As you might expect, we get asked a lot of questions... a LOT of questions.
What's linear taper? What kind of solder do I use? What's the difference between capacitors?
We'll try to address most of your questions here. This is not meant to be a complete, comprehensive question/answer guide by any means. If we don't address your concern here, please feel free to email us. We don't bite...

Potentiometer-related questions

What value of pot should I buy for my guitar?
What's the difference between CTS and Alpha brand pots?
The pots in my guitar make a scratchy sound when I turn them. Do I need new pots?
How long do pots last?
What's the difference between audio taper and linear taper pots?
Do I use all audio taper? All linear taper? Half and half?
I've heard that all mini pots are cheap and junky. Is that true?
I've heard that some CTS pots have a 10% tolerance and some have a 20% tolerance. What's the deal?
What are "matched pots" and do I need them?
Do I need long-shaft or short-shaft pots for my guitar?


Wire-related questions

Is cloth-covered wire better than plastic-coated wire?
Does cloth-covered wire make my guitar sound better than plastic-coated wire?
Should I use thicker wire or thinner wire when wiring up my guitar?
What's better: copper, aluminum, or silver-coated wire?
Does a lot of "slop" when wiring up my harness make a difference in the sound?
Is it possible that the wiring in my guitar will overheat?


Capacitor-related questions

Ceramic disk, metal film, paper-in-oil.. geez! What's the best capacitor for me?
What's the difference between capacitors?
What value of capacitor should I use?
Bumblebee caps... are they worth the price?
I have a Les Paul with Bumblebee caps in it. I bought a couple more from some guy on eBay and they don't have the same colored bands on them as mine do. What's the deal?
Capacitor Costs vs. Tone


Input Jack/Jack Cup-related questions

Is a Switchcraft input jack really any better than a Radio Shack input jack?
Should I use a stereo or a mono input jack?
I have a Tele. Why is an Electrosocket better than a simple (and cheaper!) jack cup?
I have a Tele and the jack cup keeps falling out. Why?


Pickup-related questions

My pickup stopped working. What could be wrong with it?
What is the DC resistance number that pickup makers use? Why is it important? What's it represent?
I just installed a brand new pickup and it sounds really thin and weak. What's the problem?
Why is the wire color on my Tele neck pickup brown and on my bridge pickup orange?
I don't know if my pickups are wax-potted. Can I have my pickups wax-potted? Will re-doing that hurt them?
Can I wax-pot my pickup myself?
What does "RWRP" mean?
Why do my parents always yell at me?
















































