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Post subject: 1964 Precision Pots
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:12 pm
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I've pulled my beloved ol' P-bass out of mothballs to discover that the past few years of storage were not good to either the volume or tone pots, and they need to be replaced. Turns out they are not original and I don't see any specs on them. So I'm hoping someone either knows or could point me to a good source to determine.

I've finally found a vintage electronics "artist" to restore the matching '64 Bassman, but by the time it was ready to start working again, the pots were shot on the P-bass (nothing but coastal fog can take such a toll on such a beautiful instrument).

If I got them before 1985, does that make me vintage also? [shudder]

Any direction is appreciated!

--- Jim ---


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Post subject: Locating replacement pots
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:33 pm
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Having done some further research, I keep coming back to the same site, looking at the same pots (250K). However, they are described as, "For most Stratocasters and Telecasters." Clearly the P-Bass ain't either.

Does anyone know if the Strat pots will work fine for the P-Bass? I'm running out of ideas here...


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Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:34 pm
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Electrically, I don't see why they wouldn't work. I did a very quick search, and found that the P Bass uses 250K pots. A pot is just a simple resistor, so it should work fine. However, the only thing that I can see is that the strat/tele pots may not fit physically-they may be too small or too big. I've never played with these pots, so I don't know.

Another thing to consider is that if your bass is all original, you might want to fork over the $ and get genuine pots from 1964 (you can check the date codes on the pots) and install those. I see them on ebay from time to time. Your bass will have much better resale value having "old" replacement pots instead of having new replacement pots.


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:47 am
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When I got the bass 20 years ago, the tuning assemblies had already been replaced, so it's not all original to begin with. Thanks!


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Post subject: Re: 1964 Precision Pots
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:16 am
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Hope I'm not too late to help!

DancesWithDingos wrote:
I've pulled my beloved ol' P-bass out of mothballs to discover that the past few years of storage were not good to either the volume or tone pots, and they need to be replaced. Turns out they are not original and I don't see any specs on them. So I'm hoping someone either knows or could point me to a good source to determine.

I've finally found a vintage electronics "artist" to restore the matching '64 Bassman, but by the time it was ready to start working again, the pots were shot on the P-bass (nothing but coastal fog can take such a toll on such a beautiful instrument).

If I got them before 1985, does that make me vintage also? [shudder]

Any direction is appreciated!

--- Jim ---


Fender used one type of 250K pot back then. I can't understand the insane prices vintage pots bring on eBay. Since your instrument is not really a "collector" bass, I'd just buy some new CTS pots from BassPartsResource.com and be done with it for $20 total delivered in the USA to completely rewire the thing. The "FENDER" pots are exactly the same as stock CTS pots except they are individually packaged for individual sale with the Fender lot number on them for about twice the orice. You can also get wire, caps, jacks and anything else you need from them. They have wiring kits with everything you'll need but the tools here: http://basspartsresource.com/bass_electricalwiringkits.htm

One guy who is getting very popular with players is Butch at BayouCables.Com. He makes a completely prewired harness shipped to you ready to install and all you have to is mount the pots and jack and then use wirenuts to put the connections together. That is a very convenient solution for a tad more money and you won't burn your fingers with the soldering iron. These cost about $30 delivered in the USA:
http://www.bayoucables.com/standard-bass-harness-p-87.html
Butch has gotten so popular that he isn't taking custom orders until he catches up. However the Standard P-Bass harness is a "STOCK" item and not a "CUSTOM ORDER" so he'll get it right out.

I'd keep the old pots and any other parts with the bass.

Good luck!


Last edited by brotherdave on Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:29 pm
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You can also check stewmac.com they sell pots and even pre wired harness like brotherdave mentioned .

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1996 50th Anniversary Jazz 5 (012 0f 500)
1997 '51 P Bass Reissue
2012 American Standard Precision V
2013 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz Fretless


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Post subject: Re: 1964 Precision Pots
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:04 am
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brotherdave wrote:
Hope I'm not too late to help!


Nope...in fact your timing was PERFECT! Thanks for the guidance...last thing I wanted to do was to really harm this beautiful instrument by doing something stupid. I will be ordering the new pots soon...may even go with the pre-wired harness for simplicity's sake.

It'll be nice to hear this baby sing again...been too long.

--- Jim ---


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