Linear vs Audio Taper pots... Dylan Talks Tone Podcast

[@a-fox]

On a linear pot at 5 you would be at half of the value of the pot. If 500k then at 5 you would be 250k. Not 30% but 50%. A Log pot tapers the voltage using a curve and that curve depends on the brand.

[@lect0n7]

A Fox *WRONG* You clearly don’t understand basic guitar electronics, a 250K Audio Taper Potentiometer is used to control volume on a guitar which has exclusively single coil pickups (like a Garden Variety Fender Stratocaster) 250K LINEAR taper potentiometers are used to control *TONE* on a guitar which has only single coil pickups. The reason for that is because Volume (sound decibels) is a Logarithmic scale & therefore requires a Logarithmic pot _(Audio Taper Pots/Potentiometers)_ where as Tone is measured on a linear scale & needs linear pots. HUMBUCKER PICKUPS are what 500K Potentiometers are for, because a HUMBUCKER is 1 single coil/250K pickup wound one way & another single coil/250K pickup wound the opposite way then wound together making a 500K potentiometer necessary...if you run 500K pots with single coil 250K pickups all the audible change will happen between 1 & 3 on the knob and then it will just be maxed out beyond 3

[@davidhigginbotham5451]

@@lect0n7 You completely misread what 'A Fox' was explaining. You're scolding was misplaced even if your facts are accurate.

[@lect0n7]

​@@davidhigginbotham5451 I genuinely apologize for posting something which could be easily misinterpreted as extremely aggressive...not what I meant...and I assure you, every piece of information I stated is 100% accurate...I didn't mean to come off as such an asshole, but it's something I see a lot... people bring me their guitars saying "It sounds like shit" and they'll have had some jackass who purchased a soldering iron at Walmart replace the pots on the standard stratocaster 3 500K Linear Taper pots, and then when I confront them about it, they deny it.... ya know...my dad always told me...don't ever take work fixing people's broken toys...it'll make you f-ing crazy...he was right...

[@christophernoia5197]

Wait have I been misunderstanding audio taper pots? I thought that from around 10 to 7, you get a quick drop off and then it becomes less intense from there. Wouldn't what you described be a reverse audio taper; from 10 to 7 a subtle change and then a quicker drop off after that? I feel like for myself, id prefer a 1 meg linear taper tone pot, so it's easier to find the exact roll off I want, but then have plenty of brightness on hand too. Even better would be a 1 meg linear blend tone pot, so you could cut either the low or high end, but those are unfortunately not made. Too bad, that could make any guitar more versatile.

[@roberthastings708]

Valuable info 7 years later thank you.

[@mykemech]

Loving this "pot-cast"!

[@lumberlikwidator8863]

I know this is an old video, but I have only been online for a few years. I think you have it backwards the way a variable resistor works. Let’s say you have a500K linear volume pot. When the knob is on 10 the pot will have a hypothetical value of zero. (I know there is some loading, but let’s pretend for the moment it doesn’t exist.). When the knob is set at 7 then the value of that variable resistor is hypothetically about 167K. If you go down to 3 on the knob then the value of that variable resistor will be about 333K. Resistance rises as the knob is turned down, not the other way around. Otherwise, great video. I routinely use 250K pots in my humbucker-equipped guitars. You’re absolutely right that it’s a personal preference.

[@TheFarout69]

"What pot we select for the guitar..?" , is that like - " What whiskey do we have for tonight's edition?" yea, I'm true bypass, no buffer. Or is that pass, pass, puff, puff? LOL! Love your videos, hope to see you go into the rabbit hole of pickup blend circuits, phase reverse and series parallel options. There is just no end to the fun. BTW, Control knobs are the gateway to the fuzz and Wah universe. Huge things happen right there on the guitar knobs. Fuzz and Wah open up or close up in unique ways. Putting a weak cheap buffer in front kills the magic of course. Crazy talk!

