Guitar Potentiometers part 2, Comparing Linear/Audio Taper and Selecting Pots 

This is the greatest potentiometer demonstration on the internet.

One doesn't see a lot of 2009 videos with this type of clarity. Very useful information and well presented. Thanks a lot!

i don't know about the Alpha pot that you measured but Alpha make perfectly usable log pots. Something that most people do not know is that most pot manufacturers make 'log' pots with at least 6 different log curves. These are described as 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. Not to be confused with tolerance of the end to end track resistance, these percentages refer to the percentage of the total track resistance when the pot is at half its rotation (measured between the counter clockwise tag and the wiper}. Unfortunately most pot resellers do not tell you which log curve the pots they sell have. Pot manufacturers seem to regard pots with either the 10% or 15% curve as being 'audio' taper. I have seen at least one guitar parts store selling what they call True Vintage Taper, which are 20% log curve. I'd recommend 10% log curve pots for volume and 20% for tone. The tone control response on typical guitar electronics is a bit odd because the resistor / capacitor of the tone control circuit interacts with the resonant circuit formed by the inductance of the pickup and any self capacitance and other capacitance that is in parallel with it. A 20% curve tone pot compensates a little for this.

You saved me a chunk of research time.

Thanks, John! Great job! To "nmssis": A 500k ohm pot for example, with +/-20% tolerance, means that the value of a so-called 500k ohm pot can actually be anywhere from 600k ohm (+20%) to 400k ohm (-20%), or anywhere between those two values. The only way to know for sure what the actual value of the pot is would be to measure resistance across the pot with a multimeter as John has clearly demonstrated. Hope this helps.

I see this was added 11 years ago. I'm glad it's still here! This is going to be helpful reference, great video.

I'm left wishing you'd covered tone as well as volume pots. Bravo, though, for covering this material better than the other videos I'm working my way through on this pot-induced journey. Peace.

THE BEST, most comprehensive series on guitar wiring I've found on RU-vid, hands down, is your/this series with this cool Epiphone Riviera P93. This has been my go-to video series for years. Initially, for the basic knowledge and now for brushing up. Sucinctly unpacked and defly demonstrated. Thanks man.

I think big guitar brands, not only Gibson fender (I like them both but facts are facts) who buy 300k pots have cottoned on to this inconsistency regards to the resistance chart, and in mass production then decided to buy in bulk knowing they'd be closer to 250k or 500k and only the most expensive custom shop builds get the most accurate and balanced ones. The rest go into the "within acceptable margins" groups of guitar models. Without testing for the resistance value as much, with no stamps of resistance values they can order from the manufacturer, we can order from the manufacturer! A bag of pots with our own brand so testing them yourself is the only way to make sure. Dunlop are a good choice I didn't see them on the resistance/knob position and sweep chart. I believe they are quality components, plus you could always make the difference after testing the resistance curve values, fill the gap in resistance with a small resistor, after all a potentiometer is just a variable resistor with a certain amount of resistive/conductive materia, thos is very handy for solving SSS pup configuration to HSS pup configuration if you use 3 of 500k pots and a either a 2 or 4 pole superswitch, 470k resistor one or two I used one, on the middle and neck tone control soldered just like the capacitor- casing to outer lug, two resistor of same value means more soldering and it doesn't matter as long as the single coils see closer to 250k

@ozboomer - I found Bourns pots at guitarelectronics. They also sell CTS and Alpha. No wonder there is such a debate about whether to use Audio or Linear taper pots on the tone position. It totally depends on the brand. You'd think they'd at least be sort of close.

Mr Cooper, you are what we in Blighty call, A DIAMOND. MANY, MANY THANKS for all of your efforts and common sense knowledge. 👏🏼🤗

I realize this is 11 years old, but this is an EXCELLENT demonstration. Thank you John! Exactly the info I was looking for.

That chart at 2:17 was very helpful. Thank you for this video!

I have 2 Donner DJP1000 Jazz guitars and the Pots on the Tone are poor. They basically kick in about no 2 then no audible difference. Cheap pots I'm guessing linear . So I've ordered 2x CTS 500K vintage Audio taper and 2 x CTS Linear 500k I was going to try a set of each in the guitars. Now seeing your video I can say it has to be Audio taper so the other 2 linear I will return.I've been trying to research what I need . Your Video is brilliant and the demo explains everything. Thank you.

