Which Pots Are Best For Your Guitar? (8 Important Basics)

[@TiltmanMusic]

Came here to find out what pot I should have smoked before playing guitar, took me 15min to realize I was not going to find that out in this video. But I feel like I have learnt something anyways..

[@AmperahGaming]

Use something that gives you a nice head high :-)

[@michaelcraig9449]

@@AmperahGaming What other high is there? Thats why they always say.. "Hey man, you got anything for the head, man"?

[@michaelcraig9449]

Just some reall good stuff and pass it this way..420 all around the world!

[@cristiangongola8138]

Well, I was interested in using 500k audio taper CTS pots (short shaft). Not any clear info about those, but this might still help. :)

[@josephmcguiness6452]

Purple haze of course

[@BAND-MAID-USA]

I’ve watched 1000s of music gear videos, mostly electric guitar. Been playing professionally for decades. This is 1 of the best videos I’ve ever seen. Extremely informative and perfectly executed. IMMEDIATELY subbed.

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Thanks mate - means a lot! :-) Good to have you here

[@WesleyWattley-xy4fg]

​@@JoePerkinsMusicmr mythbuster! You've Great potential!😅 🎸👍 ⚡!

[@mnemonik61]

Solid information. 👍For those interested, the reason that 250/280K pots versus 500/550K pots change your guitar's tone is because you're changing the the impedance relationship (resistance to ground in this case) between your guitar and your amp (or your stomp boxes, etc.), _which actually changes the frequency response of your guitar signal._ There's an old audio engineer rule that applies to sequentially connecting any audio gear: "Low Out, High In." Which means "keep your output impedance as low as you can and the impedance of what you're plugging into as high as you can to preserve high frequencies and dynamic range (and keep noise level down)."

[@JohnZornAscended]

That’s good stuff.

[@blb2388]

This is a great tutorial; very informative. Don’t forget metric vs. imperial pots. For example metric split shaft pits have 18 points on the knurling, whereas imperial pots have 24. This will determine which push-on knob you choose.

[@listlisp2737]

Oh no! I have been playing a left handed guitar with a dead tone pot for years. I changed the wiring as you mentioned and it suddenly sounds alive! Thank you so much!

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Aha no worries! It amazes me guitar companies do that…makes the controls fairly useless!

[@shadowghst7704]

This is the best, most informative review of pots..ever!! I have always wondered about the different tapers, and now I know! Thanks for taking the time to make this video!

[@drzainnas]

Sometimes KZbin just throw at you loads of videos no one has the intention to watch. However, this one is the lucky dip, regardless the years of experience still learned a new things. Thank you Joe and certainly you have a bright future ahead of you, well done.

[@2bonk22]

Thanks for the tip for lefties, explained why my tone pot is like a switch.

[@chrisparsons7043]

Excellent, informative, no-rambling guide. Thanks.

[@jahriffn]

Rad video. Thank you so much for taking the time. Infinite love and gratitude from Colorado.

[@DafyddTimothy]

For any other lefties who hanker for a genuine audio taper, you CAN buy reverse audio taper... audio taper is "A" as in A500k... linear is "B"... reverse audio taper is "C". Just look for C500k pots, and they will work perfectly when wired in reverse!

[@atrumluminarium]

For people who want the best of both worlds regarding pot values, a stacked pot with a common shaft wired in series with eachother through a switch will let you switch between 250k and 500k (or 500k to 1M)

[@JohnZornAscended]

O my goodness thanks.

[@firebald2915]

Best and clearest knowledge of pots I've heard to date. Simple instructions and easy to follow. Thank you. My OCD causes me to lose track of information when the speaker goes on a rabbit hunt with wording. None here. To the point... YaY !

[@RogerBarraud]

The log taper is meant to match the ear's response to loudness, which is essentially logarithmic. So 10 is meant to be "twice as loud" as 5... or about 10 times the power / 3.16 times the voltage (as opposed to 2x the voltage / 4x the power, as you'd expect from a linear taper).

[@martyski691]

Correct! I was wondering if someone would pick this up.

[@JohnZornAscended]

Yea, I have an Epiphone Les Paul that does that…drives me bonkers. It’s very hard to dial in consistent tone when that much variance is going on. It does affect the tone and gives you a myriad of personalities…Best for a recording kind of situation, not live workhorse situation.

[@claudecat]

Extremely helpful! I mean, this guy knows his stuff, and is super articulate, which is really important. Imagine what the world could be like if everyone online was as informed and well spoken as this? Slightly less doomed feeling!

