250k vs 500k volume pot

moonlight · #1 10-18-2009, 03:09 AM

If they both have audio taper,is the only difference in using a 250k vs a 500k volume pot that turning the knob has a slower rate of change for the 500 than the 250? I tried a 250k audio taper and it seems to have very slow rate of change in volume until the last 20% and the it takes a dive. Not real happy with that.

littlephil · #2 10-18-2009, 06:42 AM

With volume pots, a higher value will have more treble. 500k is typically used for humbuckers, sometimes 1M, and 250k with single coils.

Vim Fuego · #3 10-18-2009, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moonlight

If they both have audio taper,is the only difference in using a 250k vs a 500k volume pot that turning the knob has a slower rate of change for the 500 than the 250? I tried a 250k audio taper and it seems to have very slow rate of change in volume until the last 20% and the it takes a dive. Not real happy with that.

it sounds like the taper is wrong rather than the value, I used to think audio taper for volume but Ibanez and others use linear... try that.
Jim

moonlight · #4 10-18-2009, 04:04 PM

Actually the 250k pot is a Dimarzio custom taper, whatever that is. I just wanted to try it becuase on Dimarzio's site they say one of their favorite combinations is a 250k volume pot and a 1 meg tone pot. I have Dimarzio 500k volume pots in other guitars that work great. Ya,I will try a l linear pot, I'm curious to see the difference.
How does a higher value ohm volume pot get more treble? I,m not arguing that it doesn't, I just would like to fully understand how these components work together and all I can find on searches for guitar volume and tone controls don't get that far into it. Thanks for the reply's.

Vim Fuego · #5 10-19-2009, 05:46 AM

The pickup, pots and capacitor in the guitar form a kind of RLC circuit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit), to cut a long story short, the high frequencies are increased if the resistance is increased (higher value pot) or if the inductance of the pickup is reduced (say going from humbuckers to single coils).
Jim