I've been a guitarists for over 35 years and I can't tell any difference between them. I think the way they feel and how good their made for rugged use is the reason to change maybe, but otherwise I can't tell any difference..
Another reason to change pots is the variety offered by each manufacturer. For example, Alpha has pots with a 4th lug; Bourns makes blend pots; CTS is familiar. I chose Bourns pots because I discovered I could mod them; for example, I added a push-pull switch to their blend pot, and I made a 4P2T push-pull switch on a pot (each laborious but possible!). Pictures one day...
The whole point of changing pots, in my opinion, is shaping the tone by changing the volume and tone knobs. You didn't turn any knobs. With all pots on 10 and changing pots you will not notice much or any difference. I have a guitar that sounds the same on 5 as it does with volume on 10; that's one reason that one should look for in changing pots. With lower volume, you should get a clean tone. Pickup choice has more to do with the attack responsiveness and frequency content.
@PlayerX: a valid point and I think you're right as well. In addition, the wiring is lengthy and alligator clips are also used. We don't know the wiring quality either, but I'm betting it's not great. A quality component in a chain of crap will sound like crap as well. I think it's great John Cooper did this, but we learn nothing unfortunately.
The only time you can hear the difference in pots is when they are below 10 and above one.at max there is no resistance, that's why they all sounded the same.
Dude you make the best videos on UA-cam. You are innovative, clever, well-spoken, and flat out awesome. Thanks for the videos you make, they are much enjoyed and appreciated.
I really appreciate your work, so far i watched this and the capacitors one, and at least for me it cleared a lot of doubts i had about how hardware changes the tone. Really, the changes are so small and subtle that unless your guitar got some part defective its not worth bother changing. Thanks a lot it really saved me i was about to do all that myself and in the end i would get really frustrated expecting a lot more to happen.
I know this is pretty old but just to let you know Bourns is a solid corporation and produce high quality products. Mr. and Mrs. Bourns were both engineers and invented the trimpot and while they are gone their son, Gordon, runs the company. I worked for 'em years ago, good company.
Finally a comparison video for pots! I'm glad there isn't any difference tbh, I've spent too long looking at upgrades and it really doesn't make any odds.
Thanks for this explanation. I'm working on a Wurlitzer 112 electric piano from 1955, and it's a little murky sounding. The main volume pot is 500k in the schematic, but it only measures 400k. Your little footnote annotation at 6:21 is exactly that! I'll remove it from the circuit to see if it's still 400k, and if so I'll replace it to see what happens to the tone.
Nice job John!! Very clear, concise and to the point but with a "friendly" tone. I am an intermediate level guitar collector (and Country Music artist wannabe :) and I sometimes run across a used guitar seller boasting on how his particular guitar is mega special because of the new pots they installed - THANKS FOR CLEARING UP ALL THE HUB-BUB. Much appreciated - Adrian
Awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and taking the time to make these videos. I personally appreciate it, Im sure I am speaking for everyone here. We all appreciate your skills and time. Thanks John!!! Your new fan and subscriber! Christopher Lee
Majority of people cant hear the difference, well this is an old video, maybe not the accurate but with good sennheiser headphones, I can hear the difference from stock epi to CTS. I can also hear the minimal between cts n bourne but really cant justify which I like more. Probably will go with cts cuz its cheaper. Still even after decade later, thank you for doing this amount of work to compare these.
CTS pots totally transformed everything for the better from taper, feel, brightness and volume to my Squire Telecaster Custom II, best upgrade ever, and for reference this guitar is fitted with mini pots as standard but will accept standard size CTS pots with only a 3mm elongation of one of the tone holes. These videos really helped, many thanks!
There are four factors for pots and they are all that matter: 1. Resistance - a 500K pot will stop more cut at the limit than a 250K pot. Your guitar will be some unknown amount brighter with 500K at the "10" setting. 2. Taper. Usually we use audio taper pots that change the _rate_ of change from low to high. This is much more important with volume pots on amps so that we can get fine changes at low volumes where we care. You might prefer a strictly linear setup on a guitar, especially for tone. In fact, most of us run guitars at higher vol/tone settings, so audio taper might be the opposite of what you want (grosser changes at the levels we tend to use). But most people use audio taper anyway :-) 3. Actual tactile feel. stiff turning or easy, smoother or more ragged. 4. Durability. Not typically an issue for most of us. Most pots last a lifetime with the amount of use they get on a guitar... in fact, non-use results in more problems.
Very Cool Video. I happened upon it right in the middle of a guitar project of my own and have always thought that changing the pots really doesn't make that huge of a difference unless as you say they're total crap. You're test confirms it. Thanks for taking the time to do this cool vid!
Hi John, I used CTS 500K pots in my refitted 1992 Epi Les Paul Custom. I'm using "real" Gibson 57 PAF humbuckers and a real Gibson switch. The guitar is also wired for "extra power" which could mean 1950s wiring. I did all this 20 years ago and the guitar still screams like a 57 Les Paul, want to do the same thing to my 2004 Epiphone Sheraton II later on down the road.,
well this video is perfect, the previous msg was in the first minute of the video but while i watched along i came to the conclusion that you did it perfectly, congratz
Very good video,I have a DOT and SG-400 custom and far as I experimentes,the only change on a sound is changing pickups.Changing pots is effective only in a case of gigging with only a guitar and amp,playing with a pot,in that case quality of pots really matter.
John, oxidation on pots and switches results from disuse. You can fix it (or prevent it) by turning the pots completely in both directions many times, and flipping switches back and forth many times. I like preventive medicine, so I give everything the once-over every week.
I think the CTS pots sounded better. To me, they were the best, followed by the Bourne, then Epi, though the latter two were not very different. I thought the CTS pots made the voices sound more clearly, and that the intonation and tone color both sounded better. The difference in sound quality sounded significant to me.