13 years later, this video helped A LOT! Thank you very much!

The linear might as well be an on/off switch!!

the chart at 2:21 is an eye opener for me! never knew audio tapered pots can vary so much! thanks for the great video!

Thanks! Only for me it's more interesting to see what a pot does turning it down from full open to a max quarter turn back. When playing I turn it about a quarter back to clean the amp up and then turn it open for a solo. On an audio pot that last part sometimes can be a bit too sudden so there is a too small turn needed to get what I want. Then a linear pot works better because that last part is more smooth and you don't need to be so exact. It would be great to see a video of you doing that.

One thing that was not mentioned is that there are two knurl standards...18 teeth and 24 teeth. Make sure to understand which one your knobs are based on. The old cheap Ibanez bass I'm working on has 18 tooth knurl.

Incredible video. I have an ibanez where I think the volume pot sucks (not responsive till I'm around 5) now I know it's just a linear and something I want to change out. Thanks for simple and detailed explanation

I'm glad that you made this video. I always get linear and audio taper mixed up. I like to play Van Halen and an instrumental solo called "Cathedral', if you've heard of it. He does a technique with a combination of volumes swells and delay to create a violin or cello sound by rolling his volume pot back and forth.He uses linear taper pots for that because he needs a fast attack and a fast roll-back on the volume.

glad you cleared this up. was working on repairing my dads amp that was apparently thrashed around and needs 6 pots replaced. was going to get a kit that didn't have the "A" pot defiantly ordering one of those on the side.

Excellent - Best demonstration video I've seen on the difference between the linear and audio/logarithmic taper. Many videos get the explanation backwards in terms of the perceived difference. When the resistance is changed in a linear fashion, many videos explain that the output will change in a linear fashion. But that's not how our ears hear in terms of volume (due to the logarithmic nature of our hearing which accounts for the logarithmic nature of the decibel measure). This is also similar to why amps have to increase the power (watts) by a factor of 10 to double the volume in decibels, rather than just doubling the watts.

I shared your potentiometer videos with my guitar teacher. He liked how you explain and demonstrate everything so well that he's referring other students to watch them. Really helpful stuff! Thanks

Extremely helpful video for me, thank you sir!

Fantastic demo!!! This just cleared up all of the reading that didn't quite explain this like you did!!! Best video out there!!!

Was exactly looking for this! Just a comparison between logaritmic and linear, as I was curious how that would turn out. And it's exactly as they wrote online. But, as Phil Collins sang: "seeing" is believing ;) Thanks!

VERY informative and instructive - nice comparisons and the graphs are EXTREMELY helpful to see the literal differences between POT options. Nice work and thanks.

Never heard of taper until today. I’ve always hated how quickly the volume shifted upwards. I’ll get an audio taper pot for that smooth volume swell !

I followed this advise and put CTS audio pots in my SG. The volume drops off after about 8. It's terrible. Going back to linear.

Thanks man!!! I really like the Alpha Audio taper

This was super helpful John - thanks for doing this video ! Great Quality !

At last i found clear demonstration. Thanks a lot!

This is the first video I've seen that actually explains pots well. I found out the hard way by buying different pots. Love the CTS but now I know bourns are good too. Great vid.

Mate....your a Legend! I have been wondering about the CTS pots & if they are worth it. Well, now I know...they win for me ;-) i was going to do this test myself... but you have saved me many hrs. Keep it up man, top work!

