volume pots on my 1957 les paul custom reissue

[djlee8807]

hi guys,

 

this might be a really stupid post but i am noticing that the volume knobs on my 1957 les paul custom reissue are very responsive when between 7-10 mark but not so much when in the 1-6 range... is it supposed to be like this? it is basically an on/off switch at the 7 mark with almost zero taper from 1-7

 

thanks

[Guest Farnsbarns]

Quite normal. The amp makes a difference to the suddenness of the change. Usually sound fairly linear up to about 7 and then the curve kicks in and 70% of the adjustment is in the last 30% of turn. This makes it much easier to make adjustments in the top of the spectrum where you might be moving from clean to crunch. My pots live between 7 and 10 all the time. It's historically accurate too, if that floats ya boat.

[arlum]

djlee8807,

You have period correct linear pots. While they don't have a true sounding audio taper like a stereo receiver they do serve a purpose. It depends on your guitar style. Do you only play clean guitar or do you sometimes use an overdrive / gain pedal or sometimes like to push your amp into overdrive? The linear pot allows you to kick in the overdrive or clean up the signal in the top 30% of the volume knobs sweep which in turn allows you to retain most of your volume when you reach "clean" during the roll back from overdrive. You then have 70 % of "clean" to work with after you've left the overdriven tone. A quality overdrive cleans up when you roll back on the volume. If you had audio pots, like a home stereo, cleaning up the overdrive would also cause a greater volume drop when you reach "clean" and leave you less to work with from that point on down. It just depends on what you like. If you're playing straight Jazz and want perfect volume control you need to change to an audio pot. Then again ..... you paid for a guitar to be period correct.