[@fishypaw]

Correction: Linear pots (normally marked "B") are 50% resistance at 50% rotation, and audio pots (normally marked "B") can vary from 5% to 30% at 50% rotation. The most common audio pots seem to be 10 or 20%. I did quite a lot of searching before I found the correct information on this. There is so much conflicting information about pots out there, and lots of people get it wrong, which is understandable, as it is very confusing. See the link below for a good chart and graph which explains it. I've been trying to figure out the best pot for tone, and I have tested a few pots too. If you want a longer sweep of control for the tone pot, it is best to go for a low taper audio pot. The lowest I've tried so far, that gives me the most control, is 10% resistance at 50% rotation. A 5% taper would probably give a longer sweep, but I've not been able to find or test one yet. I'm still not sure about the best taper for a volume pot yet, but the guy who provided the information on this subject says he prefers a 30% audio taper, which is known as a "J" taper. Tomorrow I am going to compare a 20% audio pot against a 50% linear pot for volume control and see which one I think is best, to give the most control. Check the second comment on this forum post to see what I am referring to and check out the chart and graphs for yourself. It also tells you how to read the taper on CTS pots, although, the trouble with that is, they are not all marked the same. ... www.strat-talk.com/threads/best-volume-pot-taper.387421/

[@lutzy54]

Your first sentence has both Linear and audio pots as 'Normally marked as b', Are they really both 'B's'?

[@Axer01250]

@@lutzy54 Logarithmic/audio taper is marked A. Linear taper is marked B.

[@ijahtom]

@@Axer01250 Then why dont you edit that little bit of Info into correction? All the best Well wishings.

[@richardchristensen1768]

B=Linear & B=Audio OK? Like really Dude?

[@TheRhino2719]

Is the "J taper" the same thing you find on Allen Bradley pots? If so that would explain why I like the one in my Vox Clyde McCoy. I forgot to add, that Allen Bradley offered a pot that says "Type J" on the casing.

[@xeff3280]

Wouldn't a linear taper pot be 50% through at setting 5?

[@alex-solo]

This is why it's called linear

[@emilianwojtowycz4150]

@@alex-solo Yes! This guy just lost all credibility at 3:40, just more misinformation being spread on the internet. Typical clickbait, and quantity over quality style youtube self-proclaimed experts. Anyone can check this with a multimeter set to ohms & a linear pot, this guy is clearly wrong.

[@lect0n7]

@@emilianwojtowycz4150 Linear Taper pots are exclusively for tone control, and Audio Taper pots are exclusively for Volume. It's not as black & white as that...if you ran 500K Potentiometers on all standard single coil pickups, all of the audible change would happen in the first quarter-turn of the pot (between 1 & 4), because they're meant for Humbuckers... (which are two single coil pickups wound in opposite directions & then wound together)...for tone pots, I've never personally experimented on running higher number pots with single coil pickups or vice-versa, but what I can point out to you is this, a Fender _TBX Tone Control_ pot is two pots stacked, one going up to 250, then there's a detent and it goes into the second pot which goes up to 1-Meg (1000K) & when I was a kid, my dad had a prototype Fender Strat Plus in 1987, and that had 3 Fender Custom Shop Lace Sensors, the TBX Tone Control, but *DIDN'T* have the Fender Active Mid Boost...long story short, that Axe currently is sitting in it's hard case under his bed with Vintage 1968 Stratocaster Pickups which Duke Robillard traded to him for the speaker out of a 1983 Fender Concert amp

[@JamesJensen01]

@@emilianwojtowycz4150 The guy is an electrical engineer. OBVIOUSLY you are NOT.

[@id3m589]

@@JamesJensen01 I am an electrical engineer. When Dylan said that nonsense he did, I rewinded, and repeated "WHAT?!" 10 times in amusement. And please, all diagrams and manufacturers mark the tapres of their pots as A, B, C, W and some more special ones. Any engineer would know that ;)

[@PNWJEEPER01]

This is a subject that I've heard a lot of strong opinions on over the years, but to me, is a "season to taste" issue from guitar to guitar; it really depends on where you want to go with that particular guitar's tone and "on the fly' functionality, imho. Pot switches are cheap and easy to mess with, so this is something that I really think people should experiment with. One of my favorite recipes is a 60's style Tele pickup set with a 250k audio-taper volume and a 500k linear-taper tone; smooth volume curve with a tone control that's abrupt enough to use as a wah and has functional voices throughout it's entire sweep. I also think that it's pretty important to check the pot's you're going to use together and try to match them for close to the same resistance. PRS sells their pot's these days which are pre-matched for you and can be ordered with either taper or shaft; i'm not sure if they offer a push/pull.

