Pot Spec/Information

[Johnny Alien]

This is really just a curiosity thing. The Axis Sport it supposed to have a 500k volume and tone pot (at least for the HH model but I think probably for all of them). I am used to CTS pot info but the pot in this EBMM guitar has codes that I am unfamiliar with. It's obviously original I am just curious if its actually 500k and what the code information is telling me on this. Does anyone know?

 

[beej]

They're CTS 450 series potentiometers. CTS makes that series in different resistance values.

I think CTS' product codes have changed over the years as I've never been able to track those ones down either. Fwiw, I have several 450-AB2505 pots lying around, though they end in different numbers. (Just took one out to measure and it was shy of 500k, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.)

If you have a multimeter handy, measure across the outside lugs to check for sure.

 

[Johnny Alien]

Interesting. I have never seen CTS codes like this but I do know some guitar manufacturers get their own codes on these things. I am going to guess one of the 5's in the center refers to 500k. I think the last 4 digits are date related. 99 would probably be around the correct year. But honestly its all guess work because the codes are not ones that I have seen before (hence the thread). Thanks, beej!!

 

[beej]

Good call on the date! That makes sense.

The codes for their industrial (450) and guitar (450G) series don't exactly match these pots, so it's hard to know what's what.

https://www.ctscorp.com/wp-content/uploads/Series-450G-Data-Sheet-Rev-B.pdf

Again, I bet they just updated their labeling scheme at some point. I'm going to guess that 505 is 500kΩ --> 5Ω x 10^5. (They usually do it in 10s of Ωs but this seems close enough.)