| Most modern production guitar makers, including Gibson, tend to sacrifice quality of the guitar's hidden components to save a few bucks. After all, what you see, is what sells. If the manufacturer can save a few bucks with low cost components where you can't see it, then a few bucks saved for each guitar translates into huge savings to the manufacturer who is putting out thousands of guitars a year. More likely than not, when you open up your control cavity, you will find inferior import pots, cheap tone caps, plastic coated wire, metal grounding plates, and even small circuit boards for quicker wiring during factory assembly. These inferior parts all effect the overall tone of your guitar. Therefore, any guitar player who is constantly tinkering with changing pickups, tone caps, and other parts in search of great vintage tone can read on. In the 1950's when Gibson was producing their masterpieces of tone, the 59' Burst LP, which is still considered by most tone guru's to be the all time standard for vintage guitar tone, they were carefully hand wiring their guitars with premium USA made components with strict tolerances. Potentiometers were all #137 CTS 500K audio tapers, Capacitors were .022 400v Sprague Bumble Bees, wiring was all metal braid shielded, all pots were grounded with a single silver plated ground wire, Switchcraft switches and jacks were used through out, and of course Pickups were the famous Gibson PAF's. |
| Here's a look inside the control cavity of an original Gibson 59' Burst |
Each quality component is an essential part of the tone associated with the 59' Burst. With out CTS 500K pots, Sprague Capacitors, PAF pickups, quality components and vintage wiring you will not have vintage Gibson tone. There are other factors related to vintage Gibson tone such as wood type, overall construction, nut, bridge, and tailpiece, however, we believe these to be secondary when talking about the electrified tone of the guitar Way back when, a CTS 500K Audio Taper Potentiometer was the very best available and manufactured to strict tolerances. A CTS 500K pot actually read 500K or more on the ohm meter. Unfortunately these days it is difficult to find a CTS 500K pot that actually reads 500K, in fact, it is difficult to find one that even reads 450K. Most we have come across in the last few years have been between 380 and 430K Even Gibson has tried to replicate the tone of their original 59' Burst with their VOS series reissues by equipping them with genuine CTS pots, reissue Bumble Bee capacitors, PAF reissue pickups, and vintage wiring. Where they seem to fall short in their efforts is that the CTS pots are not checked for their actual K value before installing them in these $5000 VOS guitars. In many other models it is also common to see 250K Gibson branded import audio pots, and 150K Linear Pots used in modern LP Standards, Customs, and Studios, as well as ES series and SG's. |
| Here is one of our CTS Matched Pre-Wired long shaft Pot Kits with optional reissue Bumble Bees installed in a 1980's Gibson Les Paul Standard Burst |
| So what are precision matched pots? CTS potentiometers are still considered to be the very best guitar pots on the market today. Unfortunately due to mass production with little attention to quality control and lack of adherence to strict tolerances, CTS 500K pots are rarely true 500K. We buy CTS pots in large bulk quantities, with less than 10% over 500K on our test equipment. Our CTS pots are checked for each specific K-value, sorted, and tagged. Only pots that are over 500K are precision matched in sets of four based on their closest matched resistance value, and offered to our customers. So as you can see, these matched sets are offered in limited quantity and availability. We offer CTS precision matched sets in both 500K audio taper long shaft versions and the standard short shaft. We do not carry any Linear pots, because frankly we do not see any useful purpose for Linear pots in a vintage tone circuit. With our precision matched CTS 500K Audio Taper pots installed in your guitar's tone circuit, you will notice a very well balanced, rich, controllable tone with outstanding highs, mids, and bass. When installed in your volume circuit you will notice a very nice even taper, not a sudden on/off control. These matched pot kits are simply the very best CTS pot kits available anywhere. Take a look at our feedback page for what guitar players have said about our upgrade kits. |
| The importance of true 500K potentiometers in a humbucking circuit cannot be emphasized enough. The guitar's tone is directly related to the signal path traveling from the pickups through the tone caps, and through the pots. Cheap pots will give you cheap thin tone, and an abrupt on/off volume control. |
