Linear or Log pots for P90's

Babyfrank

Pecked up a cracking Aersi brand Thinline Tele last week; it plays and sounds great, but both the volume and tone pots act more like on/off switches than pots... they have no effect until they're turned down to about 2 on the pot. So... For a volume (and tone) control that works, what value should I use, and what type of taper? Cheers BF

ICBM

500K Log for both.

horse

I did log for volume and linear for tone, and had that exact same problem with the tone controls, so now have log for both and it is much better. This was with humbucker size p90s

ICBM

horse said:

I did log for volume and linear for tone, and had that exact same problem with the tone controls, so now have log for both and it is much better.

The advice to use linear for tone is still fairly widespread, and it's just plain wrong unless you deliberately want a near on/off effect (eg if you want to do 'tone control wah' without having to turn the knob much) or if you're going for a jazz-type tone with a very low value tone pot (eg 100K) that's the same full-up as where a higher-value one starts to work.

Linear can work well for volume controls if you're using it as a fine *volume* control for clean sounds, but is less useful if you're trying to use it the more traditional way as a gain control for overdriven sounds.

You want a .022uF cap for P90s too, by the way!

Babyfrank

Thanks guys, I appreciate your advice.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

horse said:

I did log for volume and linear for tone, and had that exact same problem with the tone controls, so now have log for both and it is much better.

The advice to use linear for tone is still fairly widespread, and it's just plain wrong unless you deliberately want a near on/off effect (eg if you want to do 'tone control wah' without having to turn the knob much) or if you're going for a jazz-type tone with a very low value tone pot (eg 100K) that's the same full-up as where a higher-value one starts to work.

Linear can work well for volume controls if you're using it as a fine *volume* control for clean sounds, but is less useful if you're trying to use it the more traditional way as a gain control for overdriven sounds.

You want a .022uF cap for P90s too, by the way!

Exactly what the man said! 

ThePrettyDamned

TheGuitarWeasel said:

ICBM said:

horse said:

I did log for volume and linear for tone, and had that exact same problem with the tone controls, so now have log for both and it is much better.

The advice to use linear for tone is still fairly widespread, and it's just plain wrong unless you deliberately want a near on/off effect (eg if you want to do 'tone control wah' without having to turn the knob much) or if you're going for a jazz-type tone with a very low value tone pot (eg 100K) that's the same full-up as where a higher-value one starts to work.

Linear can work well for volume controls if you're using it as a fine *volume* control for clean sounds, but is less useful if you're trying to use it the more traditional way as a gain control for overdriven sounds.

You want a .022uF cap for P90s too, by the way!

Exactly what the man said! 

Thanks for the save guys, I thought I'd try linear on my tone pot - order changed!