3 Myths About Guitar Pots
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- 3 Myths About Guitar Pots
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In this vlog we talk about where guitar pots are made. Many people think CTS pots are made in the USA. We also talk about when it is good to change the pots in your guitar. There are 3 myths about guitar pots that i see a lot on the internet.
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If people put as much effort in playing as they do on obsessing over stuff like this, we'd have some really amazing guitar players.
EXACTLY
Things like potentiometers, capacitors and tone wood make an incredible amount of difference in the tone of one's guitar...in one's own head.
Haha, yeah. And if people focused on writing good songs as much as they practice playing guitar we'd have some really amazing music!
Hey! Tone obsession is a great obsession! But it's like vynal vs digital or solid state vs tube. Important stuff man!
True man true. I personally prefer Emerson pots and caps, just because of the looks. They really add detail and depth to the cavity.
Never even heard of matched pots. That’s a new level of being obsessed with absolutely negligible detail. Too many people are concerned with everything BUT playing their damn guitar.
LOL! Yeah, I had never heard of "matched pots" either. That is funny. Just another weird snake oil opportunity.
Me
I get people preferring 1 Meg, 250k, or 500k pots as well as the kind of taper for specific guitars, though people shouldn’t obsess over it. But damn, matched pots? I didn’t know that was a thing either.
All means more or less to different people. There's so many people on the internet nowadays that are saying tonewood makes no difference in guitar building which is the biggest load of crap in all of guitar building history.
@@timstudio1.... you are SO Right, about the tonal & sustain qualities of various woods in building ANY stringed instrument. The possibilities and variations are as endless as all the various wood types that are on the planet.
People who say "the wood make no, or negligible difference" in tonal (and sustain) qualities.... know nothing, or... extremely little about the subject.
they only really matter in 2 situations: 1 when you have a very desirable collectible like a Fender 1957 Mary Kay worth 90k with everything correct: 2 when you are gigging hard and use your volume knob on stage as i do all night. The small ones do seem to wear faster if you gig a lot. i have only used full size Bourne's in my strats since 2000. if you are a home player every pot is a good pot unless it is failing.
Your video answered all the questions I’ve been researching lately. I was considering replacing the stock guts in my 09 Epiphone Les Paul but watching this I can tell you it doesn’t make the first gate. The guitar works fine has all the tone I need so I won’t fix what isn’t broken. Thanks for this video - really useful info.
More and more, I'm becoming a fan of Alpha. In my limited experience, they're just as tight on the tolerances as any others, but with a more consistently smooth action.
Anderson uses Alpha. The taper and friction is perfect.
I was CTS fan, now I prefer brass Alpha, smooth and fit 8mm hole in export guitar bodies. Anyway these days CTS are made in Taiwan.
I like Bourns, as they are smooth and attractively finished. But Alphas work just as well. Who cares? But CTS always seem to be priced at a premium.
algreen1231 Must check out those brass Alphas.
Bournes or Alpha ( normally marketed as Taiwan Alpha ) as both produce a true log pot if you want to pay the price but the multiple slope Log A are good enough . My local warehouse stocks Alpha at great prices , RS carry Bourns here in the UK .
Alpha are common in most amps too . You can buy conductive plastic by Omeg or Pfier but these are much more expensive and would you want to see a small green plastic square in your guitar despite being aerospace quality ? I have made a mini amp using these. 16mm Alpha round great for new custom builds where you don't want large cavities and covers , you don't need a 1 inch pot in there any more and stick to the 2 brands and you will have no problems whatsoever.
You can, with a little practice mod the pot slopes by thinning the carbon tracks after disassembly. So if your amp design calls for a 2M2 and you have only 1 Meg pots gently with very fine emery paper brush the track until it does its thing up to 2Meg or so .You can also cut and remove part of the track if you want it to do a certain job like cut volume at max , instead of using a switch .
Great video, my man... thanks. Alpha pots are made in South Korea, though. I use Alpha not only because of reliability, but also for feel...they are the smoother pots out there...
Its nice to hear some sanity in the growing mythology surrounding guitar technology.
Saw the videos pop up and disappear and was disappointed. Glad to see you’re back!!
Thanks, Dylan. I didn’t know most of the stuff you covered here. I’m not a full time guitar tech but occasionally I’ll do some work for a few friends. It’s most common when somebody brings me an Epiphone or some $200 thing off Amazon and they want me to “Gibsonize” it with better pickups and CTS pots. The look on their faces is priceless when I tell them they have to put up another $25 or so for Gibson knobs because their imported ones won’t fit.
