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Should I change

I hate to ask but how is the ground connection? and if you change the pots I would definitely keep the old ones and possibly check eBay for original pots.

Why replace old crusty pots with other old crusty pots???

I've said it on here before, you can dismantle a pot and clean the carbon tracks with a pencil eraser without desoldering anything if you are careful and want to maintain the value of vintage gear. I did it to my old HH amplifier and it works perfectly a good year later.

If you see the picture here;

pots_fender.jpg


You undo the tags (carefully) that hold the metal back onto the plastic front of the pot.
 
If you buy new (or new old) pots ...

KEEP THE ORIGIANL POTS!!!
Put them into a small plastic bag you can seal and put a note in what these pots are.

The pots say something about when your bass was built and if you (or your successors) ever want to sell the bass (or want to know more about it), the pots can be very usefull to even tell more than just 1976!

If I built in new pots, I would buy CTS pots - no matter if they are $1 more than other pots. A Fender CBS has to have CTS pots ...