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Anyone swapped out thier volume pot in a highthawk for a CTS?


hawkfanatic

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The one thing i don't like is the taper on the nighthawk's volume pots is too wide. In other words, i have to turn it down to about 2 to clean up a lot. My other guitars all have CTS but they are 250k and the taper is fine and they clean up well at about 5. heres the thing....they are CTS but they are also 250k, and i'm not sure if the reason for the difference is the 250k value or because the taper on the CTS is just difference. the reason i'm asking is i don't want to order a pot and pay $10 with shipping and go thru the wait and the install and all for nothing if the taper isn't better. So theres the question....has anyone replaced the volume pot in thier nighthawk with a CTS or other good quality pot of the same value (500k) and noticed the taper doesn't take such a long rotation to clean up?

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Hawkfanatic,

 

So, did you end up using an audio or a linear as a volume?

What differences did you actually find?

 

This discussion is not a new one but, there haven't been a lot of Nighthawk mods around here. Usually it is in regard to Standard wiring schemes. L.P.s, Dots etc.

 

Willy

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Any pot sold as a guitar pot is going to be audio. But audio can vary from one to the next as taper goes. Linear will be the same no matter what brand. But audio has no standard as to how the resistance tapers because there are many applications where the taper may be different and the manufacturer specs them with a custom taper. You can for example buy a dimarzio pot which is made by cts but the taper is to dimarzio's spec. I find them about the same as the standard cts tho.

 

 

 

Hawkfanatic,

 

So, did you end up using an audio or a linear as a volume?

What differences did you actually find?

 

This discussion is not a new one but, there haven't been a lot of Nighthawk mods around here. Usually it is in regard to Standard wiring schemes. L.P.s, Dots etc.

 

Willy

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Absolutely not, linear tapers are used as standard in most Epiphones for volumes, and audio tapers for the tone. It's the same for many other brands too.

 

Thats not my point. In my 40 years of playing i have bought probably 100 pots sold as guitar pots from music stores and not one was linear. What comes in a guitar is another thing altogether. But the vast majority of guitars come with audio.

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Thats not my point. In my 40 years of playing i have bought probably 100 pots sold as guitar pots from music stores and not one was linear. What comes in a guitar is another thing altogether. But the vast majority of guitars come with audio.

I have over 60 guitars sitting right in front of me now, from many and varied builders, and I've worked on most of them, the great majority of them have linear taper for volume, and audio taper for tone. One of the first things I do when I get a guitar is check the wiring and upgrade it if necessary, and that's the case with the vast majority of them.

 

Check the link in my sig for pics of some of them, you'll notice a great variation in makes and models, not favouring any particular type over the other.

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I just had a volume pot replaced in one of my Epi Trad Pros. While replacing the knobs, and even though I used the t-shirt method, I managed to pull the neck volume pot shaft right off. I took it to a luthier and my LGS who has done good work for me in the past, and he replaced it with a 500k CTS push-pull (coil split on the Trad Pro). Anyway, he didn't ask me if it was audio or linear, only if it was short or long.

 

Sounds great. Wonder what I have, not that it matters much to my bad ears.

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