On Tue, 23 Jan 2018 18:01:50 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

On Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 6:09:10 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I have always known pots to either have an audio or a linear taper.
I'm looking at a schematic which has numerous pots. Some say they are "W
taper", the others say they are "K Taper". I have not seen them listed
in this way, ever.

What do these letters mean?
Are there other letters used?

Anyone have a chart that shows and explains them?

W-taper pots are center-detent (center-null), typically used for tone controls, where center is Null.

K-taper pots typically will show a number ahead of the K, meaning *number* K-ohms.

K-pots may be linear or audio. W-pots are typically linear.

Your questions are getting better and better!

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I know that K ohms means 1000 ohms. But this is written as follows
(directly from the schematic) (except they use the ohm symbol and have
the +/- symbol printed one on top of the other)

Pot, 20K (ohm symbol) +/- 20%, K-taper

The other ones are
Pot, 50K (ohm symbol) +/- 20%, W-taper


There are 4 of the W-taper. so that makes sense about the tone controls
(center null). Because there are two per channel.

But there are a ****load of the K-taper ones, and this is a preamp
mixer, so lots of volume control pots.

This is an Altec Lansing preamp/mixer. It has a broken shaft on one of
the volume pots, so I need to replace that pot. I found a schematic for
it on this Altec Lansing unofficial website.

http://alteclansingunofficial.nlenet...ers/index.html

This is the model to download:
(It says Click to download the .ZIP file)
Altec Lansing 1692A Mixer Literature Sheets - All

The zipfile contains a bunch of .JPG images.
The parts list where these pots are listed, is 1692a-4s.jpg