This is a great video about potentiometers. You hit on all the critical points very well. Fantastic set up on the guitar as well with the different pots.
The CTS are the clear winner. The CTS are more "Open". Like pulling a sheet off of a speaker. You can for sure hear the difference. Nice Gator clip/cardboard setup! That's a great idea for testing all sorts of parts.
@Andres Richards - both tone and volume pots contribute to the overall load on the pickups. Increasing their resistance (e.g. to 500k or 1meg) will reduce the load on the pickups and brighten your overall sound
Thanks very much for the video. A few years ago I re-wired an Epiphone Dot using CTS 500K Audio taper for Volumes and 250K Linear taper for Tones. All with orange drop caps. Also put in a switchcraft 3-way switch. I must say I really loved the result. I plan to do the same set up on an ES-339 I recently bought although right out of the box it sounds pretty good. :-)
John, you have actually made the correct analysis of the differences what you should attempt is the cts and the change in a better quality pup.....the CTS has a better expressiveness but its in the tone of all the frequencies. The fall off and the smoothness of the pots its what your listenting for. The fact you actually removed the tone control itself is the significance you don't hear. The CTS carry better than the other two hands down. But, for the sake of you hearing it, I suggest you get the pups to hear it. The values of humbucker over single coil give light to the considerations you can discover with the pots. Allso the pups ability to wash out tone and the hotter....milder pup ranges give light to the reasons you have been gracious enough to take the time to evaluate. The pots that came with the guitar came in second and the others 3rd....But they all have smoothness at different ranges in the fall off as you demonstrated by the roll off. But, the review of your screens will give you clues to why and what values each of the different pots can give to a particular pickup set up. I d venture to say that in most case you could use a guitar with the hhs or ssh or shs variations. Even the idea of using a tele for this same considerations. In all of this you offered us the tone quality variations and the fact that personal choice is the key to what suites each taste. The color of tone is perfectly demonstrated in your presentation. From this I can see and hear the qualities that are so difficult to listen for and define in reference to each.
Oh, but for an audiophile like myself the difference is clear to hear! The CTS pots produce better separation of the frequencies; hence, more clarity. Plus the sound is more focused, tighter. Hmmm... now I gotta replace my guitar pots with CTS audio taper pots! Many thanks for taking all the trouble for this revealing test!
Nice work, especially the edited short A:B:C bits at the end. If I WERE to hear a difference, I'd want to consider the measured resistance values of the pots, before considering BRAND to be the cause of the sound difference. Another poster suggested testing at various points in the pot's sweep. That's probably worthwhile, of course. But generally, if XX resistance gives me this or that tone, it doesn't really matter if that point on the pot's rotation is a degree or two different than another pot. And unless the taper is deliberately different, I'd bet the CAD machines put the conductive goo on the platter gizmos exactly the same way in all pots. I don't like pots that mechanically "click" in side to side shaft movement when I touch he dome knob. So that's something I look for. Guys that "play the pots" like country chicken weepers and pedal steel emulators probably have a really specific friction in rotation thing they're looking for. I'd be inclined to pick based on FEEL first, the see if that choice gave me any tone problems. Then, after all that, I'd probably say "Damn Lumpy, you just spent a hundred bucks and 37 hours goofin with your wiring." Imagine how much I could have improved by practicing those 37 hrs instead of "Hoping I hear a difference". Thanks - Lumpy
Great posting. Nice to see someone who trusts their ears. I hear so much nonsense from folks who make all sorts of spurious claims that they insist make a difference to the sound of their instrument and to me, albeit listening on non hi-fi speakers, make no difference whatsoever. Thanks for some truth.
i have got this old ibanez blazer from 81. i once changed the original for a push-pull-pot and immediatly noticed a loss in high frequency. usually i would roll of the tone knob just a little when the volume is on full. now there was a loss in highs with both knobs on 10. i switched back to the original ibanez because i like the more high frequencies and the ability to roll them off nicely. before doing so however i meassured the pots. the push-pull was something like 245kOhm while the ibanez was 275kOhm. The Ibanez had a much higher tolarance, but did it's job much better. maybe i am 300kOhm kind of guy.
I changed the pots, cap, selector switch and jack input to CTS, Jenson and Switchcraft. There was a difference, a huge difference! I think with poor pickups the difference may not be noticeable, I had already upgraded to Seymour Duncan's and upgraded the nut to an Earvana. The guitar is a Korean Hamer, the original Asian electrics were choking the pickups. The new pots were the same value, I think the new cap was too, but certainly the original electrics were sonically not working nearly as well as the new parts.
I've seen pots now called the L type to be equivalent to the B pots. Some brands use A for linear some brands use A for Audio Taper. So, A can be Audio taper or linear and the same for B pots.
Your methodology was fine for most of us, even if some say that it was "not scientific at all". Quite frankly, if you can't hear the difference, who cares if a computer program can pick up a minor variance. Good information! Thanks.
If your Gibson LP has 250K or 300K pots and humbuckers then it does matter to change them for 500K, the sound is more open and clear with more high frequences. I changed 300K pots in Classic 1997 for 500K and the sound is just amazing now like the carpet's been off. I was going even to sell my Classic, but after changing this is my best sounding guitar now. Sorry for my bad english.
Thank you, I have been telling people that changing a pot will not make any sound change at all. I ask for the old ones and tell them so I can sell them back to you. They are fine. Some never get it.
