What taper are wah pots?

[Nocaster Cat]

Linear? Thanks!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

I believe the "coveted" models are a modified Log taper. (ICAR, HotPotz II, etc.)

Good question for Joe Gagan...... Joe?

[joegagan]

Linear will never work in a standard wah shell in common wah circs unless the user is satisfied with approx 60 per cent or less of the freq range.

Generally wah pots are log or modded log. Crybaby long ago condensed even further, squeezing the entire 100k into a very small area of the rotation. Dunlop continued this thru hotpotz1 and hotpotz2.
I believe the reason for this was for easy adjust during manufacture as it allows full range of sweep without encroaching on switch adjustment. Just a theory tho.

[joegagan]

All of the above applies to normal wah shells, normal circs.
A few exceptions:
Kenny segall of snarling dogs designed the large physical sweep of his wahs to utilize linear pots, to avoid the hassle of sourcing non-lin pots. This also gives the user fine control of the sweep.
Recent dunlop sig models have been observed to use 40k to 100k of a pot. This is achievable by tuning the circuit. Jeorge tripps and sam mcrae are sharp cats!

[Paul Marossy]

In the case of a Schaller "bau wau yoy yoy" clone, reverse log sounds good [for my tastes] when it's built into a crybaby shell.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Correct me if I am wrong but...

In a typical wah setup (ala CryBaby) you are actually starting at the pot's maximum resistance at heel down and DECREASING resistance as you go to toe down. So, wouldn't that be what Joe is talking about when he says " Recent dunlop sig models have been observed to use 40k to 100k of a pot?" With a log pot and starting at the maximum resistance, as you travel through the heel down to toe down position, wouldn't that be from 100K to about 40K seeing as 60-70% of a log pot's resistance would be along that travel?

Did I just confuse you? Or, myself? 

[joegagan]

Wahs typically use the full R range of the pot. In the case of icar-type, approx 90% in most wahs. Without going into further detail, does that answer your Q?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Wahs typically use the full R range of the pot. In the case of icar-type, approx 90% in most wahs. Without going into further detail, does that answer your Q?

Joe,

How does the typical wah utilize the FULL resistance range of the pot when the gear assembly does not let it go through its full range of travel?

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are saying 

[joegagan]

The typical wah shell allows somewhere in the range of 160 degrees. This is more than enough to go from near zero to full r on a hotpotz or earlier crybaby pot. To a lesser extent, log and or icar will get most of the r range in 160 degrees.