Question About After Market Tone Pots
- Thread starter Robert W
- Start date
egan.
daylightdies.com
Different impedences will make a significant difference but if you aren't having issues it doesn't seem worth it to upgrade to the same thing IMO.
JakeAC5253
Frozen Sun Audio
- Nov 19, 2010
- 936
- 1
- 18
Pretty much exactly this. A smaller value tone pot will give a more colored sweep and have a passive high shunt effect even when rolled completely up, while a larger value tone pot will be closer to bypassed when rolled all the way up, and will have a dead zone near the top of the travel. The capacitor size determines how dark the tone gets when the pot is rolled down. Use Linear pots, and Ceramic Disc caps, I like that combination the best.
sprack
Thread Killer
Only 2 advantages to them; closer to log/linear taper (this doesn't matter to most people though since they only use the min/max values), better feel (some people want a wiper with more grip, others want it glass smooth). Not worth paying for higher precision ones, you're better off just buying a couple more 20%'ers and finding the one closest to the value you need.
What value do you think would be best for a tone that has the bridge pup tone pot rolled all the way off?
JakeAC5253
Frozen Sun Audio
- Nov 19, 2010
- 936
- 1
- 18
Doesn't matter, all the way off is all the way off, only the capacitor is in the circuit.
The only thing I would add to the discussion is that the higher quality pots tend to last longer and hold up better to the pretty heavy abuse they take on a guitar. The fast sweeps from on-off etc. That will wear on the carbon inside.
Also some players prefer the feel or the specific taper. Especially those that really fine tune the controls. Most metal dudes are on/off or have no clue what they are doing (ie. palm mutes on the neck PU where inappropriate). Or they prefer a taper that sound kills a bit faster when quick knob manual noise gating.
While the price for the nice CTS, Bourns, and Alpha are 10x more expensive than say the cheapy mini-Alpha's, it is still $1.00 vs. $10.00. So really pretty small in the grand scheme of things.
