Can a vintage pot's bad taper be repaired?

[GoldtopDeluxe72]

My '72 LP Deluxe has a bad volume taper for both pickups. The pots measure 400k. I had 300k pots put in because thats all i could find without going overboard, and the sweet tone got cloudy :/

Other than going to 500k pots, which im afraid will be too bright for these mini humbuckers, can the taper issue be fixed?

0-5 had no volume at all on the bridge, and 10-9 would drop dramatically on the neck.
If its a choice between the two, I'd rather have the originals back in because they sounded so great. I was told other than correcting the scratchy factor, it can't be helped. Is this true?

Any input would be great.

 

[kfowler8]

Go ask Roman in the Luthier's Corner. He's an electronics engineer. I remember him talking about something like this one time.

 

[GoldtopDeluxe72]

Thank you. Will do.

 

[Ayton]

My '72 LP Deluxe has a bad volume taper for both pickups. The pots measure 400k. I had 300k pots put in because thats all i could find without going overboard, and the sweet tone got cloudy :/

Other than going to 500k pots, which im afraid will be too bright for these mini humbuckers, can the taper issue be fixed?

0-5 had no volume at all on the bridge, and 10-9 would drop dramatically on the neck.
If its a choice between the two, I'd rather have the originals back in because they sounded so great. I was told other than correcting the scratchy factor, it can't be helped. Is this true?

Any input would be great.

You should be able to buy standard 500k pots and bridge the outer lugs with resistors to bring them down to 400k. This itself might alter their taper, but at least you'd have access to the world of new pots while retaining the sound you love.

 

[GoldtopDeluxe72]

Thanks for the info. Didn't know it was possible.

 

[martin H]

Thanks for the info. Didn't know it was possible.

The repairability depends on what's happended to the pots. The pot has a curved carbon "track" that connects the two ends, and a "wiper" that moves over the top of the track, making contact at various positions to give various resistances.

If part of the track is working, which sounds like what you have, a few things could have happened

1. Some sort of dirty gunk on the carbon track that is insulating the track from the wiper at one end

2. Possibly the back of the pot had come partially loose from the front at one end, and the wiper is now not touching the track at that end, or the shaft has somehow tilted, giving the same effect

3. The carbon track is worn out or broken at one end.

It is usually possible, with a great deal of care, to remove the back of the pot, which is usually attached to the front by four lugs, and check these things, although #3 is fiendishly difficuly to fix.

Sometomes a good squirt of switch cleaner in the pot will cure # 1.

 

[River side]

What makes you think the "taper" went bad?