{"id":6971,"date":"2015-03-02T11:39:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T16:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=6971"},"modified":"2016-10-14T14:15:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T19:15:32","slug":"why-do-the-majority-of-electric-bass-guitars-use-250k-audio-taper-volume-pots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/gear\/electronics\/pickup\/why-do-the-majority-of-electric-bass-guitars-use-250k-audio-taper-volume-pots.html","title":{"rendered":"Why do the majority of electric bass guitars use 250K audio taper volume pots?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before beginning this one, know that there is no official rule that states you have<\/em> to use a 250K audio taper potentiometer in your bass. It’s your bass, and you can use whatever you choose. However, there are reasons why this particular pot is used.<\/p>\n

Also, bear in mind this is written from a passive electronics point of view<\/strong>. With a preamp installed, you have more options.<\/p>\n

Another thing to bear in mind is that you have many different potentiometer options available. See for yourself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A brief explanation of how pots work<\/h3>\n

A pot has a resistance value. The most common values for guitar pots are 250K and 500K, but there are several others such as 100K, 300K, 1000K (commonly known as 1meg,) and so on. The resistance value determines how much of the signal is bled to ground. The higher<\/em> the value, the more<\/em> treble you will hear.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A pot also has a taper. The taper is known as the “resistance-position relationship.” In guitars, there are two taper types that are used in guitars more than any other. Logarithmic, commonly known as an audio taper, and linear.<\/p>\n

With a linear taper, treble cuts off quickly early in the turn of the knob. With an audio taper, the treble decreases much later in the turn.<\/p>\n

250K is generally the most useful resistance value for a bass player<\/h3>\n

Many bass pickups sound best when connected to a 250K volume pot. At full volume, there is plenty of treble response that’s suitable for all playing styles. New strings sound great, old strings sound great, fret clack is there for slap style, and so on.<\/p>\n

What would happen if you installed a 500K or greater volume pot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You’ll get more treble response, but probably not the kind you would appreciate. It will be an “ice pick” like sound that’s harsh to the ears, even for something as simple as string drag noise when you move your fret hand from fret to fret.<\/p>\n

An audio taper volume pot is the most useful for a bass player<\/h3>\n

For bass players, the audio taper volume pot is preferred because you get use out of almost the whole turn of the knob.<\/p>\n

If you decided to use a linear taper pot for a volume control, treble decrease happens much sooner, so much to the point where only half of the turn would be usable to you. Possibly even less.<\/p>\n

When would a linear taper pot prove to be more useful (if ever)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a volume control, linear is better for those that want treble cut off a lot sooner with minimal turn of the knob.<\/p>\n

If you’ve been playing and ever thought to yourself, “I wish there were a way to cut off treble without having to turn the knob so much,” you may want to try out linear taper pots.<\/p>\n

Do you have to “match” linear to linear, audio to audio?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. If you want a linear taper volume and an audio taper tone control or vice versa, go for it.<\/p>\n

In a practical sense however, linear\/volume and audio\/tone is more useful than audio\/volume and linear\/tone. A linear taper pot on the volume allows for quick treble cutoff since that’s the control you use more often anyway, and the audio taper pot on the control should have more of the turn available to you for smaller adjustments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before beginning this one, know that there is no official rule that states you have to use a 250K audio taper potentiometer in your bass. It’s your bass, and you can use whatever you choose. However, there are reasons why this particular pot is used. Also, bear in mind this is written from a passive … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}