Great video. I have always heard that making minor changes in pots makes a difference in sound and I was very skeptical, but I can hear a difference myself. I also heard installing higher quality wiring also makes a difference. I'll definitely be looking into this whenever starting a project guitar
Hahahahaha your hearing things sorry. I build. Pedals and it makes literally zero audible difference almost. It's a feel thing and also how it sounds while rotating meng
David Imrie hai i want to ask about pickup and pots wiring, is the voltage of caps like an 160v&200v&400v&600v take effect or not for sound or its important influence or notthing???
Nice demo! The only valid argument I've ever heard for quality CTS or Bourns pots is the quality control during the manufacturing process, and also the higher tolerances under which they are produced. A CTS pot would in reality be much closer to the actual 500K value more so than a cheaper generic pot which can measure as low as 400 or 350K. That's a pretty significant difference. The "feel" of the knobs is the biggie for me. In the end though, metals are metals, they all conduct a signal well.
You R 1 innovative chap, hats off to you! Thanx for the info, I recently had a hard time getting a new Jackson RR in good condition. The last one had atrocious fret buzz, my replacements neck couldn't be sweeter. However, the bass tone pot doesn't make a difference whichever way i turn the knob, so something's up. The neck pickup wired to it works fine so I'm a bit confused. Anyway I don't want to let this guitar out of my sight so I'll just wire in a new pot myself since it matters so little,
I believe that the main factor in guitar clarity is scale length. A 335 or Les Paul guitar with a 24.75" scale just doesn't ring like a 25.5" strat, tele, or Gibson L-5. Regarding electronics, maybe any attenuation of signal before the preamp gives it less to work with, and reduces clarity. I like controlling volume with a pedal placed after the preamp.
Great Vid! I leave everything at 10, so you totally answered my questions. I'd take the pots out of my guitars and signal chain if it didn't totally kill the resale value of my guitars when I sell them. But people expect knobs and there you go.
John, I definitely notice a difference between them, if your switch back and forth through the video the cts pots sound clearer and fuller to me. while the stock epi pots sound slightly brighter but thinner and a little less clear, the bourn pots sound slightly less bright than the others. The cts pots sound great to me, i would have liked to hear it with the amps dirty channel with the gain turned up, you might have noticed a bigger difference. Anyway, thanks for the comparison.
Thanks! good work, nice through comparison. I hear people talking about how you have to change 'crappy' pots and what a difference it makes, like it's some 'holy grail', now I actually know that the difference is negligible. the CTS were 'brighter' and slightly 'clearer' to me as well but it was minor and not worth it to do this on my casino, since it's such a PITA to get the the electronics
Good experiment! Thanks for conducting it, but last comment is right - it would have been good if you took the volume through the range. Still interesting though.
Just my two cents. I can hear slight differences between the three (VERY slight), but all three sound great IMO. The stock pots were great... For someone who doesn't wanna dig any deeper into potentiometers, Id stick with what you have. On the other hand, I found the CTS pots to be a bit more rounded. They sound as though there is a bit tighter bass and a little more pronounced mids. The Bourns on the other hand, I found sorta bright and hot. They sound like they'd break up pretty easily with some harder strums. There is such little difference in sound that It'd be difficult to decide. If you don't wanna mess with them or are new to electronics, stick with your stock electronics. IMO, if you want a more rounded sound without losing highs, go with CTS. If you want a hotter guitar with more pronounced highs and some more pronounced mids, go with Bourns. All of this is just MY opinion. 10 different people will tell you 10 entirely different opinions! ****** KEEP IN CONSIDERATION THAT NO TONE POTS WERE USED... ONLY VOLUME. WERE ONLY TALKING A FRACTION OF YOUR OVERALL TONE****** Hopefully that's what the later videos are for haha.
Ce gars a complètement raison. Il faut changer les potards et les condos des Epiphone par des potars CTS 500K et des condos 0.022microfarads. Mais aussi les micros. Moi j'ai mis des micros Gibson 498t et 490r avec condos PIO (paper in oïl) et potentiomètres CTS 500 K et un sillet (tusq) en os sur mon Epiphone LP.Pour 40.00€.(hors micros) Avec ça vous avez une gratte meilleur au point de vue finition qu'une Gibson Studio et un son équivalent voir Meilleur a une standart. On n'entend pas bien la différence dans cette vidéo mais c'est plus que flagrant en réalité. Bravo a toi, et merci John Cooper. Frenchly your .
your my hero! Great Vid., very informative. i have the same amp and somewhat similar Ibanez Artcore. My input jack has a short and i'll be needing to remove it. Didn't have a clue how to do that until i saw your video series - thanks alot.
Great Demonstration. The CTS do sound better to me than the Bourns which is the same company used by EVH. The Bourns sound close to the Alpha but better.
They all sounded good. the CTS very slightly brighter and the Bourns slightly fuller. I'm notice differences in sounds all the time. Drive my boss nuts being able to tell when machinery is going to break down in a couple days etc. There is not enough difference to be bothered change pots. If I had an actual problem with the pots, then the Bourns would be going in. I wrote this before finishing the vid. you heard the same thing I see. If your looking for brightness. lower the capacitor value. Down from .047 down to .022 or .010.
At first I was like "wth is this guy doing" because of the cardboard... it ended up being a great vid, thanks for posting. Btw, I would recommend in the future that you record the sound nicely with pi-pots in, then record again with different-pots in. That way you can determine if your long, unshilded, alligator clip method is flawed or not.
