Guitar God Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Hey, guys, I've got a Paul Stanley Silvertone Sovereign that going to get some upgrades to. Already got some pickups and locking tuners for it. Haven't got them installed, yet. Want to go ahead and get some high quality pots for it. Wanting to get some recommendations for pots, so what do you guys recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 500k CTS pots..... every time (well when we are talking Humbuckers anyway). Theres a really good description here about pot values and which type to use depending on how you want them to function (log or linear)... http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Short-Shaft-CTS-Pots-Split-Shaft-p/cts59short.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skilsaw Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Ha ta cha cha, Rot a chuk a. Zim bam buzzie. Are your humbuckers humdingers? Peace, love and joy of the Christmas Season. Only 16 days til the man comes. What'cha gett'n fer Christmas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Paul Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Go for slightly over size pots for the power of the pups mate. My recommendation is CTS 550K pots. Just make sure the vol pots are non-linear audio pots and the tone pots are linear non audio. Don't get them mixed up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitar God Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 500k CTS pots..... every time (well when we are talking Humbuckers anyway). Theres a really good description here about pot values and which type to use depending on how you want them to function (log or linear)... http://www.axesrus.c.../cts59short.htm Thanks, Rabs! Will for sure check those out! Heard those are great pots. It has humbuckers in it. The pickups I got for it are a Seymour Duncan JB for the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Jazz for the neck. The locking tuners I got for it are Gotoh locking tuners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitar God Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Is that all gear you curretly own, or is it though your lifetime? If you currently own all that gear, do you have a warehouse to store it in? I see a lot if it is pedals but there must be 20 guitars and at least 7 amps on that list. It's gear I own now. Everything is at my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitar God Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Go for slightly over size pots for the power of the pups mate. My recommendation is CTS 550K pots. Just make sure the vol pots are non-linear audio pots and the tone pots are linear non audio. Don't get them mixed up! Thanks for recommendation, Marshall Paul! Rabs recommended CTS pots, too, and put a link on here, so I'm going to for sure check them out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Thanks, Rabs! Will for sure check those out! Heard those are great pots. It has humbuckers in it. The pickups I got for it are a Seymour Duncan JB for the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Jazz for the neck. The locking tuners I got for it are Gotoh locking tuners. Actually I will post it on here.. Its an interesting read.... The main aspect of all CTS pots is that theyre made in the exact same way as they always have been, so if youre looking for that vintage tone, these should do the trick. This tried and tested design, with very few mechanical components has created an absolute classic guitar part the simple, rugged design has means that CTS pots offer unrivalled reliability, with many of the original examples still going strong after nearly 60 years. From a players perspective, your average CTS pots will have a much firmer action thanks to the old fashioned design which utilises non-degrading grease under the wiper blade this ultimately means that a CTS pot will take the occasional accident knock and not spin off under its own weight. Shaft style The shaft is the protruding, rotating part of the pot which will eventually be covered by a knob. In a move away from the modular designs you normally see with electronic components, CTS developed 2 styles of shaft on their pots. This has a direct influence on which knobs can accommodate which pots. The first model CTS employed used a solid shaft fairly easy to spot, it is literally a solid lump of brass of polished zinc, with a smooth outer edge and a diameter of about 6.3mm or ¼. These most commonly turn up on guitars with set screw mountings on the knobs. Normally, youll find the suitable knob will have a grub screw to hold it in place against the solid shaft. A later model has come to be known as a split shaft again, its all in the name it will either be a knurled (toothed) edged piece of brass or zinc, with a large split down the middle and a diameter of 5.9mm. These turn up almost exclusively on guitars with push on knobs its very common to see the suitable knobs have no visible means of fixing, but an internal knurling that will mesh with the toothed edge of the shaft. Taper - Logarithmic or Linear? Taper is simply a technical term for how a pot moves from 1-10, or from 0-100%, depending on how you think of it. Different tapers have different roles within the guitar, and in most cases, theyre interchangeable