Great video; very helpful for folks who are not sure about this stuff. The whole obsession with potentiometers, capacitors, DC resistance, magnets, strings, tone woods, bridge material and country of origin is out of hand. And this is just electric guitars! Forget about pedals, amps, speakers, microphones, and anything else.
Thanks for this.
I'm changing my cheap tiny pots mainly because they have 3 settings - off, on and sound like a fart mode.
I'll take the opportunity to use push pull potentiometers so that I can wire in a couple of extra bits without drilling holes and make space for switches. I'll be putting in cheap, small Chinese pots because they will fit into the cavity without me having to rout the body.
Surely if you have matched potentiometers in your guitar as soon as you change the volume or the tone they are no longer matched as they would then have totally different resistances, so they are only "matched" if you always keep them on full - in which case why bother having variable resistors at all?
I agree with everything you’re saying. I mostly play guitars with single pickups and have swapped a lot of pickups and pots cause it’s a hobby I like to fiddle with things. I’ve come to appreciate a smooth consistent taper more than anything. I find just as your saying that lower cost pots tend to perform more erratically ie you roll off the volume and it’s either no difference then it all drops off or the opposite. Also “cheaper” pots can some times be less smooth or gritty in the actual feel of the pot. I hav actually found rarely a 500k pot that is actually 550k ish. I like to swap these into guitars that I find muddy or pickups that to my ear lack a little on the high end and it seems to wake them up the difference is subtle but it’s there. By way of example I’ve found the newer Dimarzio super distortion kind of “flat” compared to older models but with a higher value pot it seems to sound better. Also a lot of newer Les Paul’s came with 300k pots I find them more pleasant with 500k. But your right the volume pot doesn’t change the tone it just lets more or less of what’s there out
Love it, just common sense and no just hype.
Absolutely brilliant my guy. Most electrical components are made in the eastern seaboard. And lot is rebranded. It amazes me that how many people don’t know this as a fact.
Thank you for busting this myth that is perpetrated in order to profit from peoples ignorance. I bought a Carvin guitar that came with small pots in the late 90's. Once in a blue moon they need cleaning, otherwise they work fine. The same goes for my 2014 Squier Classic Vibe 60's Strat which sounds great. I HAVE had full size CTS pots go bad on other guitars.
LOOK BEHIND YOU! There's a Sasquatch watching you up the trail behind the picnic table...
"Lemme 'splain" - Dylan
You never mentioned potentiometers are marked Log, and Lin and that it’s important when replacing ! 😉
What about reverse log too. I've only ever seen them on boost circuits in audio applications but they are still a thing!
Great video. I've actually been disappointed when changing out decades old mini pots for same resistance new, full sized pots. Time to buy a multimeter and start labeling actual values for me. Just so I know if I'm going up or down in resistance when replacing bad pots. It was very valuable to know that you haven't noticed a huge difference when measuring pots. Feel- wise I like alpha pots and dislike cts, but that's not a quality thing. Just personal preference
I'm also very fond of the people that can't tell the difference between something that is theoretically true, and something that is practically true. If you can't hear the difference, it doesn't matter- no matter what electronic principles say. Not a hard concept.
Changing pots and caps can make a bigger difference in tone than changing pickups. The lad at "the guitaristas" channel proved it with a Epiphone ES-335 dot. We could clearly hear the improvement with the upgraded pots and caps, but the expensive "Monty" PAF pickups didn't sound any better than the stock Epiphone pickups. Another video he changed the bridge and tailpiece, which improved the tone un-amplified, therefore amplified too.
Do you know how that "comparison" videos has been made? You really believe them? "Oh, yeah, everything is same, just pots and caps are changed". Of course that those elements can make a difference, but with value change, not a brand. And always, and I mean 100% always, the biggest difference makes a player. A good player can use a baseball bat and still sound good and make better music than, for instance, me, even on most expensive equipment.