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Thanks Chris - the internet can be a harrowing place, for sure!!

[@musicproductionvideos5019]

@@JoePerkinsMusic So do you use Audio/Log taper for "both" tone & volumes controls? I'm getting ready to upgrade a couple lefty guitars. Thanks!

[@chriskilian2325]

Dude. Unrelated to this video but after 28 years of playing I finally got myself a telecaster guitar, so excited😂! I also have a Williams TB Mark 1 coming in the mail, can't wait to get those two together

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Argh I bet mate - that's a match made in heaven!! :D Let us know what you think of the MkI...sure you're gonna love it!

[@kirbyjakescarborough4515]

Excellent job mate. I will reference this often! Cheers and Thanks!

[@esstee5888]

I dont know why i waited so long to search for a video on pots. This is amazing, very clear and simple to understand. Fine job!

[@wacokid2532]

Brilliant - the clearest most concise explanation of potentiometer values, taper and use on KZbin ! Thank you sir !

[@NorthShoreGuitarTuition]

I came here to learn more about pots thanks for the informative video. I had some New Pots installed on my LP by a technician as they were making buzzy sounds intermittently. I did not specify what I wanted as I don’t know much about pots at the time. The new ones behave differently to my old ones. Old ones you can hear a really gradual volume increase from 0-10. The new ones you hear a small increase between 0-4 and then 5-10 has sudden more noticeable volume increases. What should I be looking for in terms of Taper to get another set of volume pots that behave like my old ones ? Thanks so much for anyone reading this.

[@JohnZornAscended]

It sounds like the old ones may have been linear. From what he’s described, I have that same kind of pot, it’s kind of annoying.

[@midgot]

Really really thank you, I'm a lefty and now I finally understand why my pots just work on the range of 3 to 0. I've been searching why this happens this for long time, till get to your video, because I thought something was wrong with my pots.

[@devinftf]

This was fantastic. Thank you!!!

[@p.s8950]

Great easy to under stand info. Thanks 👍

[@jack16_29]

just saved me so much monay, thank you so much

[@chrisshave7129]

I love learning new stuff like this. Thanks for a great vid!

[@figtreetim]

The best explanation on potentiometers ever. Gr8! Dude.

[@raulgrangeiro]

Man, your video is the best I’ve seen! God bless you!

[@alanst.4417]

Very comprehensive and well explained! Thanks for the part about how the log taper works and also freeing the values from their historic context...

[@kennethmckenzie8906]

This explained so much. Thank you.

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@wesboundmusic]

Nice! As I'm going about my first serious soldering job to accommodate a switch that enables coil splitting, this was very helpful to know, thank you a ton!

[@OspreyD40]

I have learned much of this recently but you have SO efficiently covered it all.Thank you!

[@jpb962]

Great video. The only thing you didn't mention is the difference in the number of splines on US pots (24) compared to Metric (18). Believe me that can be an unexpected issue when you go to put knobs on.

[@grimreapybones2875]

Thanks for mentioning this, my country mostly uses metric for everything so I assume our pots will be too

[@tonysansom]

Great info about logarithmic pots in L/h guitars! I'm a lefty too and just started guitar DIY and it never occurred to me until you mentioned it!

[@chriskettlewell801]

Yeah, I was thinking about whether I should put lefty pots in, but figure I’ll just stick with them turning the RH way. I have some guitars one way and some the other. I don’t feel any great need to have them turn the “lefty” way. Don’t see that it makes much difference. And it generally just means the numbers on the knob are meaningless as you don’t often get knobs with the numbers the other way around for lefties.

[@jacobpittman1996]

Thank you for the clear presentation.

[@Paul_Lenard_Ewing]

Welcome back !!!! I really missed you not being around!!!

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

More videos coming soon...hopefully! :-)

[@alanthompson3493]

Good video!. I do think there are a couple more points you might have covered. First, there are more than one audio/log tapers. Modern stock CTS audio pots have a 30% audio taper, but some "Custom taper" CTS pots use a 10% audio taper, similar to some guitar pots in the 50's and 60's. That "vintage 10% audio taper" reportedly has a smoother and less abrupt taper than modern log pots. Another point is that you can adjust the taper of any pot using "tapering resistors" across specific lugs of the pot. Depending on what value of resistor and which lugs you solder them across, you can adjust the pots taper, overall resistance, or both. There are articles online that describe how to do this, try searching "tapering resistors" on the web to see how to do it.

[@mckylecfc]

🤔 and thats not not a double negative...

