QUestion re pots (have done a search)

[wiggy]

I'm looking to replace the pots on my LP std. I don't want to change the tone but simply would like to have some degree of control over both tone and volume rather than the all or nothing that I currently seem to have. The existing, original ones are marked CTS 500k but I believe that there are various tapers available (please correct me if I'm wrong on this) which affect how the pots respond over the range of adjustment.

 

Can anyone give my some guidance as to what I should be looking for.

[RotcanX]

Sure. The volumes should be 500K LINEAR i.e. 'B' pots; the tones should be 500K AUDIO or LOG i.e. 'A' pots.

[ebb]

Sure. The volumes should be 500K LINEAR i.e. 'B' pots; the tones should be 500K AUDIO or LOG i.e. 'A' pots.

 

Woah..... Why should the volumes be linear? Do they not follow the decibel system like in amps?

I'm baffled here! I'm going to replace the pots in my dot and was going to order four audio taper pots

[TWANG]

I've never heard of anyone using linear tape in volume pots. Sometimes they use them in tone pots.

CTS audio log pots at 500K ought to be fine for any humbucker equipped guitar.

And I can see no reason a good CTS pot would perform poorly.

 

He might try 1M pots, but still audio taper.. which would give more output, and possibly a greater range of variability.

Never tried it.. some use 'em... get a cheap one and test it!

[shartom]

If you have 500k audio taper pots in you Standard, there is no need to change them. You will not be happy with the Linear taper.

The pots in my Gibby LP Studio are stamped "Gibson 500k".

I've had no-name 250k audio taper pots in my Tele for the last 15 years and the work just fine. I call it the "Gibby Killer"

[RotcanX]

This seems to be a subject of much confusion and I find that surprising since all one has to do is unscrew the cover plate on a guitar and actually CHECK the situation rather than posting their ill-informed opinions here.

 

All Gibsons, and all Epiphones,

use Linear-taper volumes

and Audio-taper tones.

 

Here is a shot of an Epi LP control cavity:

 

 

You can just see the letters 'B500KO' on the lower left (volume) pot. Linear taper. Note that you will find audio taper volume pots on vintage guitars but most if not all manufacturers have long since switched to using linear volume pots. Here's another shot, of the cavity from an Epiphone LP Special LE; the guitar has been rewired with Seymour Duncan P-90s but the pots are original:

 

 

As Michael Jackson would say, it's easy as A, B, see?

 

I wanted to take a pic of a true Les Paul cavity but unfortunately all you can see on the pots are the Gibson logos. So I skulked around on the Gibson support site and checked a few schematics. Gibson switched from 500K to 300K volume pots in 1973. They don't say when they switched to linear taper volume pots but all the newer schematics show 300K linear volume pots and 500K audio tone pots.