Which Pots Are Best For Your Guitar? (8 Important Basics)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
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Whenever I make guitar mod videos, I get a lot of questions about potentiometers - what do they do; which taper is the "best"; and which value pot is "correct" for a certain type of pickup. There are no hard & fast rules to any of it; so I wanted to explain 8 basic concepts about potentiometers when it comes to guitars.
Plus, I've just been sent some of the brand new 280k VIPots for Fender guitars - so I'll be using them throughout this video as a bit of an example to illustrate some of the ideas. (They're amazing things - since shooting this video I've put them into my guitars and they sound and feel superb!)
What do you think? Do you have any pot advice of your own? Did I miss anything? Comment below!
0:00 Intro
1:30 1. Value
3:44 2. Taper
6:44 3. Tolerance
7:37 4. Shaft Type
8:55 5. Feel & Quality
11:36 6. Availability
12:53 7. Measuring
14:08 8. Different Types
15:13 Outro
joeperkinsmusic
jp@joeperkins.co.uk
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Came here to find out what pot I should have smoked before playing guitar, took me 15min to realize I was not going to find that out in this video. But I feel like I have learnt something anyways..
Use something that gives you a nice head high :-)
@@AmperahGaming What other high is there? Thats why they always say.. "Hey man, you got anything for the head, man"?
Just some reall good stuff and pass it this way..420 all around the world!
Well, I was interested in using 500k audio taper CTS pots (short shaft). Not any clear info about those, but this might still help. :)
Purple haze of course
Solid information. 👍For those interested, the reason that 250/280K pots versus 500/550K pots change your guitar's tone is because you're changing the the impedance relationship (resistance to ground in this case) between your guitar and your amp (or your stomp boxes, etc.), _which actually changes the frequency response of your guitar signal._ There's an old audio engineer rule that applies to sequentially connecting any audio gear: "Low Out, High In."
Which means "keep your output impedance as low as you can and the impedance of what you're plugging into as high as you can to preserve high frequencies and dynamic range (and keep noise level down)."
The log taper is meant to match the ear's response to loudness, which is essentially logarithmic.
So 10 is meant to be "twice as loud" as 5... or about 10 times the power / 3.16 times the voltage (as opposed to 2x the voltage / 4x the power, as you'd expect from a linear taper).
Correct! I was wondering if someone would pick this up.
For people who want the best of both worlds regarding pot values, a stacked pot with a common shaft wired in series with eachother through a switch will let you switch between 250k and 500k (or 500k to 1M)
Thanks for the tip for lefties, explained why my tone pot is like a switch.
Oh no! I have been playing a left handed guitar with a dead tone pot for years. I changed the wiring as you mentioned and it suddenly sounds alive! Thank you so much!
Aha no worries! It amazes me guitar companies do that…makes the controls fairly useless!
This is a great tutorial; very informative. Don’t forget metric vs. imperial pots. For example metric split shaft pits have 18 points on the knurling, whereas imperial pots have 24. This will determine which push-on knob you choose.
Sometimes TH-cam just throw at you loads of videos no one has the intention to watch. However, this one is the lucky dip, regardless the years of experience still learned a new things. Thank you Joe and certainly you have a bright future ahead of you, well done.
Dude. Unrelated to this video but after 28 years of playing I finally got myself a telecaster guitar, so excited😂! I also have a Williams TB Mark 1 coming in the mail, can't wait to get those two together
Argh I bet mate - that's a match made in heaven!! :D Let us know what you think of the MkI...sure you're gonna love it!
This is the best, most informative review of pots..ever!! I have always wondered about the different tapers, and now I know! Thanks for taking the time to make this video!
This is an excellent video! Thanks so much for keeping everything concise and informational. I learned a lot here!
Excellent content and well organized. Thank you.
Great video, full of information and easily explained stuff!
This was fantastic. Thank you!!!
I have learned much of this recently but you have SO efficiently covered it all.Thank you!