I changed pots in my new Les Paul Standard because they were push pull. The did coil split and I am not a fan, I put in CTS and simple orange drop caps. I went with CTS because they last longer. I have a 1968 Fender Strat that went through 4 sets of pots in 20 years. I still play it a lot and in 1990 I put CTS Pots in it. The others got scratchy and not accurate at all. This thing is a working guitar and the electronics help for a record 26 years.
might be that the higher quality pots have a thicker layer of carbon material to wear through thus lasting longer. If you are a guitar player that rolls off the volume for example, or uses the volume knob for a wah effect, then perhaps better to pay for the higher quality pots..and if you want an easy turning knob, then go for the bourns..if you want a volume knob that wont slip accidentally if you hit it while stroking, then go for the bourns
great vid! very helpful...i actually DID hear a difference between each set of pots. however, the differences are pretty subtle IMHO and may not be enough to enhance/detract from the overall tone. maybe then the only difference will be in the build quality of the pickups...which one will last longer with better sound consistency...etc. again thanks for the great video!
I think there is many different variables that contribute to both the sound and tone, that it's hard to contribute a big change to just swapping out the pots. If I could, I would upgrade everything on my setup, then it would make the pots worth it, as it would contribute to my pickups as well, and help create the over tone, body, and feel of the sound. But that's just me. Either way this was a very informative video; it made me think twice about having this done to my bass. (I know it was a guitar in the video) unless I'm going to swap everything out in order to achieve the desired sound.
It does makes a difference - not in tone - but when Adjusting gain and volume with guitar . i had cheap pots that turned too easily - it changed my favorite gain - vol settings when knobs were "accidentally " touched" - changed to CTS pots because they keep my favorite gain - vol settings much better in tune .
Pots don’t make any difference in tone. The only reason you would want to change out the stock pots is if they start sounding scratchy or cut out as you adjust them. DC resistance has nothing to do with your tone. It is the inductance in the pickups and capacitance in your tone pot capacitors that shape your tone. The AC frequency of your signal creates a varying impedance (reactance) - Xl vs. Xc
I replaced the stock volume and tone pots in one of my guitars with some new CTS pots and I could tell a difference in sound quality. The main difference I noticed with the CTS pots was when the volume is turned down it maintains clarity, while the stock pots made the guitar sound muffled the more you rolled the volume down. The stock ones must have been really cheap.
the "Kelly" I think was a guitar named after a little known hard rock player from here in Australia that I used to go see regularly ...just a bit of trivia for ya !
I agree with your conclusions. I recently changed the pots on two of my guitars a Les Paul and an Ibanez solid body. I did it because they needed changing as the pots were old and scratchy sounding and just didn't feel right. I bought quality pots from Stew/Mac and as far as tone, I could not hear the slightest difference. The I got like your CTS pots do seem more study and I like the fact that they are not as "loose" feeling. Still, I do not hear any difference and logically if it's just a signal passing the pot there really shouldn't be a difference. Maybe there is a difference in the capacitors used on the tone pots but as far I know if you are going straight without any capacitors in the circuit like demonstrated here, why would it sound different. As long as they are quality pots they just pass on the signal and attenuate the volume. That shouldn't cause a tone difference. At least as far as I can tell.
what us gear heads do is so much better for an addiction then drugs. i wud rather do that experiment then crawl the floor looking for crumbs . bang job man
I think I agree with you that the pots don't sound different from one set to the next on the selections you were playing. Actually surprised to hear that....
I think the CTS sound clearest, whilst the Epis and the Bourns are slightly muddier in the low frequencies - but on the whole I don't think the difference is appreciable enough to bother non-audiophiles.
Great video John! Did you actually measure the ohm resistence of the various pots used? Wouldn't a 250k vs 200K or 225K vs 180K pot make a difference in the bass or brightness we hear? Thanks
great video man!!! i can tell you took alot of time to make this video..great demo of the pots..and the end part about pots just being crappy was funny:) maybe 1meg on the bridge, and 500k on the middle and 250k on the neck would make a cool tone,alot of work..great vid
i think people change them because the stock cheap parts will wear out quicker than the other brands. i found very small differences but that could be due to slight differences in the tolerances in the pot values. to me, the non-stock pots sounds less thin than the stock ones. slightly warmer perhaps.
CTS just sounded smoother and more pleasant but it was fairly subtle. From previous videos the orange drops won for me. Loving the videos, the time and effort you've put in and editing quality are just fantastic. I've custom wired my '85 Gibson Les Paul Custom using trial, error and luck. These real experiments would have helped me a lot! Triple A+ John!
I did not ear any difference.....you saved me a few $$$$$. Thans man.
I've been a guitarists for over 35 years and I can't tell any difference between them. I think the way they feel and how good their made for rugged use is the reason to change maybe, but otherwise I can't tell any difference..
Another reason to change pots is the variety offered by each manufacturer. For example, Alpha has pots with a 4th lug; Bourns makes blend pots; CTS is familiar. I chose Bourns pots because I discovered I could mod them; for example, I added a push-pull switch to their blend pot, and I made a 4P2T push-pull switch on a pot (each laborious but possible!). Pictures one day...
Interesting, pity that in some countries are almost impossible to find.
The difference I notice is equal to the square root of SFA.
Good demo, Sir!
The whole point of changing pots, in my opinion, is shaping the tone by changing the volume and tone knobs. You didn't turn any knobs. With all pots on 10 and changing pots you will not notice much or any difference. I have a guitar that sounds the same on 5 as it does with volume on 10; that's one reason that one should look for in changing pots. With lower volume, you should get a clean tone. Pickup choice has more to do with the attack responsiveness and frequency content.
@PlayerX: a valid point and I think you're right as well. In addition, the wiring is lengthy and alligator clips are also used. We don't know the wiring quality either, but I'm betting it's not great. A quality component in a chain of crap will sound like crap as well. I think it's great John Cooper did this, but we learn nothing unfortunately.
The only time you can hear the difference in pots is when they are below 10 and above one.at max there is no resistance, that's why they all sounded the same.
Exactly,,,he must not have been playing long not to have done ...
The dynamic response is greatly different with different quality of pots
Dude you make the best videos on UA-cam. You are innovative, clever, well-spoken, and flat out awesome. Thanks for the videos you make, they are much enjoyed and appreciated.
