Volume and Tone pot question

[Telewanger]

My volume and tone pots are noisy. I have already sprayed them with contact cleaner several times, but it only lasts for a few weeks, now.

I cleaned them again yesterday really good, but the volume pot is still not working right. It is not cutting all of the way off anymore.

I want to put in new pots.

What are the best pots and capacitor value for Strat, volume and tone, 250K volume and 500K tone?

I want to get some really good ones.

What is the best brand?

[Commodore 64***]

I think most people think Alpha or CTS pots are the best. I just went ahead and got the pots from GFS, their strat kit. 250k pots bleed more treble than 500k, as I understand it, but the effect is not as noticeable on single coils as it is for 'buckers.

GFS Strat Kit

[aeolian]

Do volume and tone use different kinds of pots: is one linear and the other non-linear (damn, can't think of the term for this)?

[Commodore 64***]

Do volume and tone use different kinds of pots: is one linear and the other non-linear (damn, can't think of the term for this)?

I think it's tapered, and the taper is logarithmic.

[Ch0jin]

This seems to come up quite a lot and I think the -general- consensus is that CTS pots are the go. Linear taper for tone and Log (audio taper) for Volume.

As far as cap values, if you are happy with your tone, then I'd use the exact same cap you have in there right now. Your tone cap is re-usable

Changing 500K pots to 250K and vice versa will likely have a massive impact on your tone. Unless your swapping out PU's I wouldn't go there.

Lastly, one other consideration is Dimarzio Custom Taper pots. I just used two of them in my BB1200 as replacements and so far, I love them. They are supposed to be some special taper that enables them to be used as volume OR tone pots.

My BB1200 wiring is custom (A BB1200 is kind of the Australian cousin of a 335 I suppose) and I run a simple 1 Vol and 1 Tone configuration, both Dimarzio Custom Tapers, 500K Vol and 250K tone (custom P90 style PU's) and I'm a happy camper.

Now I'm usually a vol and tone wide open kinda guy, so I can't really comment on how good the custom taper is for a player who likes to "ride the pots", but they work for me.

Lastly I hear that CTS make the pots for Dimarzio anyway.

Hope that all helps

Oh and lastly, if it IS Dimarzio's you decide on, I can try and dig up the ebay seller I got mine from (because he sent me a pile of free stickers too! My toolbox now looks like it's sponsored by Ernie Ball and EMG haha.)