Thank you! I bought a cheap guitar to mod and I left the stock pots and Switch. I did change the pickups but it wasn’t really necessary. Just was using it to improve my soldering skills and they sound slightly better. Most of what I did was fret leveling, neck adjustment, replaced a broken bridge with a roller bridge, replaced the nut, and tightened the tuners. It sounds great, looks great, and plays great for under $250. It stays in tune forever too without tuner replacements or any stupid monstrosities screwed to the head of the guitar. Also the volume pot doesn’t do smooth volume changes but I mostly dime the pots and if I wanna mess around with volume swells or something I have an expression pedal that can be mapped as a volume pedal. Most of the mods people do for better tone can’t really even be heard. It’s a waste of money.
You should do a episode like this on pickups. Boutique vs guitar fetish etc. If you haven't already.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You !! Greg from New Orleans. Just seeing this 5/17/22. Fixing & Playing since 1967. Some of the things players come up with blow my mind. I am in the electronic repair business as well. So I know a little more about the electronic guts than the average guy. I just smile and try to be polite. Just Subscribed Thanks
Everybody has their favourite type, i use CTS 450 series 250k linear taper,9% tolerance, brass shafted pots...to my ears they are superior,i need linear as i play Jazz's ,Precisions & a Jaguar PJ bass...the linear pot gradually fades in the bridge pickup but if i use a log pot nothing happens till 9 to 10 on the volume knob..great for guitarists were a little turn cleans up their tone and makes it slightly darker sounding...all tone pots should be linear if you want a proper range on the pot where at 5 or halfway it is roughly 50% ...these are just my opinions & what i have learned over the years,being a bass player now i think good quality,tight tolerence,linear pots are the only pots to use as we use both volume & tone knobs a lot ,& a hifi grade polypropylene capacitor fitted to the linear tone pot, a 2% very high quality one, personally i like the Fender bass Greasebucket tone circuit ,it only uses 2 x 2% polypropylene caps & a 4k7 1% tolerance resister...after many hearing tests & blind hearing comparasing tests i can hear the superior tone of the Greasebucket tone circuit using high grade components, if it made no difference hifi companies would not use high grade very expensive capacitors & pots etc...ask any speaker maker if passive component quality is important & they will laugh & say of course it is...poor quality caps in their crossovers & without the other high grade components, air core inductor⁰ coils, resisters,capacitors etc the speakers would sound nowhere near as good...same for bass's & guitars imo...glad we all have different views or it would be a boring world if we all liked the same things.......
Very informative Dylan, thank you. There is a point related to this subject matter in this video that wasn't articulated overtly. I have many guitars, MIK, MIC, MII and I have no problem with their pots. I have a 80's MIJ tele, beautiful guitar! I felt it sounded not overly "open" and so I changed pots to Emerson traditional tele pots. It had the desired effect. So, is it that there was an opening up of the sound, more harmonic richness to the sound, or was I just wishfully justifying my purchase by hearing an improvement, placebo effect?
I purchased a Squire not that long ago and as I was checking it over, I did notice that it has the small pots installed. I left them alone because the guitar sounds great and the taper is fine. In fact, I left everything electronic stock but the output jack. The only things I changed out were the tuners and bridge using Gotoh.
In most cases, cheap pots and electronics will be fine. I have experienced a faulty switch that needed to be replaced on my budget guitar. If you’re constantly gigging, then in my opinion you could change the electronics just for peace of mind
@@ramencurry6672totally!
thanx for all yr' vids. wish you were around 30yrs ago.
Just installed an Emerson Blend pot prewired harness setup in my parts Strat
The HAPPIEST i have ever been with a Stratocaster (have had 30+ fenders of all eras )
Since 1979 ! ! !
I'm TBD and I approve this video.
TBD3.0
This is really reassuring, thanks!
I bought a cheap guitar as a mod project and glad I don't have to worry about replacing the pots
My budget guitar has Mighty Might brand potentiometers. I think it’s owned by Cort guitars. It works fine. No need to change it.
I believe tone comes from the fingers. And mainly from the guitar perspective from a bone nut and decent setup. Including the amp also
Some of bourns pots are made in mexico, the high quality expensive ones, i think there the bourns 82 pots for vintage sound and taper. I actually like the small bourns pots, i use them and never have a problem.
Looks beautiful where you are - thanks for taking the time to explain this. I'm sceptical by nature, so I've always assumed the pot fetish was nonsense. Of course having a son who's an electrical engineer and never really using the pots much anyway made it easy for me.
If you use your pots a lot, feel is extremely important, too loose, too much friction can be very problematic
Guitar.... Pot... Oh guitar pots... Yeah I like those two . Now onto the recording session.
