Monday, January 12, 2009

Fun With Pot (well, really - Opening up a Potentiometer)

I recently received a new CTS/Fender 250kOhm potentiometer via online purchase through the mail. Unfortunately one of the ears was broken completely off and was nowhere in the package. This particular pot would have been of no use to me. (Customer service sent me a new one right away, with no fuss. It was a wonderful experience.)

P.S. Don't try this at home with a good potentiometer, it might not work when you put it back together - disclaimer and all that.

So, just for fun and to show everyone what's inside, I tore it open and took some pictures - I thought the parts were very interesting.

First, pull back the little ears on the pot body to allow the potentiometer to come apart:




Now pull off the top bezel and the ear contact plate:




Now with most of the inside assemblies pulled apart:




And now a look at the insides and the back of the pot (with manufacturer, and date code):





I really like CTS pots for guitar and bass work. There are other good ones, too, but CTS seems to be very reliable and even supplies some pretty great guitar manufacturers with OEM pots.

I hope you enjoyed this little voyage into tone and volume control. More to come...

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Please understand that anonymous posts cannot necessarily be answered directly to the sending user. I will post a return comment if I can.

<< Home