Audio tapered pots vs Linear tapered pots.

[december]

Audio taper for tone, linear taper for volume.
Audio gives a more usable sweep with tone, linear gives a more gradual volume increase. Audio taper volume pots are basically just an on/off switch. Silent til about 3, then it's suddenly on. Between 3-9 there's barely any change. With a linear taper volume, you get more precise control of the amount of gain (if you use the volume to adjust the amount of breakup). And if you want a volume swell, you need linear. I have a song where the guitar comes in by strumming a chord with the volume at 0 (amp on high gain), then rolling up the volume knob to get a gradual swell into the saturation. None of the audio taper pots could do it, they were just suddenly full on at 3, no gradual increase. A500k, A25k, none of them worked for this. I replaced all my volume pots with B500k (B25k for the actives) and now I get the gradual volume swell and better control over gain level. With audio taper volume, 10 is full gain, and by 8 it's already too low. If 10 chugs, 8 doesn't, and 3 isn't any different from 8, and 2 is off. With linear taper, 5-10 is like the missing range between 9-10 on an audio taper. It's like higher gear ratio tuners, you get finer adjustments in the rotation.

 

[Esquire Rod]

Audio taper for tone, linear taper for volume.
Audio gives a more usable sweep with tone, linear gives a more gradual volume increase. Audio taper volume pots are basically just an on/off switch.

This has been my experience too.
Have I done a ton of experimentation? No
I realized this on a cheap guitar with Linear volume and how much more gradual and predictable the taper is.

 

[sepulchre]

Different strokes.... I find linear pots useless on regular guitars (no preamp).
But then I only have 60 years experience as a musician and an electronic tech.

 

[GPoint]

I did some experiments a few years ago and I came to the conclusion that linear pots were mostly useless in a guitar if you intend to use the full sweep of the pot. Linear is only useful if you only use full volume and just under full volume. For a tone pot it's even worse.

Things get even more interesting when you compare various types of audio pots. Some have a steep sweep (5-10% taper) and some are flatter (20-30% taper) and are a bit closer to linear (which you can call a 50% taper, i.e. turning it down halfway results in half the pot value).

I find that a tone pot works best with a very steep taper (like 10%), and volume works best with a more moderate taper (20%).

Agree, and use 500k 10% audio taper "no-load" pots for Tone for a wider Tone range. You can hear 250k "no-load" Tone pots switching between 9 and 10, but 500k pots are switching smoothly.

 

[Swirling Snow]

Again, your ears hear logarithmically, so if you're increasing the volume an 'audio' pot will sound better. If you've topped out the power of your amp and are just adding more distortion then a 'linear' pot might work better.

 

[HondoSavage]

Blender controls work better with linear pots than with audio pots, in my view.

 

[BryMelvin]

I guess I’m the odd man out. After much experimentation, I’ve wired pretty much all of my guitars as follows:

50’s wiring
Linear volume pot (500k for humbuckers, 250k for single coils)
Audio tone pots (250k for both humbuckers and single coils)

I play mostly clean or with a little bit of crunch. I find that all positions on each pot are different from other positions (a pot on 5 sounds different than a pot on 6).

I usually run with both controls at 7. If I want more volume with the same tone, I turn up the volume a little. If I want more bass with the same volume, I turn the tone down.

Because it’s50’s wiring, you do sometimes have to adjust both knobs for big changes. For instance, if you turn the tone way down, you might have to turn the volume up some.

Your experience might be different, but I’ve found this works really well for me. Good luck!

You are not alone. It's close to what I use. Not just me but Epiphone Squier and Yamaha if you look at production
guitars.
Yamaha pacificas use 500B volume 250A tone. Epi 500B and 500 A on most models. Squier affinities for years used 500b vol and 500a tone for many years don;t know about now, Last one I bought or worked on was several yeas ago.

 

[BryMelvin]

The only time linear pots are useful (in a guitar) is when there's an onboard preamp that uses one to control the gain. And that's only in certain designs.

Yes but those are not 500 and 250k k either. 10-100k depending on models.

However a linear volume is the norm fro a lot of production guitars.

 

[schmee]

Audio taper for tone, linear taper for volume.
...............None of the audio taper pots could do it, they were just suddenly full on at 3, no gradual increase. A500k, A25k, none of them worked for this. I replaced all my volume pots with B500k (B25k for the actives) and now I get the gradual volume swell and better control over gain level. With audio taper volume, 10 is full gain, and by 8 it's already too low. If 10 chugs, 8 doesn't, and 3 isn't any different from 8, and 2 is off. With linear taper, 5-10 is like the missing range between 9-10 on an audio taper. It's like higher gear ratio tuners, you get finer adjustments in the rotation.

For some reason, when I've tried linear volume it seems like if "10 chugs, 8 doesn't" applies even more so for Linear than Audio .. ?

I suppose if linear IS spread more evenly over the dial, by nature 8 on linear is much lower in volume than 8 on audio.... because the majority of volume in audio is higher on the rotation.
Which is what I dont like about Linear. I dont need the range from 7-0 really. A minor tweak is what I find useful. 7-8 being my minimum useful volume.
If that makes sense.
Now give me a linear pot with half the sweep of normal I'd be in business! If a normal pot is 270 degree sweep, give me 150 or so!

 

[Alex_C]

I prefer linear volume pots. My guitar volume pot is not so much a 'loudness' control but a way to change the amp or modeler's sound.