[@theredneckgeordie]

very clear and very useful to someone who doesn't know much

[@rodrich1644]

I have a volume pot that basically works like an On/Off switch meaning Audio taper is very steep. Which pot would you recomend that will be more gradual? This is a tele with 250Ks

[@matthewgordon1972]

Very helpful, thank you!!

[@simonsenoner3541]

A very detailed explanation! Really helped me to understand better the concept of pots, thanks a lot!

[@presentelaw]

#5 - Quality. My issue is also with rattling pots!!! Not only with wobbling pots but tap some on the top and it rattles! You can’t touch the pot without making a clicking noise!! Another thing to note is scratchy pots. Your sound suddenly comes to life with new pots and Deoxit d5 helps prolong its life. Thanks for the video.

[@digital360]

Complete and concise presentation. Great explanation of all points regarding pots.

[@WowIndescribable]

This was way more interesting than I thought it would be! Thanks!

[@grahamleathwood8505]

Thanks Joe, good interesting stuff! 😀

[@bryanmacaldo8966]

I watch this video if mini pots and full size pots have differences , well u explain it now I'm relieve

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Yeah, in my experience they don't sound any different

[@2fd742]

for the LEFT HANDEN you mentioned, aside the LOG(A) and LIN(B) pots you talked about, there are also "reversed log" pots (C)

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Correct...but not many of them! :P

[@tonysansom]

Ohhh that's cool! I didn't know there are reversed log pots. Thank you!

[@UCEg7z1wK]

Unlike some guys with strange accent , yours are the most clean and comfort 😉

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Hah - thanks (I think!)

[@timsterz1]

Very informative video, you answered some lingering questions I've had. One note for do it your selfer's who don't have a lot of soldering experience, the smaller pots are much more susceptible to internal damage from the heat of a soldering iron being left on them for too long when connecting a ground wire to the pot case.

[@humanbeing2420]

This is great work. Valuable information conveyed concisely and efficiently. Thank you.

[@S4Diii]

this is maybe the best and informative video for pots and electronics on youtube. very good job!

[@arthurwilson1966]

Excellent video Joe, First rate explanation of the facts is particularly helpful - it's clear you know your subject very well which makes it far easier to absorb everything. Thanks for taking the time to do this video, very much appreciated.

[@MrGixxer1300r]

After doing a lot of reading, and some experimenting I ended up using Bourns pots on my les paul build. I used all four (2 tone, 2 volume) 500k pots The volume were audio taper, and the tone are linear taper. This made the volume quicker acting, and let me have a nice spread on the tone. The harness is wired like a gibson 50s diagram with large PIO caps, pickups are Seymore Duncan 59 classic in the neck, and a JB in the bridge. This is a great sounding rig that can be used for most any king of music.

[@misho2184]

Bravo! Very good explanation, precise, clear, to the point! Thanks!

[@prosql]

Great pot overview. I'm replacing the coils in my old Roadstar II (had it for close to 40 years now), but the read driver of opening it up and getting dirty is that the selector and one of the pots cut out at times, so understanding the pots at this level of detail is helpful for me to make sure I don't invest in great new coils only to screw them up by a bad pot choice. Lost of great fill info too - that left hand taper info is gold. I'm not a lefty, but it's still a great example of a hidden trap.

[@csul5961]

thanks so much, i had issues with my tone pot and switched the wire to a different prong and presto, its great

[@michaelpal7641]

Joe-Thank you for this specific video. I can not begin to tell you how important this knowledge is to me at this point in time. Best Regards and thank you again!!

[@michibassdeva]

Great video, full of information and easily explained stuff!

[@davepajo]

This is super helpful! Worth multiple watches. I’ve been experimenting with different pots in my builds and this clears up a lot of questions!

[@geet77777]

probably the most useful youtube video ive ever seen.

[@JedrekVRoscoe]

This was amazingly useful, thank you!

[@patrickstover8766]

Lefties can also use "C" or "reverse log" pots available from guitar pedal parts shops if you want the direction and taper correct. They are all 6mm metric pots but they usually fit using a slightly larger washer.

[@Joaquin77]

Wow!!! So much information in one video!! You saved me a lot of time from finding all the characteristics individually!! EXCELLENT!!! Thank you!!

