lanark Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 The volume control on my Squier Affinity P-bass works very oddly (or maybe all guitars do this, I haven't played that many different instruments). When turning the control, about 95% of the movement increases the volume from silence to about 20% of total volume and then the last 2mm of distance increases it by about 80%. It means that I have almost no finesse over my volume, it's basically either off or on. It this normal or is there something I could do to improve this? Thanks for the advice in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Has it always done this? If you have a 250k pot in ther you may want to try a 500k for a different dynamic. This graph might help explain your situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanark Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 [quote name='Ou7shined' post='1293198' date='Jul 5 2011, 11:26 AM']Has it always done this? If you have a 250k pot in ther you may want to try a 500k for a different dynamic. This graph might help explain your situation. [/quote] That graph is definitely something like what it's doing - it would appear to be a standard thing. And yes, it's always done it. What difference would using a 500k pot have on the dynamic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 500k pots are generally for humbuckers (which the standard JB pickups arent) so you should probably stick with 250k. You may have a particularly nasty pot, so you could try replacing with a better quality 250k log (I did this in my squier jazz and it worked) or you could try a linear pot (250k) and see if it gives you a smoother response - but these are generally better for tone controls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanark Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Maybe I'll just stick with it on 100% volume permanently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Heeley Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 (edited) Sorry this is cheap pot syndrome. instead of a true ramp in resistance on the pot tracks they just have 2 bands overlapping to try and approximate the smooth ramp. QC spec and tolerance on cheap pots is all over the place. It's galling when you spend a few hundred quid on a guitar that the difference between cheap pots and decent ones is about 3 quid. Get the pots replaced with decent CTS ones, available from Allparts, Axes-r-us, etc. Go here for pure geekness: [url="http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm"]http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/pots...ts/potscret.htm[/url] Edited July 5, 2011 by Al Heeley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassy Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 [quote name='Al Heeley' post='1293293' date='Jul 5 2011, 12:41 PM']Get the pots replaced with decent CTS ones, available from Allparts, Axes-r-us, etc.[/quote] Just want to point out that other 'decent pot' brands are available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 It would be useful for all of us to know what other brands are worth considering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escholl Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 [quote name='BigRedX' post='1293586' date='Jul 5 2011, 04:47 PM']It would be useful for all of us to know what other brands are worth considering.[/quote] Alps, Alpha, Bourns, Omeg -- probably more those are just what come to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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