This one goes to 0!....That's one less innit?

[JohnH]

Have you ever noticed how Fender knobs go from 10 down to 1...:

But Gibson knobs go all the way to zero....:

'Well, it's one less, isn't it? It's not One. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at One. You're on One here, all the way down, all the way down, all the way down, you're on One on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?'

[sumgai]

Har! Either John's drunk, or else he's trying out for replacing Dr. Seuss, I can't figure out which....

I'm making book here, who wants a piece of the action?

[newey]

Either John's drunk . . .

Or Nigel Tufnel is . . .

[asmith]

Gibsons are heavier in the body but have a wider range on the knob.

She's a whole lotta woman...

[lunaalta]

That is probably because Gibson owners clean their guitars with shampoo.
Shampooing in the shower

[gumbo]

Actually, it's just that the weather DownHere has finally gotten to him....

[JohnH]

Ok I'll tell what led me to post that!
(Just so you know, I have imbibed only moderate alcohol and always wear my sun hat.)

Im a proud owner of one Fender snd one Gibbo, but never noticed those lowest knob numbers before. I was watching a youtube vid to find out about TBX pots so I could code them properly into my spreadsheet. Phostenix has one where he measures pot resistance at each knob setting. But, being Fender, the lowest is 1, and the centre detent is 5.5. Who knew? (or cared, but it was very helpful to me)

But I shall continue with my assumption that pots go from 0 to 10 and 5 is half way.

[asmith]

Telecaster knobs don't have any numbers on them. Presumably some complex mathematics involving infinity need to be worked out before the resistance at the centre-detent is calculable.

[gumbo]

The actual truth is that Gibson people HAVE to be able to turn their guitars completely OFF to avoid complaints from the neighbo(u)rs..
...us Fender people never have that problem....

[Deleted]

I think volume can be cut off completely, hence volume knobs should have the 0 mark. Tone OTOH, even turned off all the way down, still has some mids/highs/smth passing through, and in any case the effect of the capacitor/resistance have on ppl's ears are subjective. So the meaning of a 0 value for tone is very subjective, and not easily defined. Zero for volume tho makes perfect sense : just bleed all the signal to the ground.
So I propose "0->10" for all volume knobs, "1->10" for all tone knobs.

Special case : For 80s Kramers with Floyd Rose and Seymour Duncan live wires metal, the volume knob should be from 0->30

[lunaalta]

Oh dear!

Different knobs for volume and treble!

But, how will I remember which is which?

[newey]

Leo Fender used the now-classic 3-way Telecaster switch to switch pickups because those particular switches were cheap and available as WW II surplus, where they were used in 2-way radios for "Transmit/Standby/Receive" controls. I suspect we have numbers on Strat knobs for similar reasons, i.e., only because Leo found a cheap source for those knobs labelled "Volume" and "tone" back when the Strat was born. He probably didn't care that they had numbers- after all, the audience can read the numbers better than the player can- the main thing was that the knobs be labelled so as to indicate the 1 "Vol" and 2 "Tone"s, a unique Strat feature.

Other manufacturers then presumably followed suit, and so 50-some years later, we're having this discussion.

[sumgai]

60 years later does indeed qualify as "50 some" years - the Strat was unleashed on the public in 1954.

As to the Military use of that switch..... As one who's MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) started out as 31E20, I can tell you with certainty that few if any tranceivers used a switch that stayed in the Transmit position. For the most part, transmitting tubes (remember, this was before the advent of solid state!) were prone to burning up if left on too long - and operators were equally prone to being called away by superior-ranked individuals who weren't concerned over some radio's tubes going kaput. Most of them had a spring-loaded momentary contact switch to engage the transmit function.

I do seem to recall one model that had a Low (power) - standby - High (power) setup, though... the T-195, I think.   And that was a transmitter, not a transceiver, so....

Where these switches were ubiquitous was in Telephone switchboards, both Military and civilian. In many cases, the center position was "standby" of a sort, it was merely ready to accept an incoming notice (a ring signal for the operator). Down was to connect the operator and the caller, so the final destination could be determined. Up was to allow the operator to "cut in" to that circuit of two people, so that he/she could interrupt according to plan ("This is the operator, please insert 25 more cents", or in my case "We have incoming! Take cover!!"), and proceed accordingly.

But nonetheless, they were cheap.... dirt cheap!


About knobs, I dunno. Nothing like what Leo used ever showed up on any Military gear that came under my surveilance. (Hint: Military stuff was all meant for field use - rugged field use. Can you imagine Fender knobs remaining in place on a radio on the back of Jeep, going pell-mell over hill and dale? Neither can I. In my experience (and in my memory as I recall it today), all knobs were secured with a set screw, to a solid shaft control - not a split shaft, and not to a knurled one either.

Recall that Leo's first offering, the Nocaster, had essentially today's Telecaster knurled knobs, and those certainly weren't Military designed. At a guess, I'd say that Leo had them made up especially for him (or he probably made them right there in-house, they were easy to make), just for his brand new, shiny git-fiddle. Even back then, players succumbed to chrome as easily as they do now.


But.... jeweled pilot lamp covers were indeed found all over Military gear, not just radios. That's why you saw them on Fender amps from the get-go, they were also dirt cheap as Military surplus.

That's my core-dump for the day, check back tomorrow and see if I've recollected anything else germane and pertinent.... or if I've totally shot my wad!







sumgai