1 Meg pots - understanding taper terminology

[jamrine]

I am looking for a volume and tone pot for my JM build and I know a 1 meg linear and 1 meg audio taper are what are used for volume and tone, respectively, but I am finding a lot of places that sell pots do not list the taper, and say they can be ised for volume or tone.  Also, I keep coming across a DiMarzio 1 meg pot that says it is a "custom taper." 

Can I use the DiMarzio in both positions, and if so, what is the custom taper?  How important is the taper?  I would guess having the correct volume taper is more critical perhaps?

Any good knowledge here on this stuff?

Also, any recommendations on an inexpensive option for the right angle toggle switch?

[Jay]

A 1M pot is a 1M pot.  Any will work no matter the taper.  The difference is that a linear at half way up will have a 500k resistance whereas an audio pot would be somewhere closer to 100k or so IIRC.  It's that way in order to compensate for how our eats perceive volume changes.  The concept is that to us, 100k sounds like half the volume of 1M as opposed to 500k.

Here's an image taken from The Secret Life of Pots on geofex that shows the different taper types.

[GUITARmole]

Also, any recommendations on an inexpensive option for the right angle toggle switch?

Yeah...don't choose the inexpensive option!

Seriously, you get what you pay for with the toggle switches and you're better off just paying $15 for the good one instead of paying $8 and replacing it later because it sucks and has a flimsy feel.

[sewkid]

I had a hard time finding 1 Meg pots. finley found them at
>http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/MISCELLA ... TS_C16.cfm<

[jamrine]

I broke down and spent more than I wanted to from Angela's.  Same with the right angle toggle.