[@chanceterrill5346]

Just to clarify I'm in no way bashing vi pots..... They are super hi tolerance and have the taper I really enjoy plus they are easily obtained in the 530k range which is also what I like..... My two favorite pots are cts 450g series 550k a taper, and the vi pots...... Alot of people are just unaware that cts offers several different log tapers.... 10, 15, 20, and 30 % I think they might have a 5 too.....but most Centralabs, from all the research I have found, seem to have a 10 % taper which is what I've cone to love prior to finding out that's what the central labs were. Like many others, I too believed they were more linear like so called true vintage tapers that are around a 30% taper........ Come to find out, they are mostly around 10%! Lots of bad info...... For example, almost all the 58 bursts and several of the first 59 bursts actually had "modern" wiring, but most 59s and all. 60s bursts I've seen have the output loading/ 50s wiring...... Just is funny to me that people dog modern wiring when it came first in the Bursts! But power to those who put in the time to bring high quality products into the guitar community like vintage inspired! Thanks

[@ryanfantus6258]

This is an excellent video, very informative! Thanks Joe!

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

No problem :-)

[@douglasgreen5234]

Thank you. You explained that very well. I like that you didn't use lingo that no one understands but techies.

[@OrenZar]

Amazing explenation, thank you so much for this! it helped me a lot!

[@ChrisAguilar504]

This is a VERY informative video that is really well done! Great explanations that are clear and concise, yet also in-depth with a lot of examples. I learned so much from this one video that would have taken 10 different KZbin videos to get the all the same information you present. Bravo, and thank you!

[@Dug6666666]

What you described about pot tapers in Left handed guitars sounds exactly like the reason I'm doing a search at the moment to work out if I have the right type of pots in the LH Squire Classic Vibe Tele (made in Indonesia). Could be the type is fine, but wired back to front. Without being aware of it I'm most used to right hand pots wired normally, since that is how I wired the guitar I use the most. P.S. Sure enough I flipped the wires and it now sounds as I would expect it to. Thanks for the tip.

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Happy to help :-)

[@strat_1880]

@@JoePerkinsMusic Would you reccomend doing new wiring in a MIM strat? Or would be best to stay with the original wires the guitar came stock with? And would you rather have a faster rolling for the Volume knob pot and a slower rolling pot for the 2 Tone knobs? In my guitar the first owner or luthier had the pot in or wired backwards is thier a benefit in wiring the pot backwards?

[@angel44official]

Hi Joe., sorry for the debunking. I agree 100%, and I decided long time ago not to use 250K pots, and on my Tele I installed 1M Ohms volume pots. The reason is simple and mathematics : with low values pots you loose signal to the ground and I calculated it. Only 1 M pots for humbucker and 500K on single coils can let passing full signal If you have too many highs, you have an amp to adjust your tone for sure. In theory, if you have a 15K Ohms humbucker ( on a Fender guitar you put 2 pickups in series) with a 250K Ohms volume pot, you are loosing more than 5,5% signal, that is a huge loss. My Tele i52 s very bright for sure ( as we can expect from a 50's Tele) but the serial pickups upgrade position with 15,89 KOhms is sounding a bit dark so it is a perfect balance choice

[@jonw8694]

You can use knobs with an allen screw on split shaft pots. You just have to align the screw to be in line with the split so that it doesn't push the two sides of the shaft together.

[@GP-hj1ft]

Very informative and well explained. Straight to the point yet thorough. Thank you sir.

[@jaba1017]

Pot value relates to volume. Any pickup on a 500k pot will be louder than one on a 250k pot. It’s just a matter of whether the pickup sounds shrill when wired that hot. A 500k linear pot turned down 50% is presenting the same resistance as a 250k pot. So for P90’s for example on a 500k pot volume on 10 they scream. Turn down the volume they mellow. Changing to a 350k or 250k pot will give you those mellower tones when the volume is on 10, making your useable range 0 to 10 rather than 0 to 5 or 7.

[@Leo_ofRedKeep]

Complete nonsense. Read about things before you spew junk around.

[@Tallukeah]

This is an excellent video! Thanks so much for keeping everything concise and informational. I learned a lot here!

[@ThomasHope73]

That was very well presented! 👍

[@netsurfer62]

Excellent pot summary ;) Well done!

[@leascaart]

BRILLIANT video. Thank you so much!!

[@Αδιάφθορος]

That was really great and fully informative. Thank you!!

[@sixsix8six]

I had no idea about linear taper pots. I wasn't even looking for this video, but I relearned a lot of things I THOUGHT I knew. Cheers!