Useful info thanks, I appreciate your honesty in this video. I was going to change the pots on my Telecaster clone because I am upgrading the pickups, but now I'm going to leave them and just see if they work well with the new pickups. I've been to Myrtle Beach, it's a great place.
The value of the volume pot does make a difference in my opinion. I have a Squire which I thought about switching the pickups on, when I tested the volume pot, I found it only had a value of 234k ohms, I replaced it with a 250k emerson and now I'm happy with the sound and won't bother changing the pickups. The taper also feels better.
The hard to swallow fact is that every single thing has a tonal difference if you can't hear it you don't have the ear to hear it but I have changed the same value caps in guitar circuits with different brands and I can absolutely hear a difference, same thing in guitar amps, I can hear that difference and so can the boutique amp and guitar builders .
It’s all in where you put your focus.... are you having a pissing match over capacitors, or are you making music?
I guess people should buy a cheap pot, or take one from any broke device, and dismantle it. They would see a board with a printed graphite track (the resistor) connected to the outer pins, and a kind of sled, connected to the middle pin and sliding on the resistor. So I guess that the quality of a pot is more related to its mechanical properties, if it will last or start scratching, crackling, bouncing soon. Also, if you use 10/10 (volume/tone), maybe you could have tiny benefit getting rid of the pots and connecting right to the jack.
PastelComGini Yep. My Alpha pot feels and works great. I need to have a volume pot because I tend to play extremely loud and need it to reduce the signal when I’m not playing or I feedback like crazy. Plus I back off the volume pot for my “cleaner” sound. But when I want to bypass it completely, I just hit the blower switch I wired up.
Dylan,
I have been repairing, restoring and building guitars for over 34 years and I did not know that ALL pots are made over seas!!! Thank you for that information. Gonna use it hard and fast now.
Would I be correct to assume that Jacks and switches are also all made over seas???
Vic F.
More than likely man, manufacturing of these types of small components isn't really something that's stayed in the west, most companies have shifted production to china to cut costs, and at this point, I'd suppose there's no real point in a small company starting production of those components domestically. Even companies like Pure Tone, who make that great multi-contact 1/4" jack, that's more than likely just a design they have made by an overseas production facility.
I'm glad these replay.
I found out the hard way pots brand DOES matter. I installed seymour duncan jb on epiohone with the stock 500k push pull coil split quick connect and it didnt give the output it should. The gain was weak and the output was like the neck pickup.Tried many solutions (pickup height, string gauge) nothin helped. Untill i changed the volume push pull pot to regular cts 500k and the difference was huge.
That was cool, I listened to the whole thing while cleaning. Thank you for that
For the most part, anyone would have to agree. Sure, they are all "not made in the USA", but when dealers are selling them, they are being sold as "metric" or as "American"/"US", so yeah, there is a difference in the size , whether it's inches or in gorillamillimeters. About matched or unmatched pickups.... well, Lace sensor sets are all "matched", and they are set up such that the difference in position dictates how close to the strings they should be to make a difference between neck and bridge sounds.
And sure, that stuff about the tolerances might not matter so much, where the range of up to 20% or so on "the usual suspects" doesn't do much to your average single coil or humbuckers, but when you're dealing with high output humbuckers, and really need 1 meg pots, that 20% tolerance, as compared to some other companies that promise tolerances of 5 to 10% will be a very noticeable difference.
That said, I will not deny having wired guitars with 50 cent pots, but that's "making stuff", which is a world apart from a proper repair or restoration, and I can definitely respect someone's choices concerning stuff like brass shafts or those cool-looking plastic sealed pots.
Love a good taper! Reason #1 to change pots and I find 500k pots are indeed brighter \m/
THERES 1 for fact
I had a cheap Chinese pot that would cause any pickup I attached to it to squeal at a very high frequency if the gain was even remotely turned up. Same pickups with different pots and there was no squealing
i keep being reminded of toasters it's a very basic device some resistors that heat up ,put bread in wait toast pops up (unless you're a rickenbacker player of course ;-) )
Thanks for this excellent video
I really like this channel, because someone actually explains tone in a good way. I hate those super specific "tone people". In a comment section once in a video of a guy burning his guitar body (to make a cool look) and one idiot commented: why would you do that? It will completely mess up the tone! I was like jesus christ dude, no it will. I dont get why people are afraid of "tone". Its like people are afraid of "changing" the "tone"
Good video. I just bought some pots for my next build which is probably why this video appeared in my feed. Subscribed :) Anyway I ordered Gotoh pots, apparently made in Japan. Japan is known for excellent electronics, so I thought, cool.
