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What kind of capacitor do I need for a Musicmaster (neck pickup only) with 500k pots? I have some Fender 500k solid shaft pots and they come with capacitors already. LINK Can I just use those? I'm not sure if it matters or how they affect the sound.

Also, a follow up question. What's the difference between the split shaft and solid shaft pots? Does it matter if I use one over the other?

Yeah that'd do fine.

Solid shaft:



Split shaft:

I understand it to be an issue of what knobs you're fitting: solid shafts to require knobs that have a grub screw that ensures a snug fit but with a split shaft pot the knob just pushes on. The size of split shafts still varies though; I tucked a bit of PTFE tape into the knob's 'shaft hole' to stop it being loose.

Concretebadger wrote:I tucked a bit of PTFE tape into the knob's 'shaft hole' to stop it being loose.

You can just bend the gap to be wider with a screw diver to make the knob tighter (ooer).

mkt3000 wrote:Solid shaft:



Split shaft:

Concretebadger wrote:I understand it to be an issue of what knobs you're fitting: solid shafts to require knobs that have a grub screw that ensures a snug fit but with a split shaft pot the knob just pushes on. The size of split shafts still varies though; I tucked a bit of PTFE tape into the knob's 'shaft hole' to stop it being loose.

Okay, thanks! For some reason, I thought the pots might be different electronically, but I guess not. The knobs I have are the kind with the little screw, so I should be good to go. I'm still curious about the different kind of capacitors. What exactly do they do and why are there different kinds? Do they affect the sound at all?

yes, they affect sound. search around for a fender schematic. fender has a tone of them online.

also... http://www.diyguitarmods.com/guitar-capacitors.php