Originally Posted by: PRSplayaA lot of how that works out depends on the dynamic responsiveness of your amp, and the value of your pots. Some guitars will get pretty thin and brittle sounding if it's volume knob is turned down too much. Pots with high values in the 500k to 1M will stay bright and clear, whereas pots in the 250k range will tend to get a little darker. My gutiars have 500k pots (I believe) and they remain clean and crisp with the volume rolled down, and depending on how the amp is set, can have some really nice "in between" tones. But, if I try to clean it up too much, the tone gets a little thin. I remedy this with a 250k volume pedal first thing in my effects chain. This lets me clean things up a bit, but retain some meat.

Exactly. One common misconception about pots is that it’s always assumed that they are all linear. Linear meaning when you turn a common guitar volume pot up or down… the relation of the change in sound level is equal to the rotation of the pot from point 1 to point 10… Simply put, the volume difference measured in decibels from 1-5 is equal to the difference in decibels from 5-10. This is not true… Most pots are non-linear… meaning they’re exponential. Most people can’t tell the difference between the two unless they’re demonstrated side by side… Almost all guitar pots are non linear. This means that the change in volume measured in decibels from 1-5 is very slight… but the change in volume from 5-10 is quite a bit… it rises exponentially rather than equally like a linear pot. Volume pedals and wah pedals almost always use linear pots. They are a bit more expensive because the circuitry is a bit more sensitive. Keep that in mind when adjusting volume and tone knobs on your guitar… 5 isn’t usually the middle… somewhere around 7 is… I normally have them on 1 or 10… I suggest a volume pedal for anyone… just like PRS said.