Thanks John, very interesting demo. I agree that the CTS pots sounded slightly richer.
The CTS pots sounded different to me as well.
I really appreciate your work, so far i watched this and the capacitors one, and at least for me it cleared a lot of doubts i had about how hardware changes the tone. Really, the changes are so small and subtle that unless your guitar got some part defective its not worth bother changing. Thanks a lot it really saved me i was about to do all that myself and in the end i would get really frustrated expecting a lot more to happen.
I know this is pretty old but just to let you know Bourns is a solid corporation and produce high quality products. Mr. and Mrs. Bourns were both engineers and invented the trimpot and while they are gone their son, Gordon, runs the company. I worked for 'em years ago, good company.
Finally a comparison video for pots! I'm glad there isn't any difference tbh, I've spent too long looking at upgrades and it really doesn't make any odds.
The CTS definitely sounded brighter to me. That's what I was thinking before you mentioned it.
Thanks for this explanation. I'm working on a Wurlitzer 112 electric piano from 1955, and it's a little murky sounding. The main volume pot is 500k in the schematic, but it only measures 400k. Your little footnote annotation at 6:21 is exactly that! I'll remove it from the circuit to see if it's still 400k, and if so I'll replace it to see what happens to the tone.
Nice job John!! Very clear, concise and to the point but with a "friendly" tone. I am an intermediate level guitar collector (and Country Music artist wannabe :) and I sometimes run across a used guitar seller boasting on how his particular guitar is mega special because of the new pots they installed - THANKS FOR CLEARING UP ALL THE HUB-BUB. Much appreciated - Adrian
IMHO there is no difference sonically,so I agree with you.Thanks for your energy applied and attitude dude...
Awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and taking the time to make these videos. I personally appreciate it, Im sure I am speaking for everyone here. We all appreciate your skills and time. Thanks John!!! Your new fan and subscriber! Christopher Lee
Majority of people cant hear the difference, well this is an old video, maybe not the accurate but with good sennheiser headphones, I can hear the difference from stock epi to CTS. I can also hear the minimal between cts n bourne but really cant justify which I like more. Probably will go with cts cuz its cheaper. Still even after decade later, thank you for doing this amount of work to compare these.
I am so glad I watched this because I was thinking about changing mine but no point. Thanks for making this vid!
CTS pots totally transformed everything for the better from taper, feel, brightness and volume to my Squire Telecaster Custom II, best upgrade ever, and for reference this guitar is fitted with mini pots as standard but will accept standard size CTS pots with only a 3mm elongation of one of the tone holes. These videos really helped, many thanks!
There are four factors for pots and they are all that matter:
1. Resistance - a 500K pot will stop more cut at the limit than a 250K pot. Your guitar will be some unknown amount brighter with 500K at the "10" setting.
2. Taper. Usually we use audio taper pots that change the _rate_ of change from low to high. This is much more important with volume pots on amps so that we can get fine changes at low volumes where we care. You might prefer a strictly linear setup on a guitar, especially for tone. In fact, most of us run guitars at higher vol/tone settings, so audio taper might be the opposite of what you want (grosser changes at the levels we tend to use). But most people use audio taper anyway :-)
3. Actual tactile feel. stiff turning or easy, smoother or more ragged.
4. Durability. Not typically an issue for most of us. Most pots last a lifetime with the amount of use they get on a guitar... in fact, non-use results in more problems.
Very Cool Video. I happened upon it right in the middle of a guitar project of my own and have always thought that changing the pots really doesn't make that huge of a difference unless as you say they're total crap. You're test confirms it. Thanks for taking the time to do this cool vid!
Good to see you had the same conclusion as I did after hearing your demo. Thnx btw
Hi John, I used CTS 500K pots in my refitted 1992 Epi Les Paul Custom. I'm using "real" Gibson 57 PAF humbuckers and a real Gibson switch. The guitar is also wired for "extra power" which could mean 1950s wiring. I did all this 20 years ago and the guitar still screams like a 57 Les Paul, want to do the same thing to my 2004 Epiphone Sheraton II later on down the road.,
well this video is perfect, the previous msg was in the first minute of the video but while i watched along i came to the conclusion that you did it perfectly, congratz
Very good video,I have a DOT and SG-400 custom and far as I experimentes,the only change on a sound is changing pickups.Changing pots is effective only in a case of gigging with only a guitar and amp,playing with a pot,in that case quality of pots really matter.
John, oxidation on pots and switches results from disuse. You can fix it (or prevent it) by turning the pots completely in both directions many times, and flipping switches back and forth many times. I like preventive medicine, so I give everything the once-over every week.
Hi,thank you for taking the time for this demo! A LOT OF WORK...Thank you
I think the CTS pots sounded better. To me, they were the best, followed by the Bourne, then Epi, though the latter two were not very different. I thought the CTS pots made the voices sound more clearly, and that the intonation and tone color both sounded better. The difference in sound quality sounded significant to me.
This is a great video about potentiometers. You hit on all the critical points very well. Fantastic set up on the guitar as well with the different pots.
@IAmExperienced I agree. I could totally hear a positive difference with the CTS pots.
The CTS are the clear winner. The CTS are more "Open". Like pulling a sheet off of a speaker. You can for sure hear the difference. Nice Gator clip/cardboard setup! That's a great idea for testing all sorts of parts.
Perfect video to understand expectations . Thank you.
@Andres Richards - both tone and volume pots contribute to the overall load on the pickups. Increasing their resistance (e.g. to 500k or 1meg) will reduce the load on the pickups and brighten your overall sound
If I have humbucker and 500K for volume and 1meg tone- what dynamic range can I expect from that tone pot?
