POTS...Volume, tone, electronics opinions.

[MrDowntown]

Hey guys.
I’ve got a ESP LTD Skolnick. Wonderful playing guitar.

The volume pot is slightly bent...I can feel it when rolling on/off. Plus it has next to no taper to it...it’s almost on then off. So I’m thinking I need to, at a minimum, put in a new volume pot. So do I need to take this opportunity to wholesale upgrade the electronics? Orange drops maybe?

Thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

Thanks fellas

 

[vultures]

For the taper problem, I've found unless you go with really high end $$$ pots, you will always get a weird drop off when you roll off to around 3-4 or less. An easy solution is a treble bleed. A few months ago I wired up a Kinman, Duncan, Fender and Stewmac treble bleed with some good resistors caps with alligator clips and compared them all. They all work and sound great, but the Stewmac value was really the clear winner. I tried with multiple guitars and blind tested them with a bunch of folks, stewmac values always came out on top. 150k Resistor with a .001uf Capacitor in parallel onto lug 1 & 2 on your volume pot.

For pots I love CTS, I use their no loads for my tone. Great pots and they're pretty cheap. Swap the switch for a switchcraft if it isn't already and you're good to go.

This is the treble bleed I wired up in one of my guitars. I get to use the full turn of my pot and it retains all the dynamics as it rolls off, none of that weird darkening or wet blanket sound when you roll off the volume.

 

[IHateRap]

For the taper problem, I've found unless you go with really high end $$$ pots, you will always get a weird drop off when you roll off to around 3-4 or less. An easy solution is a treble bleed. A few months ago I wired up a Kinman, Duncan, Fender and Stewmac treble bleed with some good resistors caps with alligator clips and compared them all. They all work and sound great, but the Stewmac value was really the clear winner. I tried with multiple guitars and blind tested them with a bunch of folks, stewmac values always came out on top. 150k Resistor with a .001uf Capacitor in parallel onto lug 1 & 2 on your volume pot.

For pots I love CTS, I use their no loads for my tone. Great pots and they're pretty cheap. Swap the switch for a switchcraft if it isn't already and you're good to go.

This is the treble bleed I wired up in one of my guitars. I get to use the full turn of my pot and it retains all the dynamics as it rolls off, none of that weird darkening or wet blanket sound when you roll off the volume.

That's the cleanest control cavity I've ever seen.

 

[napalmdeath]

Hey guys.
I’ve got a ESP LTD Skolnick. Wonderful playing guitar.

The volume pot is slightly bent...I can feel it when rolling on/off. Plus it has next to no taper to it...it’s almost on then off. So I’m thinking I need to, at a minimum, put in a new volume pot. So do I need to take this opportunity to wholesale upgrade the electronics? Orange drops maybe?

Thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

Thanks fellas

I would, and put in a treble bleed. I had my PRS S2 gutted, and rewired with top-shelf stuff, I think it was $60. It's cheap enough I'd totally go for it. It'll only make a great guitar better!