I have a 94 Am std strat LH ,and it's a fab thing, with Texas Specials However... on my Tele, i like to ride the volume knob, to clean up the tone, and whack it up for grit. On the strat, the rollback of the volume seems to do very little until it's about 3/4 of the way down - so nowt happens until it gets down to about 2 or 3, then it rolls off real quick to silent. Anyone got any ideas? The tone knob for the neck behaves the same (bridge and middle have a TBX, so don't behave the same). i'm planning on making the TBX a master tone, and the spare pot a blend - i have a no-load pot in the toolbox waiting. Thanks, hivemind!!
That sounds like what a linear taper pot would do. Check to see if the volume and tone pots are linear, either by the part numbers or with an ohm meter.
hmm, i've rethought - it has R/H pots, if they're wired L/H the taper will be the wrong way, if you see what i mean.... as in they won't roll off for most of the movement , and then loads... migt switch the wiring on the pot....
That is weird. My 95 American Std rolls off almost everything when I get down to 7 and I am seriously considering getting linear taper pots to avoid that VERY SUDDEN drop in volume if you have not paid attention to your pinkie.
yeah, that's the exact opposite of mine - suggests the pots are wired backwards, if you see what i mean .... i'll experiment this weekend.
You should make sure you have non-linear (logarythmic) taper on your volume pot. Check the value too. In my experience, I get a smoother roll-off and a greater perceived range of tonal variety with 1-meg logarythmic pots than with 250k or 500k. I see you're planning on using a TBX, which I use too. TBX really shines with a 1-meg volume pot. With both pots at 10 you get a very bright and full sound. In fact, it's almost too bright, but I like that, since you can always keep your TBX at the mid-point then you've still got somewhere to go with it should you need a little more brightness in the mix. I would say a 7 or 8 on the 1-meg volume pot will give you the same tonal character of a 500k at 10. So, if you like to back off a bit on your volume to clean up the sound, 1-meg is a great option. I use this setup on all my Strats and Teles.
LH setups normally use the usual audio taper pots, since lefties like clockwise to be louder to match everything else in the world. If yours has audio taper pots wired so that counterclockwise is louder, that's definitely the problem. Either reverse the wires on the pot ends to make clockwise louder (or more treble), or if you really want counterclockwise to be louder, get reverse audio taper pots.
yep. And you know what? I can't, sitting here at work , remember if they go up clockwise or anticlockwise!! I play it daily, and my mind has gone blank. I seem to recall the knobs are loudest on '1' , but can't be sure! when you say reverse the wires , do you mean swap them over but on the same pins on the pot, or move them to the other pins? I'm trying to suss it out, and struggling - i'll need to sit with the pickguard off and in front of me to visualise it. (Embarrassing, as I am the guy who verifies large scale IPSec installations for financial institutions, so topology of components is my bread and butter... ;-) ) cheers mike
As I said, reverse the wires on the pot ends. Leave the wiper alone and reverse the wires on the outer two connections.
an yes - i'd forgotten the layout and assumed it had only 2 connections, a la tone pot . My bad. . i'll flip the feed from switch and earth, and see how that pans out. Good stuff, thanks ever so. Mike
so it *does* get louder anticlockwise - not what i want, but the tone does too. As i'm about to build a pickguard, i'll wire that up the other way around, and if it's all good, replicate it on both pickguards. It'll have QD wiring so i can swap them in and out in double quick time, too - one set of Rose P/ups, and a set of Texas specials ,all with blender and master tone TBX. . .
Audio (logarithmic) taper pots will not provide an even sweep in a guitar volume control. They are great for volume swells because they only actuate the signal from about 6 -to-10 and it’s steep but they do not give an even sweep in a Standard Stratocaster volume control circuit. If you have a Strat and you want an even sweep from 1 -to- 10, get a type Linear potentiometer. They’re usually designated with a B. Tone controls will give a nice even sweep from 1 -to- 10 if they are Audio/Logarithmic potentiometers.