Great video! I love tutorials and teaching content on all things I'm interested in, guitars, sound and vision being relevant here, so thank you and I say this with gratitude because I was so close to buying what I thought would be accurate as advertised- audio taper/ logarithmic sweep potentiometers but very likely to be more of a small percentage different in relation to linear pots, I've made that mistake withkut the knowledge it wasnt 100% my iwn fault. These i bought for my stratocaster style guitar build projects, which I would have been disappointed big time if I hadn't looked up on the how what and why and in this vid specifically the whos responseible pots are different only to discover two out of the rest are actually log-A pots. I first noticed with my current SSS pup configuration - no names pots mini pots with an "a" stamped on the tone pots and a "b" stamped on the volume pot, and then after buying all necessary components for a new HSS loom I built from alpha pots that the sweep on pretty much all 3 on both looms/pickguards sounded just like how you had demonstrated in this video on the lack of consistency of log-A pits depending on the brand name. So I am familiar with Bournemouth they do a lot of very different electronic components, and potentiometers are, if not the least, they are in the least complicated group of components in terms of purpose and design function. Electric guitars are very simple compared to most gadgets and gizmos, but the waiting list on bournes website for a bag full of potentiometers is quite long, snd best bought in bulk but still more affordable than if through the middle man market. Mist people including myself have to search, study content look for consistency, scour the Internet or if lucky you live near an outlet or find an honest dealer that will sell you the ones that have already been tested and matched, labeled and the added to a detailed inventory. I mean it's not aerospace parts we're taking about here (which I think Bournes do make some components for) So these parts are not high priority but still obviously a huge market especially for the music industry including amps to mixing desks, guitars to multi effects units. I very much hope you would if you can or do have, share a source outside of Bournes and just like I said have the pots already checked and separated and won't rip people of, for this I would be very much grateful. Kind regards, Mike.

Fantastic video, what a great way to show the differences, I've just ordered cts audio 500s as part of a project to sort out my poorly wired HHH frankenstrat. So glad you showed them as tone controls as well, audio is exactly what I'm looking for on both tone and volume. Really awesome job, thanks!

you say there's no way of knowing what a pot sounds like until you try it out, but now there is. thanks for the video

Nice job, just before this video I was about to have to do this exact example video to not talk about it but show the difference. Cheers

It also would help to hear the difference between those pots "from 10 to 0", you know... when you need to drive your amplifier from the crunchy to the clean sound or viceversa, directly from your guitar, when you look for that precision that matches your needs (some need high rates of volume loss, some need low rates). If you'll decide to do that video, please show a close video recording of the pots whyle another guy is strumming the guitar on the crunchy to clean border of that VT30 ampli. Thanks all the same for this very useful video. P.S. Very very nice sounding guitar! GAS attack!

If it has treble bleed, I use audio taper; If it doesn't, I go linear. If I transition from clean to dirty to solo using amp only, I go audio taper with treble bleed, as in 4, 7, 10 (in vol knob); If I transition from semi-breakup to dirty, and use a boost pedal for solo, I go liner taper, as in 6, 10, and 10 with boost pedal.

@ozboomer - I just ordered a Bourns pot from guitarelectronics. They also sell CTS and Alpha. Best selection I've seen. I totally agree with you on your frustration. No wonder there's a debate over what to use in the tone position if an alpha audio taper is basically linear.

I completely agree with this. I compared Alpha and CTS A250k and A500k pots... A500k works great for volume, but I found that the A250k give you much more control over tone. I made this change on my PRS SE Santana with Santana III pickups... The Santana III's are not really bright pickups to begin with so the 250K vs 500k is not noticeably darker. I will be trying the same thing on my LTD EC400 with Gibson 496R/500T, but I plan to try an A300k instead.

Excellent video. However, to clarify, lower resistance in a shunt circuit (volume potentiometer) reduces bass, not treble. It decreases the time constant of the circuit (the time that capacitances in the circuit charge and discharge). For series circuits (tone shunting rheostat that has a cap and pot in series) will reduce treble when resistance is decreased. The opposite is true for both of the above scenarios if resistance is increased.

the resistive track is not symmetrical on an audio taper. the beginning of the track has one curve, the end has another, so it matters how you connect an audio pot in the circuit: you want to use the 1,2,3 pins so that at first you get a slow increase in resistance at low volume and a fast increase at higher volume. wire it 'backwards" and the pot doesn't work as it should. a linear pot has a symmetrical resistive track so it can be wired 'backwards' and still works the same. pls correct me if i'm misunderstanding this matter.

Very usefull straight information, thumbs up!.

Man, great video!! I'm about to change the eletronics on two guitars of mine and this really helped me a lot in order not just to understand, but to check in fast way the differences between the pots... really thanks for the video!!

That has answered all of of my questions on tone. Superb. Thanks so much for doing this.