    What value of pot should I buy for my guitar?
  • If you are using single coil pickups, we recommend 250k pots.
  • If you are using humbuckers or P-90 pickups, we recommend 500k pots.
  • The higher the number on the pot (guitar pots, generally, range from 100k to 1meg in value), the more of the highs will be allowed to pass through to your signal.
  • The lower the value on the pot (closer to 100k), the more of your highs will be attenuated (filtered out) by the pot.
  • If you use a 250k pot on a humbucker, it will sound REALLY dark and muddy.
  • If you use a 500k with your single coils, they will sound unusually bright and thin. Probably harsh.
  • Using a 1meg pot on either single coils, humbuckers, or P-90s will allow, virtually, 100% of the highs that pickup produces to pass through to your signal. That may be a good thing (if that's what you wanted) or a very bad thing (if it's not what you wanted).
    What's the difference between CTS and Alpha brand pots?
  • CTS pots are made in the USA. Alpha pots are imported.
  • CTS pots have a heaver-duty pot case than the Alphas.
  • CTS pots are twice the price of Alpha pots.
  • Alpha pots are lighter weight than CTS pots due to lesser quality components. (that's good - lighter - and bad - lesser quality.)
  • The threaded shaft on the CTS pot is a larger diameter than the Alphas. Usually, CTS pots will not fit through the holes on imported guitars. You will have to either file, drill, or hone the hole a little larger for the volume and tone controls if you want to convert to CTS pots.
  • Alpha pots fit fine through the holes on a US-made guitar however, since the shaft is smaller, there will be some "slop" and you may want to use a washer to make sure the pot does not move.
  • There are more splines on the top of the CTS pot than on the Alpha pot.
  • The head of the pot (the top that you slide the knob over) is the same diameter on each of the pots.
    The pots in my guitar make a scratchy sound when I turn them. Do I need new pots?
  • Maybe. That sound is due to dust and dirt getting inside the holes of the pot and resting on the carbon-layered disk. As the wiper presses on the disk, sandwiching those pieces of dust and dirt, they interrupt the contact, making the pot sound "scratchy".
  • Get a can of air. The type commonly used to blow stuff out of your computer. (Staples... $8) Try blowing the dust/dirt out of the pot.
  • If the air doesn't work, Radio Shack has a can of electrical contact cleaner. It is a can of spray liquid that almost immediately evaporates. Try to "wash" the dust out with it.
  • If neither of these cures work, it's time for new pots.
    How long do pots last?
  • Good pots last a long time. Heck, even cheap pots sometimes last a long time.
  • Pots do wear out with age. The carbon dust on the wafer inside wears out. Internal parts become corroded due to moisture. The pots fill with dust and dirt.
  • You should expect to get, at least, 10 years out of a set of pots under normal use. (If you're on the road all year/every night, that is not normal use)
  • We don't understand the absolutely ridiculous prices of these vintage wiring harnesses. Pots wear out! A vintage harness may be great for restoring a guitar to original condition but, when it comes to functionality, vintage harnesses are like buying old cars... prepare to replace parts!
    What's the difference between audio taper and linear taper pots?
  • Wow... this is the question that we get asked more often than any other question!
    The difference between them is the way that they turn up the signal.
  • AUDIO TAPER: this pot turns up a signal in a logarithmic manner. (these are sometimes called "log pots") If you turn an audio taper pot to "5", for instance, you'll get approx. 75% of the available signal. It is the most used pot when it comes to volume controls. They are in your TV, home stereo, car stereo, MP3 player, clock radio, etc.
  • LINEAR TAPER: this pot turns up the signal in a... well... linear manner. If this pot is set to "5", you'll get 50% of the available signal. If it is set to "2", you get 20% of the signal and so on. This is used on effects boxes, tone controls, etc. It is, generally, not used for volume controls but there is no reason that you couldn't use this as a volume control.
    Do I use all audio taper? All linear taper? Half and half?
  • Generally, we build harnesses with audio taper pots in the volume positions and linear taper pots in the tone positions but, if a customer wanted all audio taper or all linear taper, we would, of course custom build their harness as they wanted it.
    I've heard that all mini pots are cheap and junky. Is that true?
  • Some are... some are not.
  • We stock Alpha brand and CTS brand mini pots.
  • The CTS pots are very high quality and solid. They are built with the same quality that you are used to in a CTS pot and normally last a long time.
  • Alpha brand pots are asian-made. They are lighter in weight and have a tendency to get scratchy quicker however, they are half the cost of CTS pots and, for someone working on a project that they are planning to sell, could be a good cost-cutting alternative to a higher priced pot.
    I've heard that some CTS pots have a 10% tolerance and some have a 20% tolerance. What's the deal?
  • That's true but, as in all things in Life, everything has it's price.
  • We carry the 20% tolerance CTS pots and, for the vast majority of players, they work just fine.
  • For those that want only the best, we carry matched set of CTS pots. Matched sets of pots will squeeze the absolute best out of your pickups. We guarantee that they are all within 20k and you can email us in advance and ask what values of matched pots we have in stock at the moment.
    What are "matched pots" and do I need them?
  • We measure the resistance of all of the pots that we receive. (and we go through a LOT of pots!) We then group together some of them into sets based on how they measure on our digital meter. For instance, if we have a request for a matched set of short-shaft pots for a Gibson 335, we will find 2 audio taper CTS 500k pots and 2 linear taper CTS pots that measure within 20k of each other (the lowest measured pot to the highest measured pot) If you wanted a matched set for a Precision Bass, we'd match one audio taper CTS 250k pot and one linear taper CTS 250k pot.
  • Players that are into tone in a BIG WAY, say that matched pots bring out the absolute best in their pickups. With a 20% tolerance in CTS pots, if you did not use matched pots, you could get one volume pot that measured as low as 400k and another that measured as high as 600k! Each pot will make the same pickup sound very different! The 400k pot will make it sound darker and the 600k pot will make it sound brighter. You can see how matched pots would bring out the best in your guitar.
    Do I need long-shaft or short-shaft pots for my guitar?
  • If the shaft of the current pot that is in your guitar measures 3/8" (9mm) or less, you need short-shafts.
  • If the shaft of the current pot that is in your guitar measures over 3/8" (9mm), you need long-shafts.
  • If there is no pot in your guitar to measure (or you are working on a project guitar), take a piece of white string and tie it to a washer. Drop the string down through the pot hole, leaving the washer on the top of the guitar. Pull it snug. Mark the string on the inside of the guitar right at the hole. Measure between the washer and the mark. If it's less than 3/8" (9mm), you need short-shaft pots. If it's over 3/8" (9mm), you need long-shafts.
    Is cloth-covered wire better than plastic-coated wire?
  • Better? No. But it does give a guitar a nice, clean, vintage, quality look.
    Does cloth-covered wire make my guitar sound better than plastic-coated wire?
  • Cloth-covered wire sounds the same as plastic (PVC) coated wire (as long as you're comparing the same gauge of wire and the same type of wire - copper-to-copper, silver-coated-to-silver-coated, etc.) There is no sonic advantage to using one over the other.
    Should I use thicker wire or thinner wire when wiring up my guitar?
  • Since a guitar generates a very small amount of volts/amperes, thin wire (26ga., 24ga, 22ga) is perfect!
    What's better: copper, aluminum, or silver-coated wire?
  • For the demands of a guitar and the very small voltages/amperes involved, silver-coated or copper are best.
    Does a lot of "slop" when wiring up my harness make a difference in the sound?
  • Not unless you have several feet of slop. A small amount of slop in the wiring won't do anything to change the resistance but, if you are using larger gauge wire and you have several feet of slop, it could make a slight difference. Cramming several feet of larger gauge wire into the small electronics cavity of a guitar could be a tough job though!
    Is it possible that the wiring in my guitar will overheat?
  • While wire does overheat in some situations, there isn't enough voltage/amperes generated by your pickups for your guitar wiring to overheat. The odds of this happening are almost zero.
    Ceramic disk, metal film, paper-in-oil.. geez! What's the best capacitor for me?
  • Generally-speaking, in order of quality sound reproduction (worst-to-first): ceramic disk caps are the worst, then mylar, then metal film, then polypropylene, and, finally, paper-in-oil are among the best. Great tone, however, is very subjective and some people will love the sound that their factory Strat produces (even though it has trashy, cheap ceramic caps in it!). Our opinion is that paper-in-oil caps are the best caps for the money.
    What's the difference between capacitors?
  • Capacitors attenuate, or filter out, highs. Some techno geek will argue with that and give you a more detailed technical description of what they do but, essentially, in regular english, that's what they do. Some do it better than others. Some sound smoother, some sound harsh. Some, seemingly, have no effect whatsoever. The difference between the different types of caps is the material they use to attenuate the highs. Some of the dielectric materials used are mylar, metal film, oil-soaked paper... The value of a cap determines exactly where in the audio spectrum it filters the highs. The higher the number, the more highs that are filtered. The lower the number, the less highs that are filtered.