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Post subject: MIM P bass potentiometers questions
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:03 pm
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So I am trying to completely deck out my MIM P-bass, and wondering if I should bother changing my pots, they aren't scratchy mind you. What type of pots should I use if changing them? I know solid shaft but 100k, 250k, mini pan, etc. I'm looking at Fender unless somebody has anything that is really that much better. my pickups are seymour duncan 1/4 lb's if that changes anything.


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Post subject: Re: MIM P bass potentiometers questions
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:47 pm
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fritzpso wrote:
So I am trying to completely deck out my MIM P-bass, and wondering if I should bother changing my pots, they aren't scratchy mind you. What type of pots should I use if changing them? I know solid shaft but 100k, 250k, mini pan, etc. I'm looking at Fender unless somebody has anything that is really that much better. my pickups are seymour duncan 1/4 lb's if that changes anything.


Fender brand pots are fine. They are made by CTS.

A pan pot is not appropriate for your bass.

Although the Duncan was designed to work with 250K audio pots, you might want to change at least the volume pot to a 500K audio. See, with a 500K, the Duncan's frequency response will be expanded where the highs and lows will increase at the expense of the midrange but in terms of the final tonality, the pickup will sound crisper and cleaner whereas with the 250K, you might find it a bit compressed and 'humpy' in the midrange. Either way, a pot change is easy enough if you want to compare.

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Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:14 am
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I've been using P-basses in one form or another since 1963. I have yet to have a potentiometer go bad... but I do preventive maintenance on those rotary controls about once each year. I inject a small amount of CRC Contact Cleaner in each control and work it through it's range about 10 times. I then inject a small amount of LPS-1 Greaseless Lubricant and Moisture Displacer into each control and work it 10 more times. This gets rid of any build up of crud from gigging and shines up the wiper contacts and the carbon or wirewound element inside the controls for good, static free operation.

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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:00 pm
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If you like your tone and they are working properly, just stick to what you have. AFAIK the pots in the MIM instruments are the same pots used in USA instruments. They are made for Fender by CTS as previously stated. The product code stamped on generic CTS pots is different from the code stamped on the pots manufactured by CTS for Fender which get the Fender product code and part number. There is no mechanical or electronic difference other than the code number. If you should have a pot "go bad" you can save a few bucks by replacing with a CTS generic pot, but often cleaning will clear up any static issues and the preventative maintenance previously mentioned will avoid it completely. There is a tonal difference between the 250K and 500K pots, so I could see changing them for that.

I think a better tone capacitor might make more of a difference than new pots and would be less expensive.


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