Audio vs Linear Pots

[false_aesthetic]

Bruh,

I got this Wolfgang that needs some lovin' -- two humbuckers, 1 tone, 1 volume. I'magonna drop in a second tone and second volume. Because what's better than mixing EVH and Tom Morello?

All the pots in my other guitars are stock. Since I have the chance to swap things out I'm wondering about using linear pots. I'm hoping for more control when I back off of the volume or tone.

Thoughts?

[Mark Kelly]

Linear pot for tone control is fine.

Linear pot for volume control will give you very little attenuation for most of the range then it will suddenly drop out.

The reason is simple: your hearing response is not linear, it's geometric. You interpret a halving of power then a halving again as two equal, small steps.

If you really want to use a linear pot you can "fake" it by putting a resistor in parallel with the bottom half of the pot (between wiper and ground). The value of the resistor determines how far from linear the pot becomes, generally about 1/6 to 1/10 of the value of the pot is used. More info here: ESP - A Better Volume Control

[false_aesthetic]

Mark,

Thanks. That's a great article.

Cheers!