Thanks very much for the video. A few years ago I re-wired an Epiphone Dot using CTS 500K Audio taper for Volumes and 250K Linear taper for Tones. All with orange drop caps. Also put in a switchcraft 3-way switch. I must say I really loved the result. I plan to do the same set up on an ES-339 I recently bought although right out of the box it sounds pretty good. :-)
John, you have actually made the correct analysis of the differences what you should attempt is the cts and the change in a better quality pup.....the CTS has a better expressiveness but its in the tone of all the frequencies. The fall off and the smoothness of the pots its what your listenting for. The fact you actually removed the tone control itself is the significance you don't hear. The CTS carry better than the other two hands down. But, for the sake of you hearing it, I suggest you get the pups to hear it. The values of humbucker over single coil give light to the considerations you can discover with the pots. Allso the pups ability to wash out tone and the hotter....milder pup ranges give light to the reasons you have been gracious enough to take the time to evaluate. The pots that came with the guitar came in second and the others 3rd....But they all have smoothness at different ranges in the fall off as you demonstrated by the roll off. But, the review of your screens will give you clues to why and what values each of the different pots can give to a particular pickup set up. I d venture to say that in most case you could use a guitar with the hhs or ssh or shs variations. Even the idea of using a tele for this same considerations. In all of this you offered us the tone quality variations and the fact that personal choice is the key to what suites each taste. The color of tone is perfectly demonstrated in your presentation. From this I can see and hear the qualities that are so difficult to listen for and define in reference to each.
4 years on, still the most ridiculous comment on youtube.
Oh, but for an audiophile like myself the difference is clear to hear! The CTS pots produce better separation of the frequencies; hence, more clarity. Plus the sound is more focused, tighter. Hmmm... now I gotta replace my guitar pots with CTS audio taper pots! Many thanks for taking all the trouble for this revealing test!
Nice work, especially the edited short A:B:C bits at the end. If I WERE to hear a difference, I'd want to consider the measured resistance values of the pots, before considering BRAND to be the cause of the sound difference.
Another poster suggested testing at various points in the pot's sweep. That's probably worthwhile, of course. But generally, if XX resistance gives me this or that tone, it doesn't really matter if that point on the pot's rotation is a degree or two different than another pot. And unless the taper is deliberately different, I'd bet the CAD machines put the conductive goo on the platter gizmos exactly the same way in all pots.
I don't like pots that mechanically "click" in side to side shaft movement when I touch he dome knob. So that's something I look for. Guys that "play the pots" like country chicken weepers and pedal steel emulators probably have a really specific friction in rotation thing they're looking for.
I'd be inclined to pick based on FEEL first, the see if that choice gave me any tone problems.
Then, after all that, I'd probably say "Damn Lumpy, you just spent a hundred bucks and 37 hours goofin with your wiring." Imagine how much I could have improved by practicing those 37 hrs instead of "Hoping I hear a difference". Thanks - Lumpy
Great posting. Nice to see someone who trusts their ears. I hear so much nonsense
from folks who make all sorts of spurious claims that they insist make a difference to the sound of their instrument and to me, albeit listening on non hi-fi speakers, make no difference whatsoever. Thanks for some truth.
CTS really stood out to me gave off a fuller and richer sound than the other to
yes CTS ones are brighter in my opinion, great video btw
Good video. It was subtle but the CTS pots were a tad brighter and cleaner.
i have got this old ibanez blazer from 81. i once changed the original for a push-pull-pot and immediatly noticed a loss in high frequency. usually i would roll of the tone knob just a little when the volume is on full. now there was a loss in highs with both knobs on 10.
i switched back to the original ibanez because i like the more high frequencies and the ability to roll them off nicely.
before doing so however i meassured the pots. the push-pull was something like 245kOhm while the ibanez was 275kOhm. The Ibanez had a much higher tolarance, but did it's job much better. maybe i am 300kOhm kind of guy.
Great video. The "Alpha" pots sound brighter and small. CTS and Bournes sound warm and Thicker. That's just what I here.
The CTS is more brighter and clarity than stock and bourns... Nice demo sir, thanks
Great demo. Maybe the CTS pots are ever so slightly brighter, but a tiny amount.
I changed the pots, cap, selector switch and jack input to CTS, Jenson and Switchcraft. There was a difference, a huge difference! I think with poor pickups the difference may not be noticeable, I had already upgraded to Seymour Duncan's and upgraded the nut to an Earvana. The guitar is a Korean Hamer, the original Asian electrics were choking the pickups. The new pots were the same value, I think the new cap was too, but certainly the original electrics were sonically not working nearly as well as the new parts.
Another vote here for the CTS pots. Would be even more of a difference with effects
I've seen pots now called the L type to be equivalent to the B pots. Some brands use A for linear some brands use A for Audio Taper. So, A can be Audio taper or linear and the same for B pots.
Would it be fair to say that changing the pots may be more of a build quality/touch and feel issue, than a tone issue?
Thanks for your honesty. I didn't hear a difference either.
Thanks -I am getting new Humbuckers (Tone Zone and Air Norton) and will need pots - this info will help.
Your methodology was fine for most of us, even if some say that it was "not scientific at all". Quite frankly, if you can't hear the difference, who cares if a computer program can pick up a minor variance. Good information! Thanks.
If your Gibson LP has 250K or 300K pots and humbuckers then it does matter to change them for 500K, the sound is more open and clear with more high frequences. I changed 300K pots in Classic 1997 for 500K and the sound is just amazing now like the carpet's been off. I was going even to sell my Classic, but after changing this is my best sounding guitar now. Sorry for my bad english.
Thank you, I have been telling people that changing a pot will not make any sound change at all. I ask for the old ones and tell them so I can sell them back to you. They are fine. Some never get it.