A very detailed explanation! Really helped me to understand better the concept of pots, thanks a lot!
This is great work. Valuable information conveyed concisely and efficiently. Thank you.
This was amazingly useful, thank you!
Very informative and well explained. Straight to the point yet thorough. Thank you sir.
probably the most useful youtube video ive ever seen.
Very comprehensive and well explained! Thanks for the part about how the log taper works and also freeing the values from their historic context...
Great video! I am learning about pots and this helped a lot. Thanks!
Complete and concise presentation. Great explanation of all points regarding pots.
Best and clearest knowledge of pots I've heard to date. Simple instructions and easy to follow. Thank you. My OCD causes me to lose track of information when the speaker goes on a rabbit hunt with wording. None here. To the point... YaY !
That was really great and fully informative. Thank you!!
Man, your video is the best I’ve seen! God bless you!
Wow!!! So much information in one video!! You saved me a lot of time from finding all the characteristics individually!! EXCELLENT!!! Thank you!!
Joe-Thank you for this specific video. I can not begin to tell you how important this knowledge is to me at this point in time. Best Regards and thank you again!!
Rad video. Thank you so much for taking the time.
Infinite love and gratitude from Colorado.
Thank you for the explanations, Joe! You did a great job!!
This was way more interesting than I thought it would be! Thanks!
Absolutely great video! So informative. Thanks!
This is super helpful! Worth multiple watches. I’ve been experimenting with different pots in my builds and this clears up a lot of questions!
Excellent video Joe, First rate explanation of the facts is particularly helpful - it's clear you know your subject very well which makes it far easier to absorb everything. Thanks for taking the time to do this video, very much appreciated.
Amazing explenation, thank you so much for this! it helped me a lot!
Excellent video! Very clear and easy to understand and really helpful information
Very good, thorough information. Thank you.
This explained so much. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
The best explanation on potentiometers ever. Gr8! Dude.
This is a VERY informative video that is really well done! Great explanations that are clear and concise, yet also in-depth with a lot of examples. I learned so much from this one video that would have taken 10 different TH-cam videos to get the all the same information you present. Bravo, and thank you!
Thank you for the clear presentation.
Love your channel, very informative
That was very well presented! 👍
Thanks a lot for putting this video together. Great and useful material for people doing mods themselves
No worries Nicolas :-)
this is maybe the best and informative video for pots and electronics on youtube. very good job!
Excellent explanations. Thank you.
BRILLIANT video. Thank you so much!!
This is an excellent video, very informative! Thanks Joe!
No problem :-)
Excellent pot summary ;) Well done!
Very informative, thanks!
I dont know why i waited so long to search for a video on pots. This is amazing, very clear and simple to understand. Fine job!
Thank you, I enjoyed your video. Well done. Appreciated.
super video dude
thx for sharing
Brilliant - the clearest most concise explanation of potentiometer values, taper and use on TH-cam ! Thank you sir !
Thank you, by the way, for the most useful presentation on guitar pots I have found so far.
really helpful, thanks Joe
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great info, thanks!
Lots of great info 👏👏
🙏😁 Wow!!! Amazing, thank you for that.
You just simply slammed all my questions in this one Video!
Clear, pleasant & satisfying.
God bless, blessed man.
Excellent, informative, no-rambling guide. Thanks.
Very informative thanks.
thanks so much, i had issues with my tone pot and switched the wire to a different prong and presto, its great
Awesome man. Thanks much for the info. Great presentation. 🤘🏼
Cheers John - glad it was useful :-)
Great info. Thank you!
Very informative - thanks.
EXCELLENT video. Thank you.
Extremely helpful! I mean, this guy knows his stuff, and is super articulate, which is really important. Imagine what the world could be like if everyone online was as informed and well spoken as this? Slightly less doomed feeling!
Thanks Chris - the internet can be a harrowing place, for sure!!
