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Guitars Potentionmeters (Part 2)Updated 2 months ago

Guitar pots are a crucial variable volume control used on almost every guitar and bass on the market. The way a pot increases or decreases a signal can be important to many players. There are 2 main types of pots used in electric guitars.

Audio and linear: Both pots have the same overall resistance, so the tone is the same, how they differ is where they reach the 50% value.

Audio pots will decrease the signal most in the last 50% of the rotation and are used marked with A or Aud (ex. 250KA, A500K, 250 Aud, etc….) This can be used for more of a gradual audio reduction in some cases.

Linear Pots will reach 50% of its total resistance in the 50% rotation point and are usually marked with B or Lin (ex. 250KB, B500K, 250K Lin) This will be more of a consistent reduction throughout the entire rotation of the pot.

Some manufacturers use audio pots for both volume & tone, but some chose to use linear for volume (for gradual volume swells) and audio for tone. Graph Tech uses linear pots with our MIDI volume control (BE-0181-00) and audio pots for acoustic control (BE-0206-00).


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