Volume is more of an on-off wheres the taper?

[gtrcollectr]

I have swapped from a 1MA to a 500K to get a better range and its only slightly better with all of the volume happening in the first 1/3 of the pot......after that it works more like a gain knob. Is this typical of wrecks?

[Zippy]

Use the volume control on your guitar.

[geetarpicker]

Audio taper pots just aren't the same these days. The volume pot in my '85 Express comes on very slowly and it's barely distorting on say 11pm, is cranking pretty good by 2pm, but there is definately more to go on full up. However if you are running the bright switch things will come on more quickly. That said, the pots Ken used had a very slow taper and I have yet to find a modern pot that has such a slow rising taper even with modern 1meg "audio taper" pots. I just measured one of these 1meg pots and on half it's only reading 100k, which is definately coming up slowly compared to most modern pots. Ken found pots for his amps that sounded nice with them all on 1/2, but with new pots in a clone you can expect probably having the knobs less than that and not as simple a setting as all on 1/2.

That said I never plug into my Trainwrecks with the guitar full up for starters. For clean tones it's all about getting the guitar turned down and the amp up. 250k Fender pots should control the amp fine. 500k pots in many humbucker guitars are much more questionable and come on too quickly. The latest Historic series Gibson spec CTS pots have a nice taper, and it took Gibson decades to finally get their repro pot specs decent like the old 50s ones.

[gtrcollectr]

I have been using the guitar volume but would like to have a useable range on the amp as well. I have swapped values and tapers and really have not found one that acts as it should. Might try a few more values before I give up. Amp sounds fantastic just wish it was a bit less all or nothing on the volume side.

I have removed the bright cap altogether from this amp as part of my troubleshooting and it did not seem to help.

Thanks for the help.

Todd

[geetarpicker]

You might want to measure the volume pot you are using to see it's actual taper. I have a 1meg pot here that is exactly the type in my original 1985 Express. At a position of 1/2 it is only at 10 percent (100k) of the full open (1meg) value. Point is unless you have decent taper pots you will notice the issues, it's the taper more than the value. In my experience a wreck with less than 1meg on the volume pot doesn't sound or respond nearly as well as a decent 1meg will.