The Steel Guitar Forum

Are they 250k pots? I am replacing a 1meg that was put in by previous owner that seems to max volume at 4 instead of 10. Is there a particular brand I should get - should I look for an old vintage one from the era or will a modern pot work properly and not degrade the tone? Thanks!

I'm thinking about replacing volume pot on an old Dickerson. Any suggestions as well?

i actually like a pot that maxes out around 4 - it makes it easier to do swells, you get a quick off/on sound that is really effective, esp for the tone/wah effect.

One source for you might be to check out the Jerry's Guitars page on the www.JERRYBYRD-FANCLUB.com/ site.

At least that's what Jerry used on his Richenbachers.

Most any pot will work, but the higher resistance pots like yours leave more highs. Some were only 100K. A 250 seems to be the common/popular resistance, and does clip some of the highs, for a more mellow tone.
And the resistance of a pot doesn't care if it was made in 1930 or 2010, so a modern pot is the way to go.
You could also fool with like a 300 K, to see if you like more highs etc, or even try a 500 K. Lots of options.
You could check www.tubesandmore.com , which is the Antique Electronics website, for what you want.
Some pots have a metric shaft also, but you will want a standard 1/4" shaft, to fit your volume knob.
Hope this helps some...

Ray Montee wrote:One source for you might be to check out the Jerry's Guitars page on the www.JERRYBYRD-FANCLUB.com/ site.

At least that's what Jerry used on his Richenbachers.

Ray ... we've had this discussion before

If you are going to direct folks to your wonderful site ... You have to change this piece of mis-info ...

To accomplish this, Jerry used a 500 Meg, audio taper "pot"

There was discussion here of the use of the letter "M" for 1000 on some early electronics ... which I have seen also.

But your (or JB's) use of "Meg" leaves no wiggle room ...

Mega (Meg) is the SI prefix for 1 million.

It's a 500 k Ohm (or 500,000 Ohms) potentiometer ...

1 Meg Ohm (1,000,000 Ohms) potentiometers are used in some applications ...

I've seen 5 Meg pots in catalogs ...

But 500 Meg (500 million Ohms) ... ummm, in the immortal words of Mr. Spock:

Highly improbable, Captain

Anyway ... as I answered David in his PM ... I like 500k audio pots for volume, 250k or 500k audio pots for tone in conjunction with a 0.047 mfd capacitor.