Gibson Historic potentiometer....

[vibratoking]

Got it... I mixed them up. Does anyone know if I got the RS Superpot or the 06 R6 in my '03 Historic?

I don't think you have either. You have whatever Gibson was using in 2003. The 06 R6 is the pot that was in the '06 56 Historic Reissue guitar. Judging by that, I am guessing that Gibson didn't have the correct pot in 2006 or before. As far as I know, the 09 R9 contained the first good pot in the Reissue series, but I haven't seen data on 07 or 08 pots.

Measure the pot and tell us.

[geetarpicker]

I have yet to fully test the new historic pots I put in my '03 LP last week. My historic by the way is also an '03 stinger series mine being a blacktop R7. The original pots in that guitar were awful, and I pulled them and replaced them with a set of old Centrlabs that I got for cheap. The stock pickups however are quite decent. Like I said I should have some time after the new year to fully test the new historic pots through my original Express.

[billyz]

Got it... I mixed them up. Does anyone know if I got the RS Superpot or the 06 R6 in my '03 Historic?

I don't think you have either. You have whatever Gibson was using in 2003. The 06 R6 is the pot that was in the '06 56 Historic Reissue guitar. Judging by that, I am guessing that Gibson didn't have the correct pot in 2006 or before. As far as I know, the 09 R9 contained the first good pot in the Reissue series, but I haven't seen data on 07 or 08 pots.

Measure the pot and tell us.

The Pots in my R9 2007 were 500k Linear Taper, Yuk! Also , Gibson did not use the vintage spec wiring schematic.

[rooster]

billyz, are you saying that the CE part number is R-V530-GIB? What I don't understand is how can you be sure that this isn't the Historic pot of two years ago? I mean, they aren't going to throw the old ones away, right?

It may well be that MF is the best source for these at this point. What do you think? Also, have you done the swap yet? Thanks. Oh, and redshark, too, thanks for this post although I have yet to try those original Centralab pots in that particular guitar.

And BTW, that c-clip on the top of the shaft is pretty much an assembly failsafe. If you remove it the pot will still function as intended because the nylon at the back of the shaft is still sitting on the botom of the pot case. Which means the tall shafted pots can be rebuilt using the short shafted trace, not a problem, just swap them out. I agree, some of the Heritage guitars are really good and a good value, I have one that I bought for super cheap a few years back. In fact one day when I was working at music store, this guy brought a 150 Heritage that was made with a very flamey, somewhat splated, maple top with body and neck made of Korina. Clear finish. He said it was one of a few that were made and he bought it new, and possibly ordered it from the factory, but can't remember. I had never seen this from Heritage and it was basically a total mind bender acoustically, weight-wise, and visually. Long story short, I talked him out of selling it - and still think about it, and wish I had it!! The only thing they do wrong is the bridge and pickups, IMO, but easily remedied.

(I edited this post because I had written that the top was Korina on the first go 'round. Wrong. Sorry. I also went looking on the web to see if I could find anything like this and I couldn't. Now I wish I had it even more!!!!!! Ha!)

[randalp3000]

billyz, are you saying that the CE part number is R-V530-GIB? What I don't understand is how can you be sure that this isn't the Historic pot of two years ago? I mean, they aren't going to throw the old ones away, right?

New guy here, that is the correct CE part # for the gibson part #PPAT059 which I believe is the new pot. I ordered one of each from CE after reading this thread because they make it hard to figure out which is which. I'm a longtime fan of the PRS vol pots but got a little tired of the $28 retail so I've been slumming with the Ernie Ball CTS 500k's and swimming in mud. I installed the new pot today and it definitely cleaned up some of the mud when rolling down my vol. They do come pretty stiff and after flushing it out with some deoxit it's still a bit sluggish.

hope this helps
rp

[billyz]

billyz, are you saying that the CE part number is R-V530-GIB? What I don't understand is how can you be sure that this isn't the Historic pot of two years ago? I mean, they aren't going to throw the old ones away, right?

New guy here, that is the correct CE part # for the gibson part #PPAT059 which I believe is the new pot. I ordered one of each from CE after reading this thread because they make it hard to figure out which is which. I'm a longtime fan of the PRS vol pots but got a little tired of the $28 retail so I've been slumming with the Ernie Ball CTS 500k's and swimming in mud. I installed the new pot today and it definitely cleaned up some of the mud when rolling down my vol. They do come pretty stiff and after flushing it out with some deoxit it's still a bit sluggish.

hope this helps
rp

I specifically asked CE to stock the PPAT-059 and they said it was their Part number R-V530-GIB.

[rooster]

Well, OK, I have my answer then. Thank you both.

[redshark]

We haven't heard yet geetarpicker's review of this...Did you finaly got to try them Glen?

[randalp3000]

Did some testing yesterday and here's the results if any ones interested. The PRS is still my favorite but their too expensive and delicate, however they feel a lot like the pot in this.
[IMG:800:600]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff3 ... theone.jpg[/img]

[vibratoking]

I added randalp3000's data and attached the full Excel file so that anyone can add data and a plot.

The Ernie Ball CTS has a very good taper - comparable to the Gibson Historic. The taper of the PRS pots falls in the middle of all the pots. To me the Gibson Historic has the best taper for the money. BTW, the Gibson Historic pots that I purchased from Musicians's Friend were not stiff at all. Not too stiff and not to loose, just the way I like them.

*UPDATED July 9, 2012

[randalp3000]

Here's the big question, why do some pots sound so muddy when you turn them down? The Ernie Ball CTS sounds like mud to me and the PRS and Gibson Historic sound much brighter and clearer. Is there something besides the taper going on here?

[pablogt]

Are you sure you are not comparing a pot with a treble-bleed cap installed and one without?

[billyz]

Here's the big question, why do some pots sound so muddy when you turn them down? The Ernie Ball CTS sounds like mud to me and the PRS and Gibson Historic sound much brighter and clearer. Is there something besides the taper going on here?

It could also be capacitance. Some are plastic some are a fiber board substrate.

[vibratoking]

I thought of capacitance too, but I really doubt that there could be that much stray capacitance. The tone caps are pretty darn big compared to the stray that might be there. The stray would have to be VERY large, so I seriously doubt that is it.

Are you sure you had the exact same wiring when you compared the pots? My guess is that there is some other explanation beside stray capacitance. The Gibson 50s wiring is different than the Modern wiring. Is it possibly related to that? The taper is correct on the EB CTS pot, but it is muddy even in the EXACT same wiring configuration? Hard to imagine a good reason if that is the case.

[Colossal]

... the PRS and Gibson Historic sound much brighter and clearer. Is there something besides the taper going on here?

I PM'd RP about this earlier, but the PRS pots feel and sound pretty fantastic. They are absolutely effortless to spin. I am considering a set of PRSs (despite their high cost) for a couple of other guitars, but RP reports that they [PRS] are quite fragile, which is a bummer to hear. The PRS taper seems to work very well with Trainwreck amps, IME.