Problem master volume pot on Fender Classic Player Jaguar Special HH
 

I own one of these. In general a very good, versatile, electric guitar. I'll spare you the details of its distinctive controls. One in particular, the "Master Volume" pot, may have a problem. Or, maybe, it's supposed to work this way.

Specifically, when I turn it down with this pot it cuts about 50 per cent of the volume in the first 20 per cent of the dial rotation. After that, the reduction in volume seems linear (I think; who knows?).

Does this sound like a malfunction in this control to anyone?

Is it just the way this control on this model of modern Jaguar is supposed to work?

Any comments/recounted personal experience/wild guesses are welcome. Even mere speculation can be worthwhile and entertaining. Anyone care to comment?

I'm gonna take a wild guess. Maybe it has something to do with it being linear or audio taper. You might want to look into that. If so, just swap the pots to which one you want. I'm not techy at all, but what I do know is that I want my pots to sound as true to the numbers as possible, meaning a 1 should sound like a 1, a 2=2, etc. Some pots only respond to volume change when you're only halfway so anything between 1-5 doesn't have much effect, and a huge volume increase past 5 which I'm not really into.

I just dug through my emails with Bareknuckle pickups. I'm not affiliated with them, I just like the products and I was asking about pots as well. This is their description according to tapers:

Available in 3 Taper options:
10% audio taper: fast roll-off from max volume, allows for quick swell techniques with a snappy response.
20% audio taper: medium roll-off for a great balance between quick response and fine-tuning control.
30% audio taper: a smoother, more linear roll-off for greater fine-tuning control, particularly in the lower half of the range of the dial.

hope that helps in some way.

it's not a malfunction it's just the taper of the pot.

I swapped out some that were doing the same for a Bourne Audio Taper. I'm not sure if they have different specs.

Thanks to you all for your responses. I'm not techy either. I guess I'm off to the luthier. Glad to know there's a possibility that my volume pot isn't busted. Of course, either way I'm off to the luthier.

You folks are the best.

Better grab a flashlight. You’re about to enter a deep rabbit hole! :D

As others mentioned, there are different curves for different pots. The decibel scale is logarithmic, not linear, as a “1-10” knob indicates. Not sure if our audio gray matter is linear or not?

As mentioned, perhaps you have a linear pot but many people prefer an audio pot for volume. Could also be the taper. Or, you might just have a bad pot.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.