1981 LS-50 Potentiometer PCB? Knobs high off body

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crestwoodmusicshop

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I have a customer that purchased a 1981 LS-50 tokai love rock on reverb. The guitar came and the pots are really high off the body- like someone used long shaft potentiometers. The pots also have this space above the threading and below the knurled shaft that my CTS pots dont have- IE the threading goes pretty much right up next to the knurled shaft. the knobs have stress fractures inside them that I've pictured- and theyre really hard to take off (like they were made for pots with smaller shaft diameters- ie: metrics)

I opened it up and to my surprised (i wasnt expecting this at least) It has a Potentiometer PCB like modern gibsons have the pots are CTS brand, but are these the original pots and caps from a 1981 LS-50?

And if I were to fix this would I need short shaft CTS pots or the long usa les paul kind? and would the stock knobs fit them?

Thanks!

pictures are linked to imgur below

https://imgur.com/a/7LEG1zx
 
Caps are original but pots are not. Original metric pots were short shaft.
CTS makes metric pots now, or you can go with standard CTS pots. Knobs will need to fit whatever you choose obviously.
 
wulfman said:
Caps are original but pots are not. Original metric pots were short shaft.
CTS makes metric pots now, or you can go with standard CTS pots. Knobs will need to fit whatever you choose obviously.

is the circuit board original?
 
Yeah the board looks original.

Even my '81 LS120 has that board in it... higher models didn't.
 
okay- so they didnt come with CTS potentiometers? I'm not 100% yet that theyre long shafted CTS pots as I havent taken it all out yet. just want to confirm they came with other branded pots?

thanks a bunch for the info!
 
original pots for your 1981 LS should be stamped NOBLE 15A500K & a four digit date code, all stamped on the side of the can.

These are pretty much the same pots used in the early Bacchus stuff 8) from the mid/late 1990s

Not sure why anyone would want to replace some **** good NOBLE pots with CTS but you have aftermarket pots & the original PCB.
 
Original Nobel pots are as good as CTS if not better, they have a great taper and sweep, in fact, it is said Malmsteen used those (250K) because they were very easy to turn. Just for the record S. Duncan released a pot whit a similar behavior
 
I believe the A in 15A represents 'audio taper' which I prefer over 'linear taper' pots

If the pot was stamped with something like 15B, I believe the B would represent the 'linear taper' type pot

I agree as far as the NOBLE pots; I never had a single issue with any of them & that is from dozens of guitars :D
 
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