linear or taper for tele swells?
I recently scored a nice CVC Squire tele and am finding that the tone and volume knobs are too stiff for my liking and I want to find some pots that will be good for doing the lap steel swell think using tone and volume. Wondering what you guys recommend for taper and brands for both pots?
Comments
Those "Gatton-like" boutique hard knurl knobs feel like a bed of nails on my hand!
I would recommend going to your favorite luthier- hopefully they have a few potentiometers to choose from (they probably cost $2.00 without mark up and installation) and pick the two with the loosest roll. And they do break in slowly with use.
All the best- Jim
Afraid I am my favorite luthier..but I agree, it would be smart to find a bin of pots in order to test a few.
I have heard of guys using a 1mg tone pot, Danny Gatton did that is what I read somewhere, or maybe somebody told it to me. A few guys have come in with guitars that had 1 meg tone pots and they are very, very quick....not much of a sweep,,,, not for me......yet.
In the 70's I worked at a place where we used "Clarostat" Pots made by "Honeywell"........Alembic used to use them and maybe still does. They are a heavy duty, industrial grade pot.......nearly indestructable. They are big and heavy and you can't solder to the back of the pot which is a bit of an inconvenience.
If my memory serves me well.....there is High Z audio taper and Low Z audio taper.......cant remember the difference right now. Old age I guess. Maybe I am imagining it? At this point in life....I stick with the tried and true options that are available. That is CTS 250k audio taper for single coil pickups.
I traded a guy some repairs for a DeArmond Volume/Tone pedal....haven't used it but a time or 2, it does get the job done......it seemed to add some noise to the signal.....
This goes against the grain......but it works for me. I spray my pots with WD 40.....then I turn them open and closed maybe 2 dozen times or more.......then I spray them full of DeOxit cleaner......and twist them again several dozen times. This loosens them up to where they are fast and smooth. Some guys tell me it's not a good thing to do....but myself and some other people I hold in high regard have been doing it for years and have had no problems and no complaints. It's a secret so don't say nuthin to nobody.
If any of you forum members run into Jim Campilongo, tell him I said "Hi" and that he is a "Good Guy"
I have tried WD 40, but I don't think its helped much. I'll have to hit my local shop soon...
either way, its a pain, and i basically have had a BooWah less lap steel for quite some time now! What am I supposed to do!!!???!?!?!
Here's one....
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006KX3W0G/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687702&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B004A15B0O&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=105FSTESRXDVMWZAEJAD
I paid $14 for a pack of Parliments Tuesday night. Cough.
I was having trouble with the tone swells and spent a lot of time on TDPRI reading the threads and on youtube watching a number of videos about audio vs. linear taper.
What I finally did was order an EVH (initials of some guitar player, I guess) low friction 250k pot. I just installed it this evening (my first soldering job!) and it seems to work really well.
I was coming from stock (I assume) tone pot on a mid-90s 52 AVRI. That was really hard to turn quickly. This EVH tone pot works much better. I have no idea if it's linear or audio taper, but the tone swells are now much easier.
The only downside is that the shape of my tone knob doesn't fit the EVH pot. the threaded part that sticks out of the bushing is too long so the knob sits up too high.
So I may been to get new knobs, but the eyesore isn't a big deal to me now that I've got a swell-able tone pot.
And, by the way, I blame Mr. Campilongo for making me even care about tone swells. I was just fine until I heard him play, thank you very much.
Hope that made sense and helps.
Surely you jest.
BTW, those pots should come in different shaft lengths... usually short and long.... short ones are for Fenders, long ones are for less pauls and archtops, usually.... if it ends up bugging you to much, look for a short shaft version of the EVH pot. The YJM (another guitar player, I guess LOL) pot should have a short taper available, since he plays Fender strats exclusively.
Bingo! Fixed. Thanks.