If you're thinking of replacing your stock cheesy Gibson pots with CTS 500K jobbies from Allparts (as I have just done) you're in for a tone treat but you do NEED TO KNOW that the inner (split) shaft (not the brass outer, threaded shaft) is anything from 1/8th to 3/8ths of an inch longer than the stock Gibson pots as installed from about 1998 onwards.
It doesn't sound like a lot until you get them installed but then you start to wonder why your four control knobs look almost as if they are hovering above the guitar rather than part of it.
At first I thought it was no problem, I just had to unsolder everything again and go back and put a spacer nut between the plate holding the pots and the inside of the guitar's top. WRONG!
That pulls the shaft down, sure, but it also brings the threaded outer shaft down to a point where you can't get a nut on on top, let alone the washer that's supposed to go underneath it.
SOLUTION#1: Make sure you push the knobs on firmly. They're a (very) tight fit on the CTS shaft but that little bit of extra pressure will lower the knobs somewhat - just take it easy as you go and maybe a nasmuth of liquid soap with which to ease them on (about enough to cover the end of a gnat's, em, erm, antenna!!)
SOLUTION#2: Put some knob position indicators on as they used to do on older Pauls but haven't done for some time - we're talking stock standard LPs here, not 57 or 59 ReIssues some of which may well have the indicators.
Using an extra washer on the tallest shaft (they differ, obviously, at different points on the guitar top) and knob indicators on all four at least gives the impression of the knobs' being connected to the guitar.
Sorry to sound like an advert for Allparts - no, I don't have shares - but I know they do these indicators in both nickel and gold-plate and I'm pretty sure most other serious suppliers would have 'em too.
While we're demonstrationg outside the Gibson factory for them to get better pots in their LPs, perhaps we could demonstrate against the same corporate bean-counters who have made the decision to drop these indicators. I think they look cool and they certainly are an aid to playing insofar as you can see at a glance how much more pedal there is to go to the metal.
P.S. (I don't know whether this warning applies to other brands of potentiometer as mentioned on this site but it's certainly true of the CTS ones Allparts are supplying at the moment, oh, and just for the record, CTS 250K replacement pots for Strats and Teles DO NOT have this problem. Logic tells me there must be a reason for these discrepancies. Experience of guitar and parts manufacturers over the years tells me it's best, sometimes, to eschew logic.)
Rock on brothers and sisters. This one's for you, George H.
It doesn't sound like a lot until you get them installed but then you start to wonder why your four control knobs look almost as if they are hovering above the guitar rather than part of it.
At first I thought it was no problem, I just had to unsolder everything again and go back and put a spacer nut between the plate holding the pots and the inside of the guitar's top. WRONG!
That pulls the shaft down, sure, but it also brings the threaded outer shaft down to a point where you can't get a nut on on top, let alone the washer that's supposed to go underneath it.
SOLUTION#1: Make sure you push the knobs on firmly. They're a (very) tight fit on the CTS shaft but that little bit of extra pressure will lower the knobs somewhat - just take it easy as you go and maybe a nasmuth of liquid soap with which to ease them on (about enough to cover the end of a gnat's, em, erm, antenna!!)
SOLUTION#2: Put some knob position indicators on as they used to do on older Pauls but haven't done for some time - we're talking stock standard LPs here, not 57 or 59 ReIssues some of which may well have the indicators.
Using an extra washer on the tallest shaft (they differ, obviously, at different points on the guitar top) and knob indicators on all four at least gives the impression of the knobs' being connected to the guitar.
Sorry to sound like an advert for Allparts - no, I don't have shares - but I know they do these indicators in both nickel and gold-plate and I'm pretty sure most other serious suppliers would have 'em too.
While we're demonstrationg outside the Gibson factory for them to get better pots in their LPs, perhaps we could demonstrate against the same corporate bean-counters who have made the decision to drop these indicators. I think they look cool and they certainly are an aid to playing insofar as you can see at a glance how much more pedal there is to go to the metal.
P.S. (I don't know whether this warning applies to other brands of potentiometer as mentioned on this site but it's certainly true of the CTS ones Allparts are supplying at the moment, oh, and just for the record, CTS 250K replacement pots for Strats and Teles DO NOT have this problem. Logic tells me there must be a reason for these discrepancies. Experience of guitar and parts manufacturers over the years tells me it's best, sometimes, to eschew logic.)
Rock on brothers and sisters. This one's for you, George H.