Thx so much for this video!! very useful since guitar players love to feed on myths. I've bought a chinese tele, solid construction but bad electronics, bought some di marzio twang kings to replace the pickups, and was afraid i needed to also change the pots to get the full tone of the new pickups ! Cheers !
Thanks!
The first two tries at doing this video were stopped by park security guys that thought he was doing gang hand signs... (Hopefully Dylan knows that was said tongue in cheek. His vids are always full of good info.)
He says it with tongues.
Wish the class was on a different day than Sunday. Have a great day
Spot on!
Guitar Myths Buster ✊🏽
You made everything clear to me.
Thank you!
Nothing like science to debunk a good myth. Thanks!
Cool video. THanks for a great insight!
Wish you had done this two weeks ago, I just bought Gibson wireless pots for a left handed L.P. style guitar that I have turned into a right hander (getting sprayed as we speak) without even trying the small pots that came with it, damn!
I don't think I've ever actually had a guitar that came with small pots (that I know of, anyway) but pots are usually not something I change unless, like you say, they don't have a good taper to my taste or the tension is not what I want. I actually used PEC amp pots in a couple of my guitars because they don't turn very easily and I wanted the knobs to stay in a particular place to balance the two pickups a certain way.
On another guitar I went the opposite direction and have a low tension EVH pot for the volume for control of swells, etc. Although I found I don't do that many swells after all and it's somewhat annoying because I can easily bump it out of place, so I may go back.
When changing pots...don't bend one of the lugs to "attach" it to the pot for ground. Use a wire from the lug to the pot instead. While I realize this is more travel in the signal...it's just a ground and doesn't matter. Lastly, the reason I say don't bend the lug....they can break easily....very easily. I've broken dozens doing it. People do not realize that those lugs are attached to a plastic pcb board....that board can easily break. Don't bend the damned lug...use a wire. Most pro guitar makers....Epiphone for example don't bend lugs usually, they use a wire....for an obvious reason.
Good video....only thing I'd add is some pots are easier to turn.....seems to be better made pots. Some of my older guitars have heavy duty pots and they turn easier. This is helpful if you use the pot as a volume pedal type situation.
I'm in the uk love your channel and knowledge thanks Hill
when you have the volume pot all the way up, it has zero resistance or its 0 ohms, correct? so why do people say 250k or 500k pots affect your tone. I dont see how this can be true when the volume is all the way up
People will say since the signal still travels through it when fully open and some signal will “leak” off, mostly high end(something about capacitance). 250k will leak off more than a 500k. That’s why single coils usually get 250k to loose some of the shrill high end. You don’t want to loose it in a humbucker since it will sound muddy.
Is any of that true? I’ve never cared to test it. Honestly people just do whatever tradition is and hate change. Do people actually think everything Leo Fender did in the 1950s was perfect and no improvements have ever been made? Well Leo didn’t and constantly made changes up until he sold it in1965.
It's a passive circuit (unless you have active electronics...well Duh!) soooo... in the simplest case, with just a volume pot, you have the output of the pickup connected to one end of, say a 500k resistor. That is ALWAYS in circuit, even when the volume is all the way up There is (theoretically) 0 ohms between the output of the pickup and the output jack. BUT that 500k resistance of the pot is always across the output. That is the crucial part. So, depending of course on the output impedance (and we are always talking impedance, as the signal is an AC waveform) that means there is always a load across the pickup. This means that there is an interaction with the pot and the pickup coil. This explains why a 500k pot loads the pickup less, and because of the physics of impedance matching, means a brighter tone (i.e. LESS high frequency loss) which suits the darker sound of a humbucker. A 100k load will tend to reduce the top end, which works well with single coil pickups as they tend to be brighter in tone. A 1 Mohm pot would load the pickup less, and a 50K would load it more.
The toe control is a bit different. It uses the capacitor to shunt higher frequencies to ground, via the control pot. That still means there is a load on the pickup, but this is mitigated by the capacitor. Remember a capacitor is a DC block (ideally) and depending on the impedance of the circuitry will allow increasing amounts of electricity through, as the frequency of the signal increases. It's a bit more complicated than that, but in essence that's how it works. The most crucial part of the tone circuit is the value of the capacitor, dependent on the pickup and the value of the tone pot. And buying an inordinately expensive hand made oil and paper capacitor is a complete waste of money.
