Gibson Historic potentiometer....

[geetarpicker]

Were you expecting a tonal difference or a taper difference? That said perhaps by 2011 your Les Paul special already had these pots. My recent era Gibson VOS historic SG did not but it might be a hair older than your special.

[iknowjohnny]

I read both and would have liked either or both, but was mainly interested in taper. I think they are the same as what i had already. Oh well.

[Mark]

I played a 2013 Les Paul yesterday, the taper is pretty good on these pots, the tone controls work a LOT better than the 30% taper pots that are in my guitar.

The pots are a bit stiff, I see how some people would like the stiffness to provide some resistance so they don't go too far, while other would like the pots to be faster.

The guitar was quite nice too.

[iknowjohnny]

If anyone is interested, i figured out how to loosen it up as loose as any pot i've ever had. What a relief ! I can not ride the thing like i do with my other guitars, which till now has always made this one a pain. First i had to remove that circlip that holds the shaft on. No longer needed. Then remove the casing and pull everything apart. Clean all that grease out, which helps a little. But what really did it is this. The springy contacts stick up too far. So when the casing is put on it pushes the plate with the shaft and contacts on it up against the carbon trace and the wiper ones up against the metal trace so hard that the friction is what causes the tightness. Granted, they need some pressure to keep the contacts reliably against thier tracks. But theres far more pressure than necassary as is proven by the fact other pots are much looser. So i took some small needle nose pliers and carefully clamped on the contacts a number of times till i gradually got them lower so there would be less pressure. Reassembled it and didn't put the clip back on since it wasn't necessary. Perfect now ! But i gotta tell you, theres no difference between the taper or sound of this pot compared to the stock one. I'm sure now they are the same.

[Mark]

I got the pots from CE Distribution, I decided to get five pots in case one might have been a bit low in value. Well this was the case, I had one at 420K, one at 430K, two at 440K and one at 450K.

You think Gibson would have worked out by now that we're in a new century and they can tighten the spec to at least 10%, I'll bet 5% is do-able too.

I was hoping to be surprised rather than.......

I tell myself it is the taper that is important and I'll never noticed the difference in value.

[redshark]

Mark you can use that tolerance to work on your advantage. When I have a set of this pots I use the higher value to be neck pickup volume control to give it a bit more clarity and then I use the lowest value to be used as treble pickup volume control to cut the treble a little bit. I would use that 420k for treble pickup for sure. It works really well!!

[premiumplus]

Would these pots be suitable for a Les Paul Jr. with P-90's?

[premiumplus]

Never mind, I pulled the cover off and the tone pots on my Jr. measure 498K...so I would imagine that the volume pots are 500k too. Can't measure directly without desoldering a wire and I'm out of time for the day...
I'm gonna have to give these pots a try!

[rooster]

There's an article or two in the last two issues of Premier Guitar that talks about the '59 wiring. Of note, the author exclaims that the '59 wiring does not want to see any type of bleed cap or bleed network on the volume pot. I thought this was worth sharing.

As to the resistive value of the Historic pots, if you are going to disassemble them, one light pass with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper saturated in Deoxit will easily increase the pot's value.

I also agree with the poster who said that the clip is not necessary, and that it's the brass contacts on the wiper that add most of the drag on the pot. Bend the contacts slightly and you should be all set. You can also reduce the height of the nylon piece (with 320 grit in a circular motion) on the bottom of the wiper shaft if you want to get real crazy.

As to the Centralabs pots that Glenn refers to, that clip is ALL IMPORTANT since there is no nylon base that sits at the bottom of the pot shaft. Completely different build than the CTS pots in this regard. In fact, there is a little right angle piece of metal that that will drag across the pot bottom cover and virtually stop all rotation of the pot if the C clip should fall off.

[Mark]

Thanks for the heads up Rooster.

[Littlewyan]

How does lightly sanding away the resistive material increase the value? I would of thought that it would have the opposite affect. I'm looking to get myself these pots next month, I have alphas in my Les Paul at the moment and they are ok, at midpoint they are at 15% the total value and I can clean up the amp just about ok with them but wouldn't mind a bit more range.

[redshark]

I think now mojotone carries pots made by CTS that they call vintage spec, 250k and 500k audio taper, short and long shaft, that could be a good option for guys with USA Gibson LP's.
I haven't compared to the Gibson custom shop but I've been using the 250k with strats and teles. Nice pot!!

[Littlewyan]

Well us guys with UK LPs have very limited choice . I'm going to have to enlarge the pot holes for these Gibson Historics to fit. Unless I can find a UK alternative.

Also those Mojotone Vintage Taper Pots are 30% Taper, I thought vintage taper was 10% :S. Going for 30% Taper would be going in the wrong direction for me.

[rooster]

Yeah, the sanding thing.

Maybe think of it like wire size? Imagine a length of wire 50 feet long and as big around as your finger. Then imagine a length of wire 50 feet long and as big around as a human hair. Now measure the resistance of both. The pot scenario is just like this - more material, less resistance.

[Mark]

Sanding will cause wear to the pot as would occur with normal use. The exception is the taper may be effected if the pressure isn't linear.

I'll add pictures to this thread in a few days.