tube amps only)
Set your volume at max to the lead solo volume and crunch you are after,
now turn your volume down, the crunch diminishes, the high notes sparkle, and you are set for rhythm playing.
No need for separate channel switching or gain boost pedals any more.

Also another little Crossley Guitars trade secret.
When I use humbuckers (99% of the time!!!) I use a 250K tone pot with a 470 micro farad capacitor. NOT a 500k tone (I still use a 500K pot for volume BTW)
What this little combo does is retain the nice mids of your tone control, so that it doesnt turn to mud at the halfway position. It retains prescence pretty much all the way, Think smooth golden 335 tones (especially on the neck pickup)

So.... Dont be dictated to as to what is the "correct" value for volume and tone pots, Experiment with stuff and find the best ones to try and get "that" tone out of your head and out of your speakers.

Hope this helps somewhat.
Cheers
Pete

 

[dudelove]

i'm kinda noob abt pots and stuff, but i noticed that for my fender strat, rolling the knob down to abt 7 or 8, the guitar cleans up very nicely, i get a super clean tone.

whereas, for my les paul, i need to roll the knob all the way to 1 or even 0.5 to get a clean sound. settings on my rig and amp are both the same. overdrive on and i want to clean up with the volume knob for a clean tone.

is this due to different pot values the two guitars have, or simply because single coils clean up better than humbuckers. i know for sure that the pot values of both guitars are different.

 

[digsy]

All my guitars are fitted with tone bleed caps on the volume pot. For a humbucker I use a 271 pico farad cap between the wiper and the hot.
This allows the guitar volume to be incrementally turned down without losing any prescence.
How many guitars do you own that only sound good with the volume turned to max???
I'm guessing a lot of them.
What is really cool about this, is when you are playing through a gain channel on your amp (tube amps only)
Set your volume at max to the lead solo volume and crunch you are after,
now turn your volume down, the crunch diminishes, the high notes sparkle, and you are set for rhythm playing.
No need for separate channel switching or gain boost pedals any more.

Pete

Hi Pete,

thanks for the great explanation and i seem to better understand it now... what you mentioned above is probably the "volume swell" that I'm seeking for the telecaster... from your explanations above, i have a feeling there's is something wrong with my volume pot because as mentioned previously, there is only a noticeable increase when i turn it from 0 to probably 2... will get it changed when I order my GFS pickups soon

another question about pots actually, this time about concentric pots.. I also own a Squier 51 and am thinking of switching it to a concentric pot because i like having both volume and tone controls... i understand that the split coil function would not be available after that... anyways for this case, should i switch it to a 250K or 500K concentric pot since there's a humbucker and single coil?? any one heard of a concentric push-pull pot???? there seem to be some rumours from the Squier 51 forums that they do exist.. any ideas?

 

[Victorinox]

Have experience with CTS pots and alpha pots.

CTS: Its suppossed to be higher quality but I didn't like them in the guitars I tried. The volume drop was too sudden when rolling it down from 10. It was a problem to me. It happened in both the guitars I tried that I could be sure was a CTS pot.

Alpha: I like these. They are smooth and the volume drop when rolling back the volume down from 10 was more gradual and more usable. They are cheaper(USD2.50). I bought a few from reverend for my reverend guitar.

Gotoh: They seem ok but I had a bad experience with their 5 way selector so I dont buy gotoh electronics anymore.

And I think teeth on the knurled split shaft (ie for strats) are not the same. The teeth on the CTS are finer than those of the alpha. They require different knobs. Some that fit the CTS wont fit the cheaper alpha brand and those that fit the alpha wont fit the CTS. I'm quite sure thats the case although I've told people before and they dont really believe me.

Hope you have fun experimenting with pots.

 

[lightice]

Has anyone tried ALPS pots?

I haven't tried them on guitar per se but they work great for effects/audio application. V low noise and smooth taper for log A pots.

 

[edder]

A lot of so called log pots are actually linear'ish log pots.

Imagine the log curve being smooth at the transition, the lousy ones are 2 straight lines connecting each other. Which is why the sharp volume drop.

Alps pots are very nice. I used to use the green garden variety ones for guitar rewiring many years back. Last a long time and super smooth. However last I heard from my supplier is that the current green ones are made in Taiwan and are not as good as those Made in Japan ones in the past.

I've yet to try those ALPS black boxy ones thats even more audiophile grade.