Lefty pots= is reverse audio taper required?Tone pot secret

[mike58]

Just rewired a recently aquired mij 62.lefty
Everything works great but the vol pot is all or nothing between 8 - 10. It's a CTS 250k audio taper.
Should I have ordered a reverse audio taper pot to make it work correctly in a clockwise direction?
Interestingly enough the tone pot with a 0.22 cap is real nice and very useable, could I have unwittingly stumbled on a great set up for you righties? ie you guys try a reverse audio taper , -- confusing but I know what I mean.

Any ideas what I should get for a smooth and useable l/hand clockwise pot.
Any UK sources recommended
Mike

 

[takeout]

Mike -

There is no such thing as a lefty or righty pot. You make a pot lefty or righty depending on which lugs you attach things to. A lefty wired pot should look like the mirror image of a righty when all is said and done.

Reminds me of a trick I saw played on a guy once; the engineer at a studio sent a guy out to the store for a "left handed volume pot" just to get him out of the studio...

 

[mike58]

I accept this is the case for a linear travel pot but a log pot wired backwards just isn't the same.
Try it.
Then go back to the studio and tell the guy he was right all along!
Then maybe think about things more carefully before taking the piss.

 

[TeleWrecker]

Log pots are available CW or CCW tapers. I usually order these types of parts through a distributor like Digikey or Mouser here in the states. The only distributor I know of in the UK is Farnell. They have a website, www.farnell.com, and it appears you can order online.

 

[Bob Rogers]

This is a very common topic with lefties. Fender uses righty audio taper pots and switches the lugs. The result is exactly as you describe - a pot that sounds worse than a linear taper pot. Gibson uses right pots but wires the lugs as for righties. PRS actually has lefty audio taper pots, but uses 500k, so you may not want to use them on your tele. I have not been able to find 250 K reverse taper pots that I can buy in small quantities. Let me know if farnell.com works out.

My solution is simply to wire all my guitars with the righty pots in the righty (CW) configuration. This means switching the wires on the outer lugs on all Fenders.

 

[mike58]

Thanks for the info guys, I have bought a couple of reverse 500k audio pots but haven't wired them yet, although I think I will stick with the tone pot wired the way it is as it is superb.
Mike

 

[takeout]

I accept this is the case for a linear travel pot but a log pot wired backwards just isn't the same.
Try it.
Then go back to the studio and tell the guy he was right all along!
Then maybe think about things more carefully before taking the piss.

I stand corrected.

BTW, when I'm "taking the piss", you'll know it. Calm down.

 

[mike58]

Sorry , I didn't mean to sound harsh, apologies.

 

[Eric Daw]

sorry to revive an 8 year old thread, but has anyone ever found reverse audio taper solid shaft 250 k pots yet? Seems like they should exist....

 

[62 Jazzmaster]

sorry to revive an 8 year old thread, but has anyone ever found reverse audio taper solid shaft 250 k pots yet? Seems like they should exist....

I recently got a CTS 500K lefty pot from Nacho Music Guitar Parts, looks like they have lefty (link removed) too.

 

[jefrs]

sorry to revive an 8 year old thread, but has anyone ever found reverse audio taper solid shaft 250 k pots yet? Seems like they should exist....

They do exist, just maybe not as CTS

A reversed log/audio is a called an Anitlog pot (type "C")
[Which is another misnomer because the log/audio pot really has an antilogarithmic taper, so you really have a reverse antilog, oh never mind ...]

You get a type of log and a type of antilog pot on a dual-ganged balancer (type M/N). By type, I mean they run for half a track each way.

Normally you would be stuck using a linear pot, they are (as it says on the tin) linear and thus ambidextrous.

 

[andvaka]

Just reading this, and I have a question.

yes, some pots are "lefty". But...why not just wire the pot up "righty"? Yeah, it may be a backwards knob turn depending on what you're used to, but its a non-issue. The guy I have set up my guitars does it pretty well automatically for me.

 

[Glen Smith]

I bought some with split shaft: (link removed)

 

[Geo]

I had reverse happen in a wiring mistake and put the connection on the opposite
lug of tone pot to the specified one in schematic. Maybe....? Deaf Eddy will
comment.