CTS pots, really dumb question

[Dave Vader]

Hi all, has anybody else found that while CTS pots sound absolutely lovely, the split shafts are too big to get a standard control knob on?
Now, am I being dumb (I've been rebuilding guitars and basses for years, and never had this problem with any other pots) and do you just have to give them a squeeze in the vice to get the knobs on? Or do you need to use P-bass type knobs with the allen-bolts in the side?
Really, i can't be the only person to have ever had this problem, as I said, really dumb question, but any help would be lovely.

 

[BillyIVbass]

What's dumb is that guitar companies make guitars with smaller pots!!! Frustrated guitar builder right here. It's hard to tell without seeing the knobs, but usually you can't go wrong with knobs that fit in with an allen wrench.

I'd say give the CTS a little bit of a squeeze and try the old knobs, but yes, these things come in different sizes. Sometimes, you even get the joy of enlarging the pickgaurd holes and sometimes even the cavity!

 

[Dave Vader]

Sometimes, you even get the joy of enlarging the pickgaurd holes and sometimes even the cavity!

I had that with a strat last year when I first discovered how good CTS sounds. I drilled out the knobs though, and they slide quite a bit, don't want to do that again.
What is annoying is that I ordered new knobs from the same site as the pots came from, and they didn't fir either, grrr.... will squeeze, and then get big old allen-wrench p-bass knobs instead.

 

[lowtide]

There are mini pots, metric pots, and American SAE pots.

The mini pots are the ones the manufacturer's supply, aka the cheapest ones. I'm sure you probably have a box full of those knobs.

The metric pots usually are split shafts and are 6mm, which can use the 6mm knobs, or you can get the 1/4" knobs with a brass sleeve.

And the American, aka CTS, CGE, Alpha, etcetera, are standard SAE solid and split shaft pots that take the knobs with the 1/4" hole and set screw.

 

[Jo6Pak]

Thats why I only use 1/4", solid shaft pots.

 

[Dave Vader]

Damn us British and our confusing double system, are we metric or are we imperial? We just don't know.
And I thought fender used CTS pots on all their guitars, yet fender knobs do not fit these things either. Damn fender as well.

 

[walterw]

Damn us British and our confusing double system, are we metric or are we imperial? We just don't know.
And I thought fender used CTS pots on all their guitars, yet fender knobs do not fit these things either. Damn fender as well.

all usa and mexican fenders do use cts pots. it may be that the knob you're trying to push on is made to fit metric pots, and even if the shaft is the same size, the spline ridges are different.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

all usa and mexican fenders do use cts pots. it may be that the knob you're trying to push on is made to fit metric pots, and even if the shaft is the same size, the spline ridges are different.

+1

There are course and fine knurled pots. You need the right knob to match the knurls.

 

[Dave Vader]

Thanks all, I will talk to the sellers of knobs online and check sizes before I buy them this time, I've gone off the squeezing idea.