[@Piplodocus]

I agreed with you that BKP/CTS pots seemed a little "loose" for my liking. But I couldn't be arsed to buy some from the US. Bought some BKP/CTS ones again for this current re-wire and they now have 3 different types of audio taper. Seems they're all a newer slightly different design as they now don't seem slightly "loose" like the old ones, they have a new circlip at the top of the shaft and they're slightly stiffer. So I thought I'd come find this video and let you know (and anyone watching this now) that good news: you don't need to get them from the US any more - just order from Bare Knuckle and it sounds like you'll now be happy with the newer ones! :D

[@nicolasaguilar3588]

Thanks a lot for putting this video together. Great and useful material for people doing mods themselves

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

No worries Nicolas :-)

[@vanbeurdenbluesandguitars1958]

Great vid, wish I had seen this before buying 4 CTS 500k Vintage pots to replace the original Gibson pots; as you stated, wobbly and far too loose!

[@paradox7038]

Very educational, great video 😁

[@michaelcraig9449]

What is the deal with dual 250k/500k pots? What do they do, are they push pull pots or what? Can you tell us about them an what they are for and how they sound, demo some on here?

[@pdavis122]

Excellent content and well organized. Thank you.

[@MichaelZea-m3n]

Absolutely great video! So informative. Thanks!

[@glfnrtrvr]

Very good, thorough information. Thank you.

[@Mattguitarmania]

Excellent video! Very clear and easy to understand and really helpful information

[@RaymondLandis]

Great video! I learned a lot... I would like to see videos about switches too... 24-leg super switch? Thanks for the 101.

[@cheezyridr]

i learned alot of this the hard way, when i began to teach myself how to wire guitars. me personally, i use linear taper pots. it "widens the sweet spot". i don't do alot of volume swells where audio taper might be a better choice. it definitely pays to measure the pots before you break out the soldering station. i bought a so-called matched set from stew mac, and they were not even close.

[@WillfulThinker]

Can you explain what you mean by "widens the sweet spot"?

[@cheezyridr]

@@WillfulThinker the pots on your guitar go from nothing, to full throttle. at the zero end, there is a section of the taper you'll almost never use. at the full throttle end of the taper, is a section that does very little. the section in between those is where you get the most use from the pot. that useable section in between is the sweet spot. that sweet spot is also dependent on which capacitor you are using in the tone control, and whether you wired your guitar vintage style, or modern, and how you plan to use the pot. i rarely use my pots wide open, or barely on.

[@nordeastminneapolis]

Very informative, thanks!

[@andrewjeffries8721]

Thank you for the explanations, Joe! You did a great job!!

[@markashe3786]

Thank you. Now I know about values, higher brighter. Good video

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

You got it! :-)

[@orbitaljellyfish808]

Lots of great info 👏👏

[@BenGeorgia]

Thank you, I enjoyed your video. Well done. Appreciated.

[@madeofnapalm]

This was extremely useful.

[@GarysBBQSupplies]

Great video! I am learning about pots and this helped a lot. Thanks!

[@davidtaylor6870]

Just picked up this video. As far as I know, log pots are to replicate the logarithmic phenomenon of how our ears respond to sound. Much to do with the compression of sound waves (air) as they travel. Hence the calculation decibels, is a logarithmic function. So, if use use a linear pot, you might find that the useable range is only at one end. Hope this makes sense, regards

[@bedroomrockstudios408]

Joe this is very useful, and clear explanation, I have always used the typical 250k and 500Kohm pots with diff caps bleed circuits etc. This info will help me change and get better sound out of some of my humbucker guitars. Great vid my man!

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

Glad it was useful for you mate 🙂

[@bldallas]

Thank you! Extremely informative, thorough and really easy to understand. Great job. -from a new Subscriber

[@julesl6910]

This is excellent information, thank you!

[@CraftyZA]

Thank you so much for this video. Some Questions: 1.) If you install a 500k, that is the max ohms. So in theory, if you should only use 50% of the dial (of linear pod), you have a 250K? 2.) On the issue of feel, I also prefer a stiffer turn. A way of "cheating the system" is to install a small rubber o-ring below the nut that fastens the pot from the top. Any downside you see in that besides having to replace the o-ring every once in a while?

[@JoePerkinsMusic]

No probs! 1) In theory yes - with a non-linear pot the taper would be a bit screwy doing that, but a 500k linear pot turned half way down should read approx 250k of resistance. 2) I've not tried that, but I'm sure it'd work great to stiffen things up - I guess the only downside would be if it stresses anything that could break...pot shaft, pickguard plastic, etc.

[@bernhardnizynski4403]

Great presentation, however, what about Metric (Asian) versus Imperial pots, in particular, the number of splines in the split shaft pots?