to give varying results. Linear pots give a true representation of the output, (so 1 on the dial is 10% of the output, 5 is 50% and 10 is 100%). For this reason youll find them used all over the place, (rightly or wrongly) doing a variety of jobs, Logarithmic pots are a little bit more specialised. They offer very narrow control range. Electrically speaking, by running though 1 6 on the dial, you cover 0% - 15% on the output, then tracking from 6 10 covers a much larger range from 15% - 100%. Probably the easiest way to explain the whys and what fors, is to break down the pots into real life situations youll find in your guitar. Volume control Linear As a volume control, youll mostly find linear pots on Import guitars. In this case, a true representation of output lends itself really well to bedroom playing. Its purely aimed at a target market looking to keep the guitar quiet and controllable, hitting low volumes during practise. They also turn up fairly often on bass guitars with 2 pickups, but no switching giving the player a fairly easy to follow blending system. Logarithmic Youll mostly find logarithmic pots on higher end instruments acting as the volume in these cases the guitar is obviously targeted at gigging musicians. The guitars never going to be played quiet for extended periods so a log pot actually gives a nice sweep at the top end which lends itself to moving through different volumes whilst playing (moving from 10 to 8 on the dial will pretty much half the volume). This gives a great effect when used in combination with true amp overdrive. Relation to our hearing Obviously if you play on 10 constantly, its not going to make much difference; the arguments only really start when youre changing volume. The main point to take into consideration is that the human ear works on a logarithmic scale. So whilst moving through volumes during playing, it pays to try to match the way the ear works. The problems start when you consider that our hearing is far superior to anything electrical, so the curve of a log pots output never really matches up perfectly, so although the sweep feels more natural, its still not perfect. Speaking personally, I try not to think of the curve as matching our hearing, instead I think of it as a sensitive control that allows better control at high volumes through less movement. The pitfalls The downfall of this theory is that it flags up the log pots main cause of concern. Most of the numbers on the dial (1-6) only give access to a very low output. This leads us back to the way the ear works you can hear a pin drop just as well as you can hear a jet engine, the ear should be able to pick out the lower volume sound the same way it picks the higher volume, and your brain should tell you its quieter. Unfortunately, its not that clear cut, and this isnt a perfect world, and although some people can either live with this feature (even use it to their advantage), others find the lower volume settings next to useless and the sudden drop off (usually between 6 and 7) quite annoying (some describe it as acting as a kill switch basically muting the guitar) So linear volume? On the back of this the linear pot seems the natural solution, but as with most things, it just isnt that simple. Although the linear pot is great for low volume playing, and its easy to see where you are etc they sweep in a way that isnt conducive to human hearing. It sounds like its jumps from one setting to the next, and the ear finds it rather unnatural. But not all is lost Fortunately, sweeping from low volume to high volume still sounds perfectly fine on a log pot, but moving around at low volumes is still something thats never been quite perfected as yet. Luckily, its not something most of us do. In Conclusion In closing on the volume topic if you like making use of volume control whilst playing, then logarithmic control is probably your best bet thanks to the more natural curve of the output, but if youre looking for a straight forward control solution at set volumes, where dial position represents the output, then linear pots are a great solution. Tone The tone pot on most guitars is a fairly neglected control nowadays sadly. The tone of any given pickup at anything less than 9 seems somewhat muddy and woolly, so more often than not the tone pot is stuck on 10 and left there. In our experience, most complaints with pots come purely from the control that the stock tone pot is offering to the player. The reason seems to be that most tone pots (contrary to popular belief oddly) in any production guitar will in fact be a Logarithmic taper. This will make it behave exactly the same as the volume control (at least to our ears). As we discovered earlier, a Log pot will have most of its control at the higher end of its sweep which works absolutely fine for volume control however, with a tone control, when youre making a selection it leaves a little to be desired, purely because each setting is not equal to the ear. Some people are absolutely fine with this setup, and will use the tone pot to make minute tweaks in the higher numbers. An alternative would be to use a linear taper pot rather than the standard Log version this will give you much more accurate control over the tone of your pickups. Resistance Potentiometers, in the most basic of terms, are