Why do manufacturers put pots of questionable taper on cheaper/overseas stuff?

[Rambozo96]

It always perplexes me as to why lots of cheaper import guitars have what I think is linear taper pots which make for a very crappy gradual shift in volume (they’re equally worthless in the typical guitar tone circuit IMO.). Even the MIC Gretsch I bought has that dreaded linear taper where no change happens until the start of the sweep with little change past 4-5. Still a fine guitar and sounds great cranked and this is just a $25 fix for me it’s just the pot taper is just weird. I often wonder if this is why many people don’t use the volume or tone controls because of the lack of real variation in volume/tone until the very start of the sweep with 4-10 having little variation in perceived volume.

 

[adorshki]

I'm gonna take a wild stab that they're simply the most commonly made (read: cheaper) type.

 

[fronobulax]

I'm sure it is a decision driven by availability and manufacturing costs.

I will say as a bassist I have never really had a tone pot that made a difference besides max on or max off. There are a couple of volume controls that I will sometimes roll off from max on to 7 or so because doing so effects tone, but otherwise the only reason I use the volume control is to avoid messing with the amp.

So the premise, that the controls should make a difference, is definitely not universal. All my tone controls could be replaces with toggles and I would be happy. YMMV.

 

[dreadnut]

Because it's cheaper.

 

[Walter Broes]

I don't think they're necessarily linear taper - a lot of audio taper guitar pots have weird or bad taper too. Also : guitars have a strange use for audio taper pots : as I understand it, they were designed for audio (amplifier) volume knobs, and you turn those up from zero. Guitars have them turned up all the way, and we expect them to have audio taper on the way down to zero.

But the real answer of course is that cheaper guitars have dirt cheap pots in them, and also that potentiometers aren't the common item they used to be, they've become somewhat of a niche item for some relatively small markets - hardly any consumer electronic devices have potentiometers in them any more, so they're going the way of the vacuum tube, an outdated electronic part for geeks like us.

 

[Rambozo96]

Well as long as Bourns makes those guitar pots I like so much I can easily overlook this weird phenomenon. I know just about every MIJ guitar has wonky pot tapers but for whatever reason they liked to use linear pots for everything as evidenced by every Shin Ei and other MIJ fuzz I ever run into.

 

[adorshki]

Well as long as Bourns makes those guitar pots I like so much I can easily overlook this weird phenomenon. I know just about every MIJ guitar has wonky pot tapers but for whatever reason they liked to use linear pots for everything as evidenced by every Shin Ei and other MIJ fuzz I ever run into.

I'd put in a stash right now. You know how things go. Does Sprague still make caps? (I sold both of 'em back in my early sales career, selling components from an order desk at a Silicon Valley distributor(s) )

 

[Rambozo96]

I'd put in a stash right now. You know how things go. Does Sprague still make caps? (I sold both of 'em back in my early sales career, selling components from an order desk at a Silicon Valley distributor(s) )

Vishay bought them out so if you want the much praised “Orange drop” you get them from Vishay/Sprague these days. I am in the camp that capacitors aren’t the make or break part of the tonal recipe as people make it out to be. Heck of a cheap import pot (oddly enough my Chinese Dan Armstrong knockoff has one that tapers right!) tapers to my liking I leave them alone until something breaks. For example lots of people hate ceramic capacitors but I seen a bunch in EHX fuzz boxes that command serious cash and been on many famous records, I know I seen one on a late 60’s strat that to my knowledge I was the first one to work on it, some old MXR stuff and some Fender amps (remember while Leo made a fine amp/guitar he hated to waste parts.). I suspect the YouTube channels that dove into the capacitor type comparisons are likely hearing the tolerances of the caps (and value drift if it’s an old cap.). So I think if we ever wanted a proper comparison on that you’d have to go through a bunch of caps and select ones that are as close to each other value wise as possible.