Great video. I have always heard that making minor changes in pots makes a difference in sound and I was very skeptical, but I can hear a difference myself. I also heard installing higher quality wiring also makes a difference. I'll definitely be looking into this whenever starting a project guitar
I like your systematic approach to things. Kee up the interesting work!
CTS POTS sound the cleanest and less harsh. Epiphone stock are harsh and the Bourns POTS are a little bassy?
Hahahahaha your hearing things sorry. I build. Pedals and it makes literally zero audible difference almost. It's a feel thing and also how it sounds while rotating meng
I agree, however an important distinction to make is the pot values... 300k vs 500, vs 1m is a huge diff
David Imrie hai i want to ask about pickup and pots wiring, is the voltage of caps like an 160v&200v&400v&600v take effect or not for sound or its important influence or notthing???
Great job!! Putting the clips side by side is the key. Hoping for a comparison of various taper percentages (10, 20 30) Thanks!!
Nice demo! The only valid argument I've ever heard for quality CTS or Bourns pots is the quality control during the manufacturing process, and also the higher tolerances under which they are produced. A CTS pot would in reality be much closer to the actual 500K value more so than a cheaper generic pot which can measure as low as 400 or 350K. That's a pretty significant difference. The "feel" of the knobs is the biggie for me. In the end though, metals are metals, they all conduct a signal well.
You R 1 innovative chap, hats off to you! Thanx for the info, I recently had a hard time getting a new Jackson RR in good condition. The last one had atrocious fret buzz, my replacements neck couldn't be sweeter. However, the bass tone pot doesn't make a difference whichever way i turn the knob, so something's up. The neck pickup wired to it works fine so I'm a bit confused. Anyway I don't want to let this guitar out of my sight so I'll just wire in a new pot myself since it matters so little,
I believe that the main factor in guitar clarity is scale length. A 335 or Les Paul guitar with a 24.75" scale just doesn't ring like a 25.5" strat, tele, or Gibson L-5. Regarding electronics, maybe any attenuation of signal before the preamp gives it less to work with, and reduces clarity. I like controlling volume with a pedal placed after the preamp.
Great Vid! I leave everything at 10, so you totally answered my questions. I'd take the pots out of my guitars and signal chain if it didn't totally kill the resale value of my guitars when I sell them. But people expect knobs and there you go.
John, I definitely notice a difference between them, if your switch back and forth through the video the cts pots sound clearer and fuller to me. while the stock epi pots sound slightly brighter but thinner and a little less clear, the bourn pots sound slightly less bright than the others. The cts pots sound great to me, i would have liked to hear it with the amps dirty channel with the gain turned up, you might have noticed a bigger difference. Anyway, thanks for the comparison.
Thanks! good work, nice through comparison.
I hear people talking about how you have to change 'crappy' pots and what a difference it makes, like it's some 'holy grail', now I actually know that the difference is negligible.
the CTS were 'brighter' and slightly 'clearer' to me as well but it was minor and not worth it to do this on my casino, since it's such a PITA to get the the electronics
Your videos are extremely useful. I love it.
finally a scientific answer instead of the usual "I wouldn't trust any thing but CTS!!" answer. Thanks for testing this!
I changed my cheap pots and caps for cts and orange drops. Best thing I've ever done to improve tone and reliability.
Good experiment! Thanks for conducting it, but last comment is right - it would have been good if you took the volume through the range. Still interesting though.
Just my two cents. I can hear slight differences between the three (VERY slight), but all three sound great IMO. The stock pots were great... For someone who doesn't wanna dig any deeper into potentiometers, Id stick with what you have.
On the other hand, I found the CTS pots to be a bit more rounded. They sound as though there is a bit tighter bass and a little more pronounced mids.
The Bourns on the other hand, I found sorta bright and hot. They sound like they'd break up pretty easily with some harder strums.
There is such little difference in sound that It'd be difficult to decide. If you don't wanna mess with them or are new to electronics, stick with your stock electronics. IMO, if you want a more rounded sound without losing highs, go with CTS. If you want a hotter guitar with more pronounced highs and some more pronounced mids, go with Bourns.
All of this is just MY opinion. 10 different people will tell you 10 entirely different opinions!
****** KEEP IN CONSIDERATION THAT NO TONE POTS WERE USED... ONLY VOLUME. WERE ONLY TALKING A FRACTION OF YOUR OVERALL TONE******
Hopefully that's what the later videos are for haha.
Ce gars a complètement raison. Il faut changer les potards et les condos des Epiphone par des potars CTS 500K et des condos 0.022microfarads. Mais aussi les micros. Moi j'ai mis des micros Gibson 498t et 490r avec condos PIO (paper in oïl) et potentiomètres CTS 500 K et un sillet (tusq) en os sur mon Epiphone LP.Pour 40.00€.(hors micros)
Avec ça vous avez une gratte meilleur au point de vue finition qu'une Gibson Studio et un son équivalent voir Meilleur a une standart. On n'entend pas bien la différence dans cette vidéo mais c'est plus que flagrant en réalité.
Bravo a toi, et merci John Cooper.
Frenchly your .
Dr Frankenstein I presume. Great video, very informative.
your my hero! Great Vid., very informative. i have the same amp and somewhat similar Ibanez Artcore. My input jack has a short and i'll be needing to remove it. Didn't have a clue how to do that until i saw your video series - thanks alot.
Thanks for your videos! Super helpful!
Great Demonstration. The CTS do sound better to me than the Bourns which is the same company used by EVH. The Bourns sound close to the Alpha but better.
They all sounded good. the CTS very slightly brighter and the Bourns slightly fuller. I'm notice differences in sounds all the time. Drive my boss nuts being able to tell when machinery is going to break down in a couple days etc.