variable resistors and whilst not strictly true if you think that when they are resisting at 100% they are letting nothing through, and when they are not resisting anything, they are letting everything through you know about as much as most people will ever need to. 250K or 500K? As a very quick rule of thumb, its 250ks for single coils and 500ks for anything thats either noise cancelling or humbucking. The logic behind it is no great secret as any pickup gets hotter (which will be caused by a rise in impedance and inductance) it also becomes darker (warmth and darkness are two sides of the same coin in reality, but how we perceive it is a matter of personal taste one mans mud is another man's hot!) Because humbuckers are, in essence, 2 single coils, wired in series, they are normally hotter, so to keep them balanced, need brightening up just a little bit to make them appealing to the ear. What happens when you mix? When youre running a Humbucker in the same guitar as a Single Coil, you normally will only have access to one master volume unfortunately. This is probably the most important pot in the circuit when it comes to the resistance, so youll normally find that its a compromise when it comes to which value to pick. Within the industry, youll find preference is always given to the Humbucker and a 500k pot will be used, but in home builds and modifications, its completely down to you player. When testing, weve found that 250k will suit a single coil perfectly, so its ideal for single coils and lipsticks giving that beautiful, chiming, chirpy, soulful twang that you typically associate with single coil guitars. Humbuckers became very warm with a lot of the definition lacking in the top end. With a 500k pot, the humbuckers absolutely shined, it was bright, spanky, clear, with a nice definition in the bottom end as well as the top, which gave the impression of a depth in the tone.. Single coils by comparison sounded very shrill, with a very weak bottom end. Not without its charm, but certainly not that USA 50s and 60s rock tone, much closer to the 70s and 80s metal and rock tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Paul Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Beautifully put Rabs. Excellent spiell. My personal preference is for a non-linear pot for my vols and a non audio for the tones. I tend to set my vols at a particular value for a particular song or songs and leave it there. And I kinda like and am used to that type of exponential sweep as it were. It's easy enough for me to just move my hand slightly away from resting on the bridge downwards with my little finger extended and then just tweak the vol as needed. Plus when the guitar has to be quieter, I find that large bottom end sweep easier to play with when trying to find that quiet spot. However, I'm very particular about my tone. My ear tends to pick up on even the most minute variations in it. Just in one song alone I could be constantly swithching from the bridge doing the riffs with the tone at ten to the neck with the tone at five with that overdriven bell type sound for the solo's. I also tend now to go for the slightly over value 550K pots. Gives that bit more control. And, I only trust the CTS brand. No-one can beat them for making a pot. Keep in mind Guitar God, this is just my own personal preference here. Your needs and wants could be completely different. I hope this just gives you an idea from one person's set-up. Best of luck mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Beautifully put Rabs. Excellent spiell. I didn't write it... I just took it from that web site I posted above.. I just think its a really good description and explanation.. Cos after all it better to understand why you choose a certain type of pot than just go with what other people suggest.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Paul Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 That's true. I've always gone CTS for the LP's and also for the strats, except for the strat 250K pull/push pots, then I use DiMarzio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. C.O. Jones Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Thanks Rabs, leared a lot. But how can I know what kind of pots are in my guitar? Still got the stock PCB, does someone know what pots Gibson uses on those boards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Thanks Rabs, leared a lot. But how can I know what kind of pots are in my guitar? Still got the stock PCB, does someone know what pots Gibson uses on those boards? Yeah I have a LP with a PCB, my 2008 Standard... Well Gibsons usually ship with their own pots... And Gibson pots as far as I know are really good... If you want to replace pots on that you will need to rip that whole board out and start again..... (and there are people on here who have done that) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Paul Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Yup...me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 I don't think of the volume pots in guitars as volume controls, they're on my amp, I think of them as drive controls, adjusting the output and tone of the pickups hitting the front end of the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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