@@johnmorrison5502 "Do people actually think everything Leo Fender did in the 1950s was perfect and no improvements have ever been made?" Well yes. Many do. And they are wrong. Those guitars were made to be cheap to manufacture, and assembled by semi-skilled labour. The fact that many mythologizes them is a different matter. Many guitarists seem to believe in "magic".
*Extremely informative. **#cheers*
I love MBSP there's an awesome little trail near the gift shop/ information center pier. Great place to watch a sunrise. Been to myrtle beach innumerable times.
Great video about pots, we are in agreement. I use several types from dime size to full size metric to cts and alpha.
Who has time to test the negligible difference in pots? I’m too busy testing white and black pickup covers, combined with black or tortoise shell pickguards. Talk about a difference in tone! Don’t get me started on straight or right angle plugs.
Excellent explanation of pots. Thanks!
There is a brand that wasn't listed in the video that makes quality components including a variety of potentiometers.
Alps Alpine (alps electric). There is a manufacturing facility located in texas.
I fully agree . Too many tinkerers and not enough players
In your personal opinion, Should the tone potentiometer have a linear taper or logarithmic? I'm in the camp that taper doesn't matter much. Does the curve really matter because it's just a certain position on the twist of a potentiometer? I've tried the 30/70 "Vintage Taper" but I don't know I'm sure that it matters. The touque is lower than I like. I like the "resistance" [not the electronic resistance] in adjusting the levels to be higher than "Mojotones" vintage taper.
I believe Wampler just changed their verbiage on the "Made in the USA" because there are laws about this.
The other reason is a single coil pickup calls for a full on resistance load of 250k or humbucker of 500k. Typically they come less than that. That changes the tone of the guitar overall. I like to measure my potentiometers at specification proper values. And change them if they are off by 2.5%. It does matter if I can hear the difference. I do hear the difference lets say a 435k compared to a 500k ohms.
Of course the pot values changes the tone but no one says that exactly 250k is the best for singles and 500k for humbuckers. It's all personel preference.
Matched pots are like matched strings. Would you want 6 matched strings on a guitar?
Thanks for that. There is a bunch of myths in the musician world. That makes me crazy!
I agree. I do like the durable feel/look and the 3 different tapers you can get on CTS pots (never been a fan of the friction free Bourns), but...I NEVER had an Apha let me down, yet. Now, I still prefer the 24mm to the 16mm size, just because I want to be difficult :P one note: there are not as many cool knob options for the 24 fine spline "Imperial" split shafts as the "Metric" 18 spline split shafts...keep that in mind, too, when making a choice.
You mentioned those three brands of pots my question is what about the Dunlop 500 K super pots because they also say made in the USA and Dunlop is not a brand that you mentioned but yet they make the only according to them completely dust free basically I guess everything you read is saying that the Dunlop super pots are definitely the best on the market so I guess anything can be the best obviously as you’ve mentioned, these all share a common denominator which is tolerance and value. My only question is that I noticed with my Wiz premium PAF pick ups it suggested a 550 K pot same with my Doyle coils but with some of my last 4*TOWN pick ups and some of my throwbacks, they’re either using regular 500 K or the 550 K also there seems to be a lot of going back-and-forth between the 500 to 550 K although they’re still always recommending a minimum of a 15% tolerance so if that tolerance is lower all the better but it seems like to me the 550 K pot Would open up a larger volume but what I’m having in my double cut Les Paul is in changing the pick ups is what I’m going through right now, although I’ve tried a variety of recommended parts, I have not found the best tone pot because my volume is working great but the CTS tone pod I have does very little to change the tone. I have the same pick ups from Jim Wagner WCR they are the CrossRoads pair and in my regular Single cut Les Paul standard. I can roll back the tone and immediately get woman tone in the neck on my double cut a roll back to tone, and it does not definite enough to get me anywhere close and it’s a long roll back. I’m just not sure if the pot is bad or simply Ineffective or the fact that both pick ups are using a single volume and single tone is there a better recommended way or parts to use in a single volume single tone so that you do get a better response because it appears to me that on my regular Les Paul’s I’ve not had any troubles only on this one am I having trouble