@@JoePerkinsMusic So do you use Audio/Log taper for "both" tone & volumes controls? I'm getting ready to upgrade a couple lefty guitars. Thanks!
Joe this is very useful, and clear explanation, I have always used the typical 250k and 500Kohm pots with diff caps bleed circuits etc. This info will help me change and get better sound out of some of my humbucker guitars. Great vid my man!
Glad it was useful for you mate 🙂
Great info about logarithmic pots in L/h guitars! I'm a lefty too and just started guitar DIY and it never occurred to me until you mentioned it!
Yeah, I was thinking about whether I should put lefty pots in, but figure I’ll just stick with them turning the RH way. I have some guitars one way and some the other. I don’t feel any great need to have them turn the “lefty” way. Don’t see that it makes much difference. And it generally just means the numbers on the knob are meaningless as you don’t often get knobs with the numbers the other way around for lefties.
Thank you, what a great explanation!
That was excellent. Thank you Joe Perkins.
Thank you! Extremely informative, thorough and really easy to understand. Great job. -from a new Subscriber
Very well explained not many people talk about the feel of the pot.
Great video, thanks man
Very informative video, you answered some lingering questions I've had. One note for do it your selfer's who don't have a lot of soldering experience, the smaller pots are much more susceptible to internal damage from the heat of a soldering iron being left on them for too long when connecting a ground wire to the pot case.
Superb !! As usual !!
Thank you. Very educational.
Really really thank you, I'm a lefty and now I finally understand why my pots just work on the range of 3 to 0. I've been searching why this happens this for long time, till get to your video, because I thought something was wrong with my pots.
Excellent explanation.
Thank You Great Information !
This was extremely useful.
This is great. Thank you.
Just fell on this vid, Awesome info!
Excellent explanation
Wow, this is immensely informative! 10/10 insta-sub earned.
Great pot overview. I'm replacing the coils in my old Roadstar II (had it for close to 40 years now), but the read driver of opening it up and getting dirty is that the selector and one of the pots cut out at times, so understanding the pots at this level of detail is helpful for me to make sure I don't invest in great new coils only to screw them up by a bad pot choice. Lost of great fill info too - that left hand taper info is gold. I'm not a lefty, but it's still a great example of a hidden trap.
#5 - Quality. My issue is also with rattling pots!!! Not only with wobbling pots but tap some on the top and it rattles! You can’t touch the pot without making a clicking noise!! Another thing to note is scratchy pots. Your sound suddenly comes to life with new pots and Deoxit d5 helps prolong its life. Thanks for the video.
Great video. The only thing you didn't mention is the difference in the number of splines on US pots (24) compared to Metric (18). Believe me that can be an unexpected issue when you go to put knobs on.
Thanks for mentioning this, my country mostly uses metric for everything so I assume our pots will be too
Great info... ty
Welcome back !!!! I really missed you not being around!!!
More videos coming soon...hopefully! :-)
Good video!. I do think there are a couple more points you might have covered.
First, there are more than one audio/log tapers. Modern stock CTS audio pots have a 30% audio taper, but some "Custom taper" CTS pots use a 10% audio taper, similar to some guitar pots in the 50's and 60's. That "vintage 10% audio taper" reportedly has a smoother and less abrupt taper than modern log pots.
Another point is that you can adjust the taper of any pot using "tapering resistors" across specific lugs of the pot. Depending on what value of resistor and which lugs you solder them across, you can adjust the pots taper, overall resistance, or both. There are articles online that describe how to do this, try searching "tapering resistors" on the web to see how to do it.
🤔 and thats not not a double negative...
Really useful thanks
good channel, love ur videos.
Thank you. Now I know about values, higher brighter. Good video
You got it! :-)
Great Info
Thank you. You explained that very well. I like that you didn't use lingo that no one understands but techies.
Awesome video.
Very informative video
thx for the helpful information...
thank ya for the Information very cool