There is not enough difference to be bothered change pots. If I had an actual problem with the pots, then the Bourns would be going in. I wrote this before finishing the vid. you heard the same thing I see. If your looking for brightness. lower the capacitor value. Down from .047 down to .022 or .010.
At first I was like "wth is this guy doing" because of the cardboard... it ended up being a great vid, thanks for posting. Btw, I would recommend in the future that you record the sound nicely with pi-pots in, then record again with different-pots in. That way you can determine if your long, unshilded, alligator clip method is flawed or not.
Thanks John
I changed pots in my new Les Paul Standard because they were push pull. The did coil split and I am not a fan, I put in CTS and simple orange drop caps. I went with CTS because they last longer. I have a 1968 Fender Strat that went through 4 sets of pots in 20 years. I still play it a lot and in 1990 I put CTS Pots in it. The others got scratchy and not accurate at all. This thing is a working guitar and the electronics help for a record 26 years.
5:45 Amen. Objective. Awesome.
might be that the higher quality pots have a thicker layer of carbon material to wear through thus lasting longer. If you are a guitar player that rolls off the volume for example, or uses the volume knob for a wah effect, then perhaps better to pay for the higher quality pots..and if you want an easy turning knob, then go for the bourns..if you want a volume knob that wont slip accidentally if you hit it while stroking, then go for the bourns
great vid! very helpful...i actually DID hear a difference between each set of pots. however, the differences are pretty subtle IMHO and may not be enough to enhance/detract from the overall tone. maybe then the only difference will be in the build quality of the pickups...which one will last longer with better sound consistency...etc. again thanks for the great video!
I think there is many different variables that contribute to both the sound and tone, that it's hard to contribute a big change to just swapping out the pots. If I could, I would upgrade everything on my setup, then it would make the pots worth it, as it would contribute to my pickups as well, and help create the over tone, body, and feel of the sound. But that's just me. Either way this was a very informative video; it made me think twice about having this done to my bass. (I know it was a guitar in the video) unless I'm going to swap everything out in order to achieve the desired sound.
It does makes a difference - not in tone - but when Adjusting gain and volume with guitar . i had cheap pots that turned too easily - it changed my favorite gain - vol settings when knobs were "accidentally " touched" - changed to CTS pots because they keep my favorite gain - vol settings much better in tune .
Pots don’t make any difference in tone. The only reason you would want to change out the stock pots is if they start sounding scratchy or cut out as you adjust them.
DC resistance has nothing to do with your tone. It is the inductance in the pickups and capacitance in your tone pot capacitors that shape your tone. The AC frequency of your signal creates a varying impedance (reactance) - Xl vs. Xc
I replaced the stock volume and tone pots in one of my guitars with some new CTS pots and I could tell a difference in sound quality. The main difference I noticed with the CTS pots was when the volume is turned down it maintains clarity, while the stock pots made the guitar sound muffled the more you rolled the volume down. The stock ones must have been really cheap.
the "Kelly" I think was a guitar named after a little known hard rock player from here in Australia that I used to go see regularly ...just a bit of trivia for ya !
I agree with your conclusions. I recently changed the pots on two of my guitars a Les Paul and an Ibanez solid body. I did it because they needed changing as the pots were old and scratchy sounding and just didn't feel right. I bought quality pots from Stew/Mac and as far as tone, I could not hear the slightest difference. The I got like your CTS pots do seem more study and I like the fact that they are not as "loose" feeling. Still, I do not hear any difference and logically if it's just a signal passing the pot there really shouldn't be a difference. Maybe there is a difference in the capacitors used on the tone pots but as far I know if you are going straight without any capacitors in the circuit like demonstrated here, why would it sound different. As long as they are quality pots they just pass on the signal and attenuate the volume. That shouldn't cause a tone difference. At least as far as I can tell.
great vid; finally someone who knows how to AB
"i might be hearing so more brightness out of the CTS pots" - might be coincidence, but me too :)
great guitar by the way!
good video
Same here.
what us gear heads do is so much better for an addiction then drugs. i wud rather do that experiment then crawl the floor looking for crumbs . bang job man
I think I agree with you that the pots don't sound different from one set to the next on the selections you were playing. Actually surprised to hear that....
I think the CTS sound clearest, whilst the Epis and the Bourns are slightly muddier in the low frequencies - but on the whole I don't think the difference is appreciable enough to bother non-audiophiles.
This is great! I always wondered about this and if it would provide value. Thanks for this.
can you make a video with the comparison to different cap values and types?
Great video John! Did you actually measure the ohm resistence of the various pots used? Wouldn't a 250k vs 200K or 225K vs 180K pot make a difference in the bass or brightness we hear? Thanks
great video man!!! i can tell you took alot of time to make this video..great demo of the pots..and the end part about pots just being crappy was funny:)
maybe 1meg on the bridge, and 500k on the middle and 250k on the neck would make a cool tone,alot of work..great vid
i think people change them because the stock cheap parts will wear out quicker than the other brands. i found very small differences but that could be due to slight differences in the tolerances in the pot values. to me, the non-stock pots sounds less thin than the stock ones. slightly warmer perhaps.
CTS just sounded smoother and more pleasant but it was fairly subtle. From previous videos the orange drops won for me. Loving the videos, the time and effort you've put in and editing quality are just fantastic. I've custom wired my '85 Gibson Les Paul Custom using trial, error and luck. These real experiments would have helped me a lot! Triple A+ John!
I wonder, did you measure the [actual] values of the pots that were active in your circuit? I mean, the CTS rig sounded better... But why???
hydorah Sorry I should have measured the pots on camera- these pots all measured within 5% of 500k
Great clip, cheers.
wow, this took some thought and time !! great job on the video