finding a tone pot that will actually truly dim and brighten the pick up It’s so frustrating I’m considering putting a push pole pot in on the tone side and attaching the split coil part of the pick up to it and actually that way as I turn the tone up-and-down to some extent on the pull it out, it will actually add in a part of the pick up. I’m not sure if this is a possible wiring scheme just an idea I’m not trying to have split coils, but if I can’t get control of the pick ups any other way, would it not be easier to control him by doing that and running darling? The amount I want of the additional split hum bucker in as needed and dialing it off with the tone like I said, much confusion here. Any advice on my comments here are any ideas on how I might get the tone working better in a simple way I am using orange drops for cabs .22 values And maybe I need to change the value on the bridge pick up or the neck pick up one and lower that Ferrett tolerance in an effort to get a better roll off. I have gotten opinions from several people, but I have to say I do admire the shuttle a great deal and I am thinking that I will get the right answer here. thank you Dylan talks tone. I hope you talk answers to me. Have a great day. 10:09
What you Say it's always interesting and explicative...great job man...Keep on rocking 🤟🤟🤟👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🎸🎸🎸
The only reason I’ve upgraded pots on my instruments is for the taper and for smoothness. The cheaper instruments have had horrible taper and were pretty scratchy. And decent set of pots and any decent capacitor will sound the same. Taper and values matter. Tolerance matters. Make and model? I can’t tell the difference between a bourns cts or alpha. I couldn’t tell a different between what resistor type or capacitor type. I couldn’t anyone can. I can tell if a pot is scratchy. I can tell if the taper sucks. It’s like Dylan says, these are simple electrical components.
Stuff like this is why I'm glad I got an electronics degree, but I probably would have had a better career as a guitar player if I had majored in music.
Thanks for helping me cut through all the marketing BS !!
Hello Dylan,
I hope my message finds you well.
I would like to know what pot should I use for a HS Telecaster? (humb in the neck, single in bridge)
I know to use 2x 500k but bridge pup will sound so trebly
thank you
Try using 300k pots
Thanks for keeping it real.
2016 R9 Gibson Custom shop I read were Gibson Had the company Who made the pods exactly like the real ones back in the day About a 1/2 a million dollars On the old machines To get them up and running again to produce the potentiometers Supposed to be Spot on That were used back in the day Weather that's true or not I don't know. Now all I know if you put it on 5 Then 5 1/2 You can tell a difference in volume Same Goes for Tone pots. 1 to 1 1/2 or 9 1/2 to 10 It Or anywhere on All the pods. as I said volume and tone Are the most accurate I have ever experienced. On my other guitars Is like off 3-5-7-10
Great info, changing pots, & pick ups can get expensive real fast, & how much a difference is it really compared to the expenses!?! One ? I have for you, are you a RV er? I ask this because my wife works at Camping World in Ft Myers & we love RV's!!! Great video, I just subbed to your channel based on your content, stay safe, Rock On & God Bless!!!
We live in a 38 foot Georgetown XL full time
Awesome RV, 'A' class looks like. How do you guys like it & how long full-time RV'ing? This is something my wife, Deb, & I are planning on the future. We were full time musicians traveling, but not in a RV, we'd sleep at Truck stops in our car, not comfortable, LOL!!! Stay safe my friend, Rock On & God Bless!!!
Isn't it true that Gibson has been using all Logarithmic (Audio Taper) potentiometers for both volume and tone controls since the late 50's ?
"Matched pots" is a new one to me, but it just makes absolutely no sense. Like... the output of a bridge and neck pup is already way off. Why would you need matching volume pots? Lol. Personally, I WANT mismatched pots when I get them so that I can measure the resistance at 10 and use the highest or lowest-rated ones for certain positions. If you use a pot that's closer to 450k for your bridge, you can roll off a little bit of treble when it's full up. If you use 550 for bridge volume, you can get a tiny bit more gain. Or you can use that 550 for neck tone so you can get some more sparkle from the neck. Etc.
Also, people do this stuff where they replace the entire wiring harness all at once and don't even think about the fact that they might be slightly changing pot values, like I mentioned above, as well as capacitor values and construction all at the same time. If you swap a .047 Xicon cap for a PIO .022, of course it's going to sound different and react differently! Have some freaking CONTROL in your experiments. Scientific method, people!