Excellent demonstration. Professional level presentation and explanation. Thanks for the effort buddy

I'm working on a custom mod of this right now. I've tried the V-treb mentioned below, but I want a higher rated cap for the treble bleed. So I will be trying .002uf, .0047uf, .068uf, and .01uf on different Audio Taper mini-pots rated at 1K, 5K, 10K, 20K, 50K, 100K, 250K and 500K. Also, using a regular pot allows you to put the control at your finger tips instead of having to access the back, or inside of the wiring cavity.

Epiphone uses metric measurements. The shaft diameter is 9mm. USA doesn't use metric as standard, but Europe and Asia do. 3/8" = 9.525mm, so 0.5mm bigger. Also, the part the knob attaches to is 6mm as far as i know on the metric ones Epi uses, but 1/4" (6.35mm) on Gibson knobs and CTS for example, so 0.15mm bigger, but I haven't verified this last part.

Fantastic presentation. Thanks!

I like the Bourns slide pots.

I have linear in my Gibson Les Paul, and log in my Tele. I HATE the unevenness in the Tele. 0-6 does very little, and the sound has a small window at the top to come through. The LP is very even. 1 is low, 5 is middle vol, 10 is maxed out. I get so much mixed info about which does what but I feel linear is what I prefer.

extremely helpful video, thank you so much.

What a great video! It is exactly what I was looking for. You just prevented me from falling into a mistake. Thank you so much!

I was going to put a linear taper volume pot in a guitar I am rebuilding but after seeing your demonstration I think I'll stick with a CTS audio taper. Would be interesting to see how the DiMarzio special audio taper pots size up in your chart. I have them in several guitars but do not really like them....drops off too fast after 10. Thanks for the great demo....

this is the ultimate guitar pot, most comprehensive and yet easy to understand explanation EVER!!! thanks for sharing, how did You measure the different pots to graph and understand the smoothness volume transition?

Many many many thanks for this video !!! it's clear and now I know what to choose :)) Keep doing this kinda vid dude you're great !

What a great demonstration! Thank you, thank you 👍

Brilliant video 👏

thank you John!

Excellent, practical video.

Great Great demonstration!!!!!!!!! Linear volume pots and logarithmic tone seem to work for me! Thanks

The Seymour Duncan JB is famous for being a very bright pickup, so much so that it is common for users to put a 250k pot in to bring down the highs. Switching to a 500k should brighten it up a great deal.

Brilliant video

nice on again john. 500k a defo. for all guitar pot volls. 250k can mush the sound and does . i use a 1meg log for violining gives easy movement of sound.

Liked those CTS audio taper the best, I could hear amplified sound increase from start to end if rotation and it sounded clearer at this end than the others?

Thank you. No fuss, clearly filmed, easy pace but not dragging and not over-nlown with ego... Your excellent and lucid explanation not only affirms what I believed, but warns me to be more selective about the pots I intend to fit. I have a Vintage V100 which is essentially a Les Paul sort of form. Presumably I need to buy the same value (500 in this case I think) pots even though changing from lin to log? Being a perpetual Fender user (until I found this lad) I like my volume gradual for various reasons; not least being able to roll off a little for quiet passages. The latter despite gentler attack/no pick etc as a pot that stays at ten sounds like it's on ten. I have no intention of changing the tone pots adn I suppose I should watch your next vid (I will anyway) but the other question I run into is whther the tone would be affected? Ah, I know starts clean up any over-drive/distortion/call it what you will when you roll off. Fine. But will my woman tone, bark and other Gibsonesque attributes turn into Fender tones (not desired, I already have a Strat:)? Thanks again Mr Cooper

Really fantastic video. So helpful and informative. I got a lot from the replies John made as well as from the things people said. I decided something must be wrong with my ears as I like Alpha’s. : /

Nice review !! My stupid question : does the tone pots react the same ?

Hey John, you mentioned that you ran into Asian pots that were a different size than America ones. It could be that they are actually metric thread. Many countries are adopting the metric system for parts sizes and many things that come from Asia are metric. Many are very close to the North American sizes but just enough off to be frustrating. Nuts jamb up, holes too sloppy or too tight.

You would think from the smooth line graph of the linear, they would be the ones with a smoother transition. So do most people use audio taper for Tone & volume?