[@lect0n7]

there's no possible way that's accurate... you got the _"Audio taper for volume & Linear Taper for tone"_ aspect correct, but in a single-coil application, if you use a 500K Potentiometer, all of the audible change would happen in the first 1/3 of the potentiometer's turn, after that it would just be "Maxed Out" unless you have a pot which is custom taper and specifically a "No-Load" disappearing potentiometer which has an internal detent (like a Fender TBX Tone Control) which is a switch which bypasses the potentiometer completely allowing for the pickup to run _"Wide-Open"_ *HOWEVER* those pots weren't developed until 1997 when Bournes developed them for Eddie Van Halen's because he wanted a way to run his pickups' tone _"Wide-Open"_ like with _FrankenStrat_ (because Frankenstrat had no tone control at all...)

[@PNWJEEPER01]

@@lect0n7 This is probably going to come as a huge shock, but I'm not really interested in your opinion, or what you read about Eddie in your favorite guitar rag.

[@TheRhino2719]

When you started talking about the 250k pot cutting the tip off of a guitars tone, thats something I realized last week. 1meg= very bright to not bright at all, if taper is right for it...vs a 100k pot, there's no range comparatively. A 1meg pot can get the same tones as 100k pot, but a 100k pot couldn't be as bright as a 1meg.

[@milanfixer]

Dylan... Would you please make an episode about guitar capacitor choice?

[@DylanTalksTone]

What about capacitors would you like to know

[@milanfixer]

What do they actually do to the tone? How do i choose the ,,right'' one (The right value)? Does the voltage matter (I use 50V caps)? How is your philosophy, of an A500K pot and a fatter capacitor, actually working? And treble bleeds (cap choice)? I have always dove everything by the book. Humbuckers: 500K pot and a 22nF cap Single coils: 250K and a 47nF cap I'm sorry if I am asking too many questions. But i have found your channel very inspiring :D

[@noreaction1]

I second this motion, I just wanna know what the difference is all else being the same. What do capacitors do to the frequency response? What do they do to the amplitude? What do they do to the pot taper? What do different sizes do and how do they achieve that? What cap is right for my style of playing? What cap gives you the most versatility (most range and use across different genres). How much does it change your tone? What are the tradeoffs between a high vs low capacitor?

[@DylanTalksTone]

We have a few episodes on caps here on the channel. We are currently writing a few more

[@duncanporter7409]

He's got it completely wrong. At 50% rotation, a linear taper pot's resistance is half its maximum value. At 50% rotation, a typical audio (log) taper pot's resistance is only 10% of its max value. Other tapers are available, but that's the most common guitar pot audio taper. That makes the actual changes in sound volume proportional to pot rotation, because your hearing has a nonlinear response to changes in sound pressure level (SPL). SPL is directly related to amplifier power output, which is directly related to your guitar's signal voltage output. When you turn a linear volume pot down from 10 to 5, you get half the signal voltage output, which translates to half the amplifier power output, which measures as a -3dB change in SPL, which is just barely audible to most people. When you turn an audio taper volume pot from 10 to 5, you get 10% of the signal voltage, which translates to 10% of the amplifier power output, which measures as a -10dB change in SPL, which most people perceive as "half as loud" (50% volume at 50% pot rotation). The decibel (dB) is the standard unit of measuring changes in electrical signal and sound levels. It represents a ratio between two compared levels. It's a mathematical way of describing the relationship between linear signal changes and nonlinear human perception.

[@reginahaynes5268]

What about a strat with hss setup, how do I make the humbucker have enough treble and the middle/neck pickup not have too much treble?