 

[chezdeluxe]

I had the reverb pot on my DRRI amp changed from linear to log to get rid of the “hair trigger” nature of the control on the effect.

 

[Burn Yesterday]

That people have so many takes on this demonstrates that the way you should do it is the way that you like it, and there really isn't a way that it "should" be.

 

[december]

For some reason, when I've tried linear volume it seems like if "10 chugs, 8 doesn't" applies even more so for Linear than Audio .. ?

I suppose if linear IS spread more evenly over the dial, by nature 8 on linear is much lower in volume than 8 on audio.... because the majority of volume in audio is higher on the rotation.
Which is what I dont like about Linear. I dont need the range from 7-0 really. A minor tweak is what I find useful. 7-8 being my minimum useful volume.
If that makes sense.
Now give me a linear pot with half the sweep of normal I'd be in business! If a normal pot is 270 degree sweep, give me 150 or so!

With my B25k volume pots and EMG 81X bridge, it chugs from 10 all the way down to 5 before the gain gets to weak, but it's still gradually changing. If different amp channels have different levels of gain, I have enough precise control with the volume pot to tune the gain to the perfect amount without it being too much.
With the A25k pots that come with EMG pickups, by 8 it was already too weak to chug, and 3 was the same as 8. I had to keep it on 10 and change the gain on the amp. I could tap the guitar volume down a notch to barely 9, but the slightest movement further and it was no good.
It's like 9-10 on A pots is the same difference as 5-10 on B pots. There's not enough room in an A pot to access anything between 9-10, which is exactly where you need the most precision.
And no volume swell with A pots. It's still 0 until ~3, then suddenly on, no change between 3-8, then all the rest jumps up just before 10. B pots make a much more gradual and consistent volume increase, with a much more usable and precise range. I had the same experience with A & B500k pots with passives, switched all those out for B.
Look at linear and logarithmic curves, they show exactly what's happening. Linear is a diagonal line, gradually increasing as you would expect. Logarithmic is a very low incline until just before the end where it suddenly curves sharply upwards and increases exponentially. For some reason, this works better with tone pots, but not for volume. What good is it if 90% of the change happens in the last 10% of the turn?

 

[rdjones]

Not to be overly pedantic here but "linear" = no taper.
"Linear tapered" is a contradiction of terms.

That being said, I generally use audio taper pots for audio (guitar) signals unless there is a specific reason to do otherwise. YMMV

 

[Swirling Snow]

Not to be overly pedantic here but "linear" = no taper.
"Linear tapered" is a contradiction of terms.

No, it's a description of one of the possible tapers a pot might have. And like the term "smooth road", it's an ideal, not a reality.

 

[BigPapa-53]

So, teach an old man something.

Is one of these audio and the other linear? Which is which?

 

[AJBaker]

So, teach an old man something.

Is one of these audio and the other linear? Which is which?

View attachment 1254318View attachment 1254319

Easiest way to be sure is to measure with a multimeter. Measure the outermost poles, the multimeter should show about 500k for those pots.
Next, turn the knob to be in the middle of its sweep (on 5). Measure from each outside pole to the middle pole. If it's a linear pot, it'll measure about 250k both times. If it's an audio pot, it'll measure something like 50k and 450k when measuring each of the outside poles to the centre pole.

 

[Modman68]

So, teach an old man something.

Is one of these audio and the other linear? Which is which?

View attachment 1254318View attachment 1254319

I’m pretty sure “A” types are audio, “b” types are linear and “c” types are reverse audio. These are generally stamped in the casing, so top one should be audio and bottom one linear.

But… it’s hot over here… I could be wrong..

 

[AAT65]

I’m pretty sure “A” types are audio, “b” types are linear and “c” types are reverse audio. These are generally stamped in the casing, so top one should be audio and bottom one linear.

But… it’s hot over here… I could be wrong..

According to EEPower.com that’s correct — most of the time Audio (log) pots are marked A and Linear pots are marked B: but with some exceptions…

 

[december]

Not to be overly pedantic here but "linear" = no taper.
"Linear tapered" is a contradiction of terms.

That being said, I generally use audio taper pots for audio (guitar) signals unless there is a specific reason to do otherwise. YMMV

Not true. "Taper" means it's higher or wider on one side than it is on the other (like tapered leg pants). All pots go from the same 0 to the same 10. The type of taper describes how the signal changes between 0-10 as the pot moves. "Audio" taper is an ambiguous term for logarithmic taper. Linear is just as much a taper as logarithmic is, they're just different kinds of taper. And linear taper pots are just as much for audio as logarithmic taper pots are.
The specific reason to use linear taper pots for guitar volume is to have a more gradual (linear) volume increase as you turn the pot. You get more precise control over gain levels if you use the volume to push amp overdrive. Logarithmic taper volume pots are basically just an on/off switch. No noticeable difference between 2-8, then most of the change happens between 8-10. I couldn't get a smooth volume swell with any audio taper pots. And the gain was either full on or barely any. With linear taper, 4-10 is about the same as 8-10 on audio taper. It's like higher gear ratio tuners, you get finer adjustments and smooth volume swells.
Audio taper works better than linear for tone pots. Combined with a capacitor, tone has a completely different function than volume, as it only affects part of the signal. Audio taper makes a more usable sweep with tone while linear taper makes a more usable range of volume.