Audio or Linear Pots for Tone & Volume? Does it matter..

[BadMonkey]

Hello!

Just a quick question...
Should I use audio logarithmic pots for both the tone & volume, or audio for the volume & linear for the tone.... or vice versa??

Cheers!
BM

[Twinfan]

I use audio taper all round, so that's what I'd recommend.  You certainly need audio taper for tone, but you can use either for volume.

Edit:  Sorry, got linear/audio wrong way round!

[hunter]

I use Audio for all ... but I don't care so much, my tone pot is only for pulling it to switch single coil  

[gwEm]

feline suggested these a while ago:

http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/shop/products.php?category=317&product=5222

i tried them, and i must say i agree with his suggestion: custom audio taper CTS pots for tone and volume.

[Twinfan]

They're the ones I have in my SG, plus I've got a set waiting to go in my Les Paul once I've got my Mules.

They're great pots!

[the_bleeding]

AUDIO only dude.

The ear only senses volume on a logarithmic scale i.e. you need more and more volume to noticed a difference... so which an audio pot will sound like it has a smooth increase in volume, the linear pot will sound like it has a big jump from about 1-5, and then virtually no increase from 5-10.

[Fourth Feline]

I found Linear for volume pots and Logarithmic for tone. If I tried Log types in the volume position, the volume came nearly all the way up between about  1- 3 and little other difference after that and these were good quality CTS pots.

I gather that a good Log pot has a ratio around the centre of about 60:40. At least a linear was close at 50:50 around the centre detent.

The human ear does track volume increase in a logarithmic fashion, but that fact alone does not guarantee that the resistance sweep on the pot is tracking at exactly the right ratio for the human ear.

If in doubt, I would get the ones from Feline Guitars, as they have been tried and tested, despite seemingly contrary opinions on this post.

 :D

[Jazz Rock]

Sorry to hijack a wee bit but, is it possible that my Gibson LP studio came with linear pots for the volume. It certainly seemed to be the case but I thought I'd check to see if it is a known fact?

Back to main subject, in my Epiphone, when I had the SD '59 installed, I had the luthier put audio pots for the volume and linear pots for the tone. The behaviour of the guitar to the rollings off and on of the different pots is really nice. Volume clean up in a fairly even way and the tone knob roll off allow me to tame the highs when required in a quite precise way.