[@semikolon6440]

Thanks for the vid! Concerning your Strat comment: I‘m building a cheap Strat kit atm, and my thinking was, because it has cheap ceramic single coils, to use 500k pots to get the PU brightness a bit more like classic alnico singles. Do you think that makes sense or did maybe even test it? My hope is it works and your comment is only accurate to higher spec/brighter Strat singles :)

[@TheRhino2719]

Idk about pickups, but with speakers ceramic and Alnico are 2 completely differnt animals.

[@AirvanaVideoVault]

i don't know what one would be best for volume swells, i just want to use the volume knob to get my guitar cleaner on the gain channel

[@Rantila718]

You have it backwards…an audio taper pot at half its travel will be 10% of its total value..A linear taper will be 50% of its total value at half.

[@MPNNag]

You Have it backward Dlyan

[@vincebuccheri6074]

Forget frequency loss. A pot Bpot,when I went to school. 50% of 10 was 5. 25% was 2.5. Now your saying 5 on the dial is 75% or 10%, depending on the pot used. now I know way I hate maths.

[@christyler1647]

Thank you. Great explanation.

[@DylanTalksTone]

Glad you liked it

[@michaelhead875]

I appreciate the story about the Strat with the long adjustment range on the tone pot. This is what I want on all my guitars. What confuses me in your videos, and by others, is the loose language in talking about 250k vs 500k pots. Generally, a statement like "A 250k pot will remove more high frequencies". Are you referring only to the pot used for tone control? Does the resistance value of the volume pot affect the frequencies being passed to the tone control?

[@DylanTalksTone]

Yes. The pot value of both volume and tone have an effect on it

[@Drunken_Hamster]

Hell, it's probably difficult to get anyone intermediate or newer to use their tone knobs unless you leave them with only one pickup. Then again, if you have some wide-range knobs like a set of 1M, and the right pickup (in the right placement, presumably bridge to middle), then wouldn't you only NEED one pickup? Hmm...

[@robertobrien2903]

Are Non Linear Pots the same as Audio Taper Pots? My guitar spec sheet says it has 500k Non Linear Pots and I can't find any information or a definition for Non Linear Pot.

[@racerdoc]

yes

[@codysifford5470]

Showing the graphs might be helpful

[@yiranimal]

I like your content, Dylan, but I think you're making an error or two in this video. Everybody online seems to be screwing this one up in their own way, or maybe I'm the screwed up one. Correct me if I'm wrong. Traditionally audio taper goes in the volume and linear in the pot. Why would this be? Well, because it produces the most user-friendly controls to what our human ears are trying to dial in. On a volume pot this means that the dial set to 5 will "sound" half the volume (WITH AN AUDIO TAPER). And a tone pot (WITH A LINEAR SYSTEM) on 5 will sound half of the possible brightness. So to accommodate the human ear the volume pot requires a logarithmic system, while a pot set up for tone requires a linear system. Usually when people try to explain this they explain it one way or the other to cover both knobs. But if that were the case we wouldn't traditionally be going with an audio on one and linear on the other. The same pot behaves differently when it's set up to control volume vs when it's set up to control tone. Now introduce terms like "long sweep" into the equation and it gets even more complicated. A long sweep where nothing happens, or long sweep with even roll off... what is meant? I think having a long sweep where not much happens with the tone might offer some benefit in accuracy when dialing in a tone with decent treble, but it might not perform as well in real time when you're trying to dial in the perfect "woman" tone. And if you want to get more complicated still we could talk about using pots designed for a right-handed player in a left-handed guitar. Let's not.

[@leswhite3524]

I hope somebody sees this and can offer suggestions... First, I'm really just a drummer. Second, I would like more... um... room? at the top of my volume pot. (1989 Peavey Generation Standard T-style) It's as if all the "power" is at the top and backing it off is just way to drastic for me. Am I making sense? Not sure what value pots are in this. Most likely 250 because the Hum Cancelling pups are single coil design. Peavey used to be really good at support but have gone to hell since daddy left the building.

