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Topic: Fender Custom volume control? |
Veli-Pekka Haanmäki
From:
Finland
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Posted 7 May 2010 2:14 pm |
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I recently became owner of this beautiful Fender Custom:
It is in top shape for 58 year old
I have a question about the volume control though: when I turn it clockwise to add volume,it opens up from 0 to 1 and adds volume a little bit from 1 to 3 but after that,from 3 to 10,there is very little change,if at all,in volume.So it must be either that the potentiometer is not working properly or is this the way Customs are? Anyone? |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 7 May 2010 2:32 pm
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| Your guitar is in beautiful condition. It sounds like your volume pot has bad spots in it. It should have a continuous smooth change in volume from 0 to all the way up. Replacing the pot should be a fairly easy job if you have an idea of how to do it. |
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Lynn Oliver
From:
Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 7 May 2010 11:17 pm
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| Maybe it has a linear pot installed instead of an audio taper. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 8 May 2010 7:05 am
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| 1 meg pot? I did the Gatton trick of using a 1 meg pot for the tone control on a Tele for it's "wah" effect. A 1 meg, or larger value, on a volume control would make volume swells quick and easy. You don't lose any volume, it just goes from 0 to 10 in 1/3 of the pots rotation. Could that be the case here? |
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Veli-Pekka Haanmäki
From:
Finland
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Posted 9 May 2010 4:58 am
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Thanks for your replys! I think I need to get the potentiometer checked.
I wonder which kind of potentiometer these Customs originally had and are those still available?
Lynn,did these originally come with audio taper? |
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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John Bechtel
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.
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Posted 9 May 2010 9:00 pm
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The proper volume-pot replacement would be a good-quality 250K Audio-Taper and for tone, a good quality 1 Meg. Linear-Taper w/.05 or .047 cap. I say ‘good-quality’, because; chances are that most pot qualities have probably improved quite a lot since the 40's and 50's!
_________________
<marquee> Go~Daddy~Go, (No), Go, It's your Break Time</marquee> L8R, jb
My T-10 Remington Steelmaster |
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William Fraser
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 11 May 2010 3:43 am Pots
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I am going through a similar situation with a Deluxe 8 . I found a I meg linear pot for the tone control, but 250 K audio taper vol. pots . The problem was the full effect of the tone pot was all located between 1 & 3 , I guess this is good for wah sounds , but I prefer to be able to take the"edge" off & not have a lot of treble between 7 & 8 but get full treble at 10 , & have a bunch of bass down at 1 to 3 , a nice even distribution of tone & an even sweep. I didn't have a new 1 meg pot & altho it says linear , it doesn't say taper, so I am not sure what belongs in there , so I tried a new 250 audio taper in it's place & it does pretty much what I am looking for , should I leave it ? or locate the "correct pot" the 250 has a bit more oomph! . Sorry to butt in but your thread is along the lines of my question .  Thanks Bill Fraser
_________________
Billy Lee ,Pro-II,, Session 400,Session 500 , Supro , National, SpeedDemons,& too many Archtops & Stratotones.Lots of vintage parts for Kay ! etc. |
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John Bechtel
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.
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Posted 11 May 2010 8:49 am
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I'm pretty sure if you use (2) 250K Audio pots w/.05 cap., you'll have what you want! It worked very well for me. It depends whether you want a wah~wah (250K) Audio, or a boo-wack (1-Meg.) Linear! [.05/.047 cap]
_________________
<marquee> Go~Daddy~Go, (No), Go, It's your Break Time</marquee> L8R, jb
My T-10 Remington Steelmaster |
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Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Posted 11 May 2010 7:31 pm A tip about pots
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If you have a 1M linear taper pot you can add a 330k resistor from the middle terminal to ground to bring the resistance down to 250k and make the curve more like an audio taper.
For a taper even closer to the audio taper, you would use a 220k resistor from the middle terminal to ground, which would make the effective resistance 180k.
Another trick is to start off with 1M audio taper pot; putting a 330k resistor from wiper to ground will create an exaggerated audio curve (if that is what you are looking for- it would slow down your volume swells but give you more control over the lower range of the pot).
You can read more about this at R.G. Keen's GeoFX site.
Steve Ahola
P.S. The question of which taper to use for a volume control keeps coming up. If you are interested in a smooth response curve as you turn the pot up from 0 (for volume swells) you do want the recommended audio (or logarithmic) taper. However if you are more interested in having a smooth response when you turn the volume down from 10 you would want to use a linear taper pot. I'm not sure if that is applicable for steel guitar, but for regular guitar I like to turn my volume pot down "just a little bit" so I have put linear volume pots in most of my guitars.
I guess you could say that is like calling the pot half full or half empty... 
For an even slower response curve as you turn the pot down from 10 you could create an "anti-logarithmic" taper by adding a 330k resistor between the middle and "hot" terminal on a 1M linear pot.
To get even fancier you can add resistors from the middle terminal to the two outside terminals which will create a log/anti-log taper. With such a taper you get the best of both worlds: a smooth swell when you turn it up from 0 and added control when you turn it down from 10.
_________________
www.blueguitar.org
Recordings on electric guitar:
http://www.box.net/blue-diamonds
http://www.box.net/the-culprits |
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