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There are many suppliers of components and hardware that can be used when working on your instruments. One of my favorites is a company called Keystone Electronics Corp. Their address is 31-07 20th Road, Astoria, New York 11105-2017 (718-956-8900). You can ask for their catalog or have your local electronics store order a one for…

This helps keep the high-end or brightness in a pickup when you roll off the volume control. It helps the pickup retain clarity as you turn the volume down usually below the 8 on a volume control that’s 1 to 10. This also helps when using a 250K or 500K audio taper potentiometer. It is…

The different colored hookup wire used on Fender pickups usually designates whether the pickup is used for a specific position to help the assembler put the wires to the proper contacts on the switch. If you had a bunch of wires with the same colors coming through the cavity, it would be confusing what wire…

The CD on the waxed capacitors in older Fender instruments stands for Cornell Dublier, the company that made them.

Most volume and tone controls used in electric guitars are carbon type potentiometers and are used to select a desired proportion of the total voltage across the potentiometer. The potentiometer is an electrical mechanical device having two contacts connected at each end of a resistive element. The third terminal is connected to a wiper contact…

I’ve often seen a waxed capacitor used on older Fender lap steels, electric guitars and basses made from a company called Cornell Dublier. They made many types of electrical components and Leo Fender used the CD capacitors on many of his instruments till they were no longer available. Leo commonly used a .05 mfd and…

Most of the older potentiometers I have seen have a tolerance of about 20% plus or minus as compared with some of the modern potentiometers that can be 5% plus or minus.

The majority of Fender guitars use 250K audio taper potentiometers and certain Telecaster models with humbuckers have used 1 Meg. pots. Gibson has used 500 K audio taper along with the current 300K audio taper. From all the companies I have seen building after market guitars, the 250K audio taper has been the most used…

I basically measure the resistance between the #1 and #3 lug on the potentiometer. I unsolder the #1 lug from case of the potentiometer to eliminate any unwanted resistance from the case or other components that could interfere with the value of the carbon wafer that I am measuring. Make sure to keep your fingers…

Normally the bottom right or number one lug on the potentiometer is grounded to the case of the pot. The center is the # 2 lug and the bottom left lug is # 3. Connecting a .001mfd., 25 volt capacitor between the #2 & #3 lug will allow a smoother taper when the volume is…