[@davidallen346]

What about Volume pot that cuts off after 8-9 that's why I'm thinking about replacing my volume pot on my Fender USA strat

[@vikdopak2166]

I hate having all the tone or volume just come up suddenly on the 7-10 on the pot. All the debate everywhere seems to be about which type to put on which control, I'd like to ask if I can just put an audio pot on both volume and tone?

[@Rushan2112]

Same exact problem with me. Got a MiM Tele and the volume did barely anything until I got it around 6-7, and only sounded decent turned mostly all the way up. I just changed to a linear taper and it’s even and nice. I’m used to my Les Paul which also has linear. The dude in the video is high; 5 is 50% volume. It’s even across the board.

[@ragnaroksangel]

Mine has a smooth sweep from 1-9 and then from 9-10 there's a massive jump and creates a LOT of hum. I cannot find a fucking answer for why it is doing this and it's driving me ape shit

[@marvinstorm9153]

@@ragnaroksangel Sounds like a bad audio taper pot with outside tolerances. Try a linear.

[@Silkaz7]

@@ragnaroksangel Try linear pot, the one you are describing sounds like an audio/logarithmic pot.

[@ragnaroksangel]

@@Silkaz7 It's gonna be a minute before I can change it out, but I agree. I moved to NY and left half my gear in the midwest in storage, and the other half is with my son. Not sure if I left it in storage or with him and right now I'm just jamming on an acoustic unplugged

[@MrShadowofthewind]

I have one pot with 520K, it's a 500K pot from CTS, well, that's a keeper.

[@JC-11111]

It has a tolerance rating of 10% so it can be as low as 450k and as high as 550k and still be within spec.

[@ederst9759]

Everyone on KZbin, is explaining the difference, but not the application; You almost said it, when you said "wah". Simply put, if you are a guitarist that likes to use the pots interactively while picking, for wah effects, tremolo, or a 'fade-in', the linear pots will give you the most effect in a shorter rotation. Steve Morse does this all the time with his vol pot, and if you have short pinky's, you will definitely want linear... If you're using a limiter, or noise gate, playing live, you wouldn't need to go to 1 or 'zero' anyway, so why buy a pot that you have to turn all the way down, unless you're in-studio?

[@swettyspaghtti]

I ended more confused by watching this. This guy is all over the place. Its like he is having a stroke every time he starts talking.

[@DylanTalksTone]

Thanks for commenting. Feel free to ask any questions and I can clarify in a future videos.

[@emilianwojtowycz4150]

@@DylanTalksTone Go back and correct all the misinformation in this video, instead giving wrong information to people.

[@JamesJensen01]

@@emilianwojtowycz4150 The guy actually KNOWS what he's talking about and is explaining to people without using Electrical Engineer speak so more people can understand. What don't you get? He's attempting to explain a complicated electrical system in simple terms.

[@emilianwojtowycz4150]

@@JamesJensen01 There is nothing he's talking about that I don't get. Dylan mis-spoke about a few things, probably because he was casually free-form talking in this video instead of having a script and cue cards or notes. I have 30 years experience in sound system design and electronics, and work at a manufacturer of pro audio amplifiers, digital sound processors, and speakers. @Swetty Spaghtti makes a very good point about Dylan's presentation, and there is definitely wrong information and mistakes.

[@theoutlandos]

Holy cow. Totally backward my friend. Linear pot 50% of it's value at half the dial or at 5 in th rotation.

[@stephenstrings]

Come on Dylan ! You don't quite know what you're trying to explain do you ?

[@adichapmerah9]

Go get more informations, learn the difference between linear and audio pots before doing vid brother...

[@ranbymonkeys2384]

Talking pots and it appears smoking them too.

[@gregblankenship1184]

It's like dancing about architecture. Why do you talk about tone instead of just playing tones and then explaining how they are made? You put out some very good information but you talk about tone but don't usually post any examples of the tones you're talking about.

[@keithclark486]

No.

[@DylanTalksTone]

No what

[@cannabizmachine]

@@DylanTalksTone 😆😆😆

[@adichapmerah9]

Just my opinion, this is misinformation. He got it reversed..