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Post subject: Pots drill bit help
Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:16 pm
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Hello folks much needed help i have a non fender body that im trying to fenderize it was my first bass ever bought by my mother so its been through war its seen many necks and pickups but i would like to make it special with fender parts although i was short on cash i got a 1989 squier neck quarter pound pick ups now just need fender style pots and i like the vintage cloth wiring. but the previous pots were mini and too small for the fender pots. so my question is what size drill bit do you think would suit the size of the fender pots? i do not have a drill press so i will use a hand drill. i also am moving the input jack from the side of the body to the front would that be the same size bit? alo would you recommend 250k or 500k pots? thanks folks!


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Post subject: Re: Pots drill bit help
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:11 am
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Location: Albemarle, NC
Diameter for Switchcraft jack and CTS pot shaft holes is three-eighths of an inch SAE/Imperial.

Since you posted in the PRECISION forum assuming you have a split coil single volume/tone passive P-Bass. That would probably work best with 250k Pots. I just use audio taper for both pots like Fender does.

Probably a tone cap around 0.05uF will work fine. I'd throw away the original unless it is something special but usually they are poly ones that sound vanilla. I use VINTAGE caps. Ceramic Disc for edge or Vitamin-Q Paper In Oil for clean. Which to use depends on the tone you want.

If your instrument has PUSH ON KNOBS you'll need the split shaft pots. For screw on knobs you'll need the solid shaft version. I rarely see solid shaft mini-pots but have ran across some. Very rare though. I would just buy the right kind of pot to go with the existing knobs if you can get it.


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Post subject: Re: Pots drill bit help
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:17 am
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Thanks Dave! id figure youd be the go to guy. I ended up getting a fender pbass wiring harness when i put the old pickups in came with a .047 cap and 2 500k pots. wasnt sure if my 500 or 250 would make a difference with the duncan quarter pounders thanks for the input


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Post subject: Re: Pots drill bit help
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:45 am
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Location: Albemarle, NC
The 250K pots will tame some of the inherent brightness of a quarter-pounder pickup. If you want it extra bright go ahead and use the 500K's.

500K pots are generally advised in P/J setups or with humbuckers to brighten them up.

250K pots are generally advised in split-single-coil P-Basses and single coil Jazzes however 500K pots will add brightness.

There's no law against using 500K pots with split single coil P-Basses! There is just a convention that everyone seems to follow.

If the tone is extremely bright you can also use a higher value cap to tame the treble and just leave the 500K pots in. Maybe something up to a 0.10uF cap. If there's nothing wrong with the existing 500K pots, that might be an economical alternative and would also give you a wider tonal range in the tone control as a bonus. The only catch here is that the brighter the inherent tone of the instrument, the more any apparent unique harmonic or distortion qualities of the tone capacitor becomes. In plain speak that means you hear more edge from a Ceramic Disc capacitor with 500K pots than on a P-Bass than 250K pots. Some people might actually like that!

Fooling with pot values, cap types and cap values are cheap ways to find a signature tone. I would normally stick to audio taper pots in passive applications as the general rule because Fender did, however there is nothing wrong with trying a linear taper pot in the tone control location in any setup. In a case where you are using out of spec 500K pots and an out of spec 0.10 cap in a P-Bass or J-Bass this is a situation where I'd think to try a linear taper pot in the tone control location to see how I liked it. Not saying I would settle on it permanently, but I would at least think of trying one to see if it made much difference.


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Post subject: Re: Pots drill bit help
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:12 am
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That makes sense to me thanks for spelling that out for me, with that said ill probably go with the 250k pots i would like a roger waters type tone so i believe the duncans will help me achieve that considering thats what are in his signature model. i appreciate the help


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