What a guy-excellent review ,just what i was looking for..got this link from seymour duncan site

Your volume pot taper test is fine, but you are working with a clean signal path and in isolation. In a band situation with other players and when you're driving your amp is a very different situation. The masking effects of the sound from the other players means that having control over lower volumes is less important - turn down 10-15dB and nobody will hear you. Also, the point at which you go from slight overdrive to distortion is a relatively small area of signal level change. Having the 30-40dB of volume control that is easier to get with an audio taper pot is not necessarily much use to you. Your choice of pot is personal and dependent on your style and situation

Thank you very much john ! Your video sums up very clearly the info i was looking for...

Awesome video, thank you so much. I now have a clear idea how they all work. Rock on!

I prefer linear for volume and audio for tone. I prefer the "instant on" effect with the volume. if the pots are for a preamp then I make them all linear, even the EQ ones

well, i needed 3 new pots for another strat I'm building, and i was just going to buy the no load pot for the tone control for the bridge pup, cause i usually do the little jumper to get tone control on the bridge, and its same price so no worries :P and i saw your part 4 vid, its pretty useful, i'll modify my other strat's pots to no load if i like how it turns out. and thanks for these vids, i watched the treble bleed one as well, very good comparisons

What are the best pots for fast noticeable great volume swells, that some guys really master so well? The best ones for a USA made 2006 Stratocaster?

Very nice and informative.

Is it better to use a linear pot to clean up a distorted guitar? When i try to clean mine i have to turn the volume knob all the way down and then turn it a bit up to get to where i need and its a bit hard to do when playing a song

thanks , helpful

great info thanks. i will def get audio taper to replace my linear vol pot.

super helpful video, thank You

If you research this, you will find people saying the exact opposite. He also does it much more slowly for the audio pot than the linear and the demo is flawed anyway since the signal is decaying as he turns it up. In actual practice, if you dial in the linear volume pot you will have a much larger gradation of volume control than the audio taper, which, as you can clearly see from the diagram he put up, does not actually work much for the first quarter turn or so. Audio tapers are great for tone pots and a linear taper is better for volume, especially if you have a treble bleed mod on your volume pot.

Excellent video John; thank you.

Doesn't this change when you have a tone circuit? And what about when you install a treble bleed, too? AFAIK tone circuit always needs a log taper pot, but when you have tone and volume installed, the volume can be linear, especially with a treble bleed installed.

Hi ... Excellent video .. I wanted to know how I can gain more control over my live playing. I need to boost my sound, and i would rather boost by turning up the on board pot. The problem I have is that I play both gain and clean sounds. I have a decent amp with boost. but in higher gain situations I do not get a good vol boost, but just an increase in distortion which is not desireable. I've considered switching out to a log pot in order bring a more dramatic vol increase and decrease.

This video is perfect. Thank you!

Thank you very much for all your videos! But it can't have been easy rewiring that semi all the time (I've been there). Keep it up!!

Extremely helpful video for me to, thank you bro!!!

Really good explanation -- I love your really thorough demos. Thanks!

Thanks for making this clear and understandable. You enabled an "aha" moment. Thanks man.

So well explained! thank you very much! Following Already

Beautiful video. So basically we should buy Audio Taper pots for Tone and Volume knobs correct?

John, I learned so much from all your videos!! Now here is an idea I had for working around the tolerance of pots. If I want to have a 500K pot Why not buy a 1M pot and put a resistor in parallel to make it as close to 500K as possible? Say the pot measures 850K instead of 1M, I put a 1M and 2k2 in series and that in parallel to the pot to get as close to 500K. Do you see any tonal or usability drawbacks to this idea?

Hey John - Awesome stuff. I have an Epi Wilshire - with audio taper - that sound like linear - alphas...standard on Epi's. Now I'll replace with CTS or Bourns audio taper! Great videos!!! If you live anywhere near Chicago - owe you a beer!

You've just answered an on-going major drama I've been having with using what are -supposed- to be log taper pots... Those crazy Alphas sound linear to me :) So, I'll have to try the CTS and Bourns brands. There are a number of on-line places that sell CTS pots, so that's Ok... but where can I buy these Bourns!? Thanks again for saving my sanity :)

Thanks John. Very helpful series.