Pot values

[dubtrub]

Here's one that needs to be answered for our reference archives and hopefully with photo's. What are the brand name and ohm values of the potentiometers on the 60's Ventures Mosrites? I know what the current drawings show for values on Michael Marks website, but I'm pretty sure that is for the later Mark 1's with the hotter pickups. On my current and previous Mosrites the pots were all replacements, so I don't know for sure. I've been told they Dimarzio. I believe that is what was in my other '66 although they were not original to the guitar, the seller said they were installed by Semie in the mid 80's.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Here's one that needs to be answered for our reference archives and hopefully with photo's. What are the brand name and ohm values of the potentiometers on the 60's Ventures Mosrites? I know what the current drawings show for values on Michael Marks website, but I'm pretty sure that is for the later Mark 1's with the hotter pickups. On my current and previous Mosrites the pots were all replacements, so I don't know for sure. I've been told they Dimarzio. I believe that is what was in my other '66 although they were not original to the guitar, the seller said they were installed by Semie in the mid 80's.

CTS?? I'm not sure if Semie used these from Day One, but I do know it WAS NOT DiMarzio.
DiMarzio is known for their Guitar Replacement Pick-ups (Like Seymour Duncan) as well as having
after market accessories such as potentiometers, strap buttons, straps, switches,etc. Semie DID
start using DiMarzio Pots in the mid 80s or at least by the late 80s in which that is what is in
my Special Ordered '88.

[Mr. Bill]

I've been photo researching this question for a while now and here's what I have found.

All photos of original Mosrite pots from the 60's, show pots that were manufactured by Centralab with an EIA code of 134. This seems to include all single coil models i.e. Ventures, Combos, etc.

Of the 2-3 original pots that I have measured, they all seem to be 500K audio tapers.

The capacitor manufacturers seem to vary, some are Spragues some are Centralabs, some are unmarked. All have a value of 0.05 uF, with varying voltage ratings.

If you want to replace your pots with ones that come closest to the originals, then look for pots made for Gibson guitars. It seems that all Gibson guitars of that same era also used Centralab pots. Be careful of old parts though, as Gibson did use 300K pots in some applications.

Currently WD has a special on pots that appear to be made by Centralab, (WD500GIB) for $6.00. These would work well as replacements for the original Mosrite pots, as they fit both electronically and visually.

[Mr. Bill]

Viewing the photos of the pots from the Celebrity on eBay this week, I noticed that the wiring scheme is different than that of the Ventures models.

The Ventures models all have the tone and volume controls paralled with each other creating a 250K ohm pickup load. The Celebrity does not have the tone control paralleled with the volume control, instead it has the tone control wired like a Gibson or Fender where the tone pot is isolated from the volume control by the tone cap.

I know that there was a discussion of the differences of the tone with different pot values, but does anyone here have both a Ventures model and a Celebrity to compare the effect of the different wiring schemes?

I also noted that the triple pickup models do not have a paralleled volume and tone pot scheme. How does the sound of these models compare with original Ventures models?

[MWaldorf]

Bill,
The triple pickup models have no tone control, only a volume knob. Mine is a 500K DiMarzio, but that's because it's what I had around.
I'll have to check on the circuit in my '66 Ventures model.
Mel

[dubtrub]

I opened up my '64 this weekend to clean the pots I wrote down the pot codes and researched them on the internet. The pots are dated, volume 63 and tone 64. What I found interesting upon searching the internet was the codes indicated these pots were 250K.

I have a habit of saving reference photo's from the internet and found a good shot of the pots of a '66 Ventures model on eBay. I have never seen any other Ventures model from the '60s wired like this but it seems original to the guitar. Neither of my '66s were wire like this. They had the same wiring as in the diagram depicted in another one of my posts. Also this is the same wiring used on my '72 Mosrite bass.

Click on image for a larger view.

[Mr. Bill]

Yes! This is the wiring that the Celebrity showed. The two pots are not paralleled like most of the 60's photos (and the earlier posted diagram shows) that I've seen.

Have you measured the resistance of the pots?

Maybe when they had 250K pots they wired this version, and when they had 500K pots they wired the parallel version? I guess we all need to do some more investigating.

[dubtrub]

Have you measured the resistance of the pots?

My '64 measured around 250K. Haven't measured the bass and I replace the missmatched 'BS' pots in the '66 I now own with some NOS 500K CTS.

[MWaldorf]

Hmmm. I thought I'd posted these already, but here are pictures from my '66 Ventures model. I couldn't see any stamping on the pots as they're pretty dirty. Also interesting to note the black tape on the bottom edge of the neck pickup; it looks like the '64 has it too.

[Mr. Bill]

Have you measured the pot values for this guitar?