Guitar Volume Pot Recommendation

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PDC

PDC

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I am always swapping pickups in and out of my guitars and have found that volume pots are only good for so many heat cycles with the iron. I know if I had better skills - brief application of heat, small, pretty shiny connections - that wouldn't be a problem, but I am still learning.

Anyway - The last couple of Bourns 500k pots that I have installed are providing sort of a 'light switch' effect where 90% of the signal comes in at about the first 10% of the shaft rotation. Volume swells are impossible because it sounds more like a 'kill switch' than a volume pot. I have read posts from both sides swearing that audio vs linear taper is the ONLY way to go. I am 99% sure the last batch I ordered were at least advertised as Audio taper. Hell - they probably are all mass produced in the same Beijing factory and stamped with whatever manufacturer's brand name ...

Any recommendations for a good quality volume pot with a nice, gradual taper for smooth volume swells?

THANK YOU!
 
PDC said:
I am always swapping pickups in and out of my guitars and have found that volume pots are only good for so many heat cycles with the iron. I know if I had better skills - brief application of heat, small, pretty shiny connections - that wouldn't be a problem, but I am still learning.

Anyway - The last couple of Bourns 500k pots that I have installed are providing sort of a 'light switch' effect where 90% of the signal comes in at about the first 10% of the shaft rotation. Volume swells are impossible because it sounds more like a 'kill switch' than a volume pot. I have read posts from both sides swearing that audio vs linear taper is the ONLY way to go. I am 99% sure the last batch I ordered were at least advertised as Audio taper. Hell - they probably are all mass produced in the same Beijing factory and stamped with whatever manufacturer's brand name ...

Any recommendations for a good quality volume pot with a nice, gradual taper for smooth volume swells?

THANK YOU!
Click to expand...
Hey! I have been through a number of pots and I have finally found that the DiMarzios have the best feel overall for me.

I have gotten all of the nicest CTS builds from various makers. I have some CTS I like the taper of, but they are a little bit slow/long to turn., making swells feel a bit tedious.

I need to check out how well the DiMarzio tapers again but they are some of the nicest feeling 100%. Will check the taper out later today when I get a chance.
 
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That's great info. I have also read some solid online reviews of DiMarzio pots. Its not like they are prohibitively expensive - I will probably order a couple and give them a try.

Thank You!
 
I've always found CTS pots to be stiff to turn but some are ok. I do prefer the Bourns low friction for my guitars after using CTS, and Dimarzio pots for years before Bourns became a thing. I like Alpha pot for amps but not guitars. I think most of my guitars came with CTS and I swapped my main players over to Bourns over the years.

Audio taper is supposed to be more gradual compared to linear .

As for swapping pickups alot. You can solder on a grounding flying lead pigtail with a loop on the buss grounding buss wire that you can run your pickup grounds to so you are not always putting heat to the back of the pots and your pot life will be increased. Also you can wrap some bus wire around the shielded cable of the pickup and solder the buss wire to the shield itself that way you not have to heat the shit out of the pot to get s good solder joint on the shielding. That's if the pickup has traditional PAF outisde shielded wire.
 
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Music&Chaos said:
These pots look very nice. Ill pick some up from them when I can.
Click to expand...
I have some of these higher end CTS pots and they are indeed a step up from the current standard CTS ones. Better taper and they just feel more solid. Of course, these 'premium' CTS pots are basically what the 'standard' CTS pots from decades ago used to be, before they got cheapened out.
 
thegame said:
I have some of these higher end CTS pots and they are indeed a step up from the current standard CTS ones. Better taper and they just feel more solid. Of course, these 'premium' CTS pots are basically what the 'standard' CTS pots from decades ago used to be, before they got cheapened out.
Click to expand...
I have some premium ones with nice brass components and such but they feel kinda stiff. If these are as nice and have a quick range of motion with s good sweep, they will be my new go to.
 
harddriver said:
As for swapping pickups alot. You can solder on a grounding flying lead pigtail with a loop on the buss grounding buss wire that you can run your pickup grounds to so you are not always putting heat to the back of the pots and your pot life will be increased. Also you can wrap some bus wire around the shielded cable of the pickup and solder the buss wire to the shield itself that way you not have to heat the shit out of the pot to get s good solder joint on the shielding. That's if the pickup has traditional PAF outisde shielded wire.
Click to expand...
This is killer - thank you!!!!

Once you read this - it seems so obvious, but I certainly have never done this (yet) and I'm not going to claim that I would have eventually thought of it.

Love this forum.
 
harddriver said:
I've always found CTS pots to be stiff to turn but some are ok. I do prefer the Bourns low friction for my guitars after using CTS, and Dimarzio pots for years before Bourns became a thing. I like Alpha pot for amps but not guitars. I think most of my guitars came with CTS and I swapped my main players over to Bourns over the years.

Audio taper is supposed to be more gradual compared to linear .

As for swapping pickups alot. You can solder on a grounding flying lead pigtail with a loop on the buss grounding buss wire that you can run your pickup grounds to so you are not always putting heat to the back of the pots and your pot life will be increased. Also you can wrap some bus wire around the shielded cable of the pickup and solder the buss wire to the shield itself that way you not have to heat the shit out of the pot to get s good solder joint on the shielding. That's if the pickup has traditional PAF outisde shielded wire.
Click to expand...
I actually prefer pots that are a little stiffer to turn. I tried the low friction pots and always seem to accidentally turn them down when playing
 
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