I see a lot of these sold on Ebay and other sites and they will be listed as A250K or B250K. Can anyone clear up my thoughts on these two? Which is used for volume and which is used for tone control? I see a lot of what appears to be contradictions in the market place. Thank you.
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Most guitar companies and myself use the A-Audio Taper for Volume and the B-Linear Taper for Tone, but you can choose either. Just depends on which you prefer.
The usual is 250k for volume and tone used with single coil pickups although some prefer 500k or even 1meg for brighter tone.
The usual is 500k for volume and tone used with double coil humbucker pickups and some use 1meg or a mix of values.
There's always an exception to the usual.
Tone caps - the usual is .047 for single coil pickups and .022 for double coil humbucker pickups, but again exceptions and preferences come into play. Larger value caps = darker tones while lower value caps = brighter tones. It's opposite with pots: higher value pots = brighter tone and lower value pots = darker tone. Gibson used to have 300k pots in the old days that are very hard to find, but you can use a 250k and put a 50k resistor across the lugs to create a 300k if wanted.
A is for Audio taper or Log pots. B is a linear pot.
http://www.resistorguide.com/potentiometer-taper/
[quote]
The most used non-linear taper is the logarithmic (log) or audio taper. This is mainly used for audio volume control, to obtain a more natural ‘linear’ perception in sound intensity change when you adjust the volume. Because the human ear is sensitive to sound intensity in a logarithmic fashion, at low sound intensities a small change in intensity is perceived as a big change in loudness, while at high intensities a large change is required for the same change in perceived loudness. To compensate for the ears logarithmic behavior, audio taper pots were developed.[/quote]
after a bit of reading i found this...
Some manufactures like Fender use Audio taper pots for both volume and tone controls. Gibson on the other hand uses linear taper pots for both volume and tone. And still others use Linar taper pots for volume and Audio taper pots for tone.
so basic CBG rules... there are no rules use what sounds good to you!
Thanks for the information Timothy. I think I will order some full size U.S. made audio pots for my first complete build. I had used some to upgrade a Fender S. Bass I am selling and they sound awesome with Dimarzio pickups. This unit was one I purchased that had so many defects when I received it I figured it would be a good test for me.
All good advise Frank, just a couple of things I'd also mention.
The amount of heat applied to the pot body can sometimes cause issues, and I always put a "heat sink" in the form of an alligator clip, on the leg of the capacitor that I'm soldering, to prevent heat damage to that component.
Taff
Very good idea which I am sure has been overlooked by many. Thank you Taff.
Industry standard is Audio for both. It doesn’t matter if they’re full size or mini, as long as you’re using the right one & it’s hooked up properly. I change them on clients guitars continually. Good solder joints make a big difference where noise/hum are concerned. FYI manufacturers use silver solder for guitar electronics not rosin core solder, it it resists corrosion & makes a stronger bond. Good luck
Hi, "A" is tone. But either will work as volume or tone. 250 k is normally single coil and 500k is normally for humbuckers. Also 25k is often used for other types of pickups.
Taff
Thank you Taff. I appreciate it very much. I am having to look into some due to the fact that once I got the unit back together again there was a rattling type sound from the amp. I played around with the pots and it seemed that may be the issue. I ruled out the amp by trying another guitar on it and had no noise at all. Since I had questionable wiring on this thing in the first place I figured if I had to I would replace the mini pots with some full size American made pots. It seems they are not working very well and are suppose to be new.
100_2594tone pot with text.jpg