The longer I’ve been playing, the more I realised there are no “rules” when it comes to guitar sound/tone, it’s all preference as to what inspires you.
great video, very informative!!
YESSSSS! That's what I want lol advice on a guitar part from someone sitting outside of a Winnebago.
Okay I get what you're describing but in the case of pots matching, couldn't the argument be made that in the manifold variables that impact pick-up placement and purpose, the variances that mismatched pots would contribute to the overall evaluation of tone, performance, and practicality, the fewer the variables the easier the evaluation with an eye toward trying to pin down which component might be problematic. Copice? I'm, no doubt, overlooking some obvious flaws in this reasoning but, hey, that's the way this ole brain works.
Have you ever notice a difference in build quality from brand to brand? I have gotten some pots that felt sticky, but just as well, some cleaner could do the trick.
Do split coil pots affect the over all tone of the pick-ups? On humbuckers?
Between Alpha, CTS, and Bourns, which would you recommend? Is there any significant difference in build quality? (Eg. do their tapers match spec, do they rotate without feeling "gritty", do they produce noise while adjusting, etc.). How about reliability? (How long do they last?). Are they all equally good?
Bourns are my favorite because I like how easy they turn. they last and are affordable
Alphas tend to have a very smooth action albeit with some weight to it, and I've yet to have one fail. Some of my CTS are great, some not so much.
There's very little difference in my experience. ... and unless you are a teenager, they'll probably outlast you. ;) (or unless they get wet and rust or something like that, or you are continually doing swells or whatever all night)
Is that to say tht even tho there are different tolerances are they all the same quality ?
i have kind of a weirdly specific question about volume pots. i have an HSS strat that used to be SSS, and when i installed the humbucker i just left all the 250k pots as is. many years later i wanted a slightly brighter tone, so i got a 350k pot. it did indeed brighten the tone as expected, BUT it also killed all my low end. like absolutely zero bass in the signal. did i get a bad pot? bad solder job? it was my first and only time soldering myself so its entirely possible i screwed up somewhere lol.
If all is okay then you shouldn't have that result. I am certain something wrong, most likely with the wiring.
Pints of Guinness No potentiometer value or taper would cause the problems you describe. A bad soldier job definitely could, and a grossly defective pot could as well. For future reference, make a diagram before replacing any components or wiring. It is very easy to get even the super simple wiring of a guitar wrong. Take a few close up photos and make some notes before removing parts.
Pots matter in stereo systems. You want the channels to be balanced. Good pots (typically stepped attenuaters) cost good money. A potentiometer, like those used in guitars and amplifiers do not. Pots are big if they are mechanically complicated (like high quality stereo pot or have to handle currents (e.g. L-pads found in vintage loudspeakers.). Otherwise is doesn't matter. Look at those tiny PCB pots. You can find them in consumer amplifiers costing $10,000 or more.
I do use my tone pots, I have Allparts CTS Audio Taper, they came delivered defective, the shafts wobble.
I'm not happy with the taper, so should I rather use linear taper? I guess they should be imperial again as I drilled the hole wider to fit the American measure. So there is one American difference, Epiphones use metric threads, CTS have imperial/inch Threads.
Linear taper is usually used for tone and logarithmic or "audio" taper for volume pots. Most people use either for volume, depending on haow they want the taper to work, but almost everyone uses linear for tone. Using audio pots for tone can give you a weird taper where the pot does nothing at all, and then suddenly has it's entire effect in the last 1/4 turn or something
@@ashscott6068 as I'm pretty unhappy with the logarithmic/audio taper for the tone pots, I guess linear tone pots are a good advice.
What is your opinion on the Dunlop super pot? It has a protective cover on it thinking of putting a 250k for volume and 500k for tone on my tele. I want something to take a beating on tour.
I’ve got a set in a double cut special wired 50s. I really like them. Smooth, easy turns and roll down the P90s nicely. I did have to replace one though cuz I replaced the knobs and one was so tight that I pulled out the whole shaft from the pot. Probly would have happened to any brand. Short of that they feel like they’ll last forever.
The only reason to buy new pots are: Different resistance (500K instead of 250K), the old ones are scratchy and lubricant isn't fixing it and obviously if you want to upgrade your axe to have some special push-pull or push-push functionality...
... or because you want to brag about having CTS pots which while nice looking aren't going to make you play any better.
At the end, everything comes to either you have music in you and can play, or not. That all is about.