Friday, April 15, 2011

Seymour Duncan YJM High-Speed Volume Pot


I bought the Seymour Duncan YJM (Yngwie J. Malmsteen) 250 K potentiometer as an upgrade and effect for one of my Fender Stratocasters. The purpose of this pot is to facilitate quicker volume swells. This unit is also available in a 500 K resistance version. Most high end musical instrument stores should start to carry these dual purpose pots. One purpose would simply be an upgraded replacement of the inexpensive pots that often are installed in inexpensive guitars. Another purpose would be as an effect which would facilitate volume swells made popular by Yngwie Malmsteen and others.

These pots work well whether you wish to swiftly increase or decrease your volume. The taper is nice and the amount of finger resistance is minimal. I purchased, played and sold guitars where simply turning the volume or tone pots required a herculean effort. The YJM's do not require brute strength in order to adjust the potentiometer setting . In addition, you don't have to shell out a ton of bucks on Ebay to buy some "used" pots at an exorbitant price. However, the YJM potentiometers are NOT cheap at about $12.00 dollars street USA. Using time as a function of test acceptance standards is not applicable at this time so durability is unknown but Bourns switches are usually very reliable. You need to ask yourself if the lightning quick speed of this switch is worth triple the cost of a standard potentiometer!

So far these YJM High-Speed volume pot switches are not compatible with the Fender S1 volume potentiometer. That fact could be a drawback for a lot of musicians using late model Fender guitars that are equipped with the S-1 feature.

Seymour Duncan products consistently please me and they must please others because the company has been around for over 35 years!

Whether you are simply replacing your volume pot or want some of that pseudo synth volume swells like Joe Bonamassa these potentiometers will satisfy your needs. In conclusion, it is my opinion that these potentiometers work as the packaging advertises and most guitarists will like these potentiometers.


Yngwie Malmsteen is relentless and inspires guitarists with fury!

3 comments:

digital potentiometer said...

The volume knob on your guitar is controlling a potentiometer under the hood. With a guitarist like Yngwie who has a highly refined technique and exacting attention to sound, you can employ the volume pot to take complete control of phrasing dynamics.

Anonymous said...

would this pot fit on a diferent guitar other than a fender strat?

Scott said...

It will fit most guitars. There are at least two answers; the easy answer is YES!
The long answer is: Les Paul's will need long shaft pots, Les Paul's use 500K resistance pots. These are standard potentiometers so you need to consider the amount of resistance you need and the length of the shaft of the potentiometer currently residing in your instrument. It spins quickly and with little effort required.
Upon installation you will experience fast dynamic control!!! Scott

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