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POTS AND CAPS INSTALLED

Marshallhead

Active member
Joined
Jul 19, 2001
Messages
5,556
Ok, I found a nice set of 1965 burns 304 pots NOS for my R9-too bad i couldn't use them(the threads were not long enough) so I took 2 new CTS pots for the volumes and used the stock tone pots which to my suprise read 501 and 505 k-the cts read 535k and 505k-I used 1950's .022 Good-All caps as the black beauties my buddy had were shot-so were the original pots from the 58 les paul he had.
Basically, I made a few interesting observations:
1) the pickup output readings increasing from 7.77k neck to 7.88k
and the bridge from 8.02k to 8.22k-I used a 1ft cable with all controls maxed
2)Tonally ,the guitar is more clear and articulate,very round with the tones rolled off on either pickup or when blended-seems to me I can hear the 57 classics deficiencies now-ie too much high end and the neck mud-I plan to replace the pickups anyway but I wanted to test the pots and caps before I did
3)Functionally,the vol pots seem to roll off alot of high end,almost too much(I did wire it 50's style from Dave Paetow's pics-50's style-thanks Dave:dude) so I do need to look into that-The tone controls are much,much better now-even though I don't use them much its nice to know I have a nice variety there(smooth,fat and vocal)
The stock pickups as I said are really sounding bad now-they were never "great" but useable-I have listened to everyones soundfiles and I'm still confused as to what pickups to use-I originally had planned the massive testing but everyone here has gone the longest yard already and there are some great ears here so I'm trusting them-what I'll use is still up in the air at this point-(FYI the guitar has the allparts lightweight tailpiece) I'm leaning towards the antiquity/seth alnico v combo but we'll see
 
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