We recommend 500K pots with most of our pickups. The few exceptions being the Starwood Strat and the Starwood Tele, which sound best with 250K pots. 1 Meg pots give a brighter sound and can be useful in certain situations.

Split shaft is the option you want for press fit knobs (like Gibson and Strat-style guitars). Additionally, Gretsch Electromatics, Streamliners and most other metric made guitars will require our CTS split shaft pot. Solid shaft pots will work for vintage or Fender-era Gretsch guitars and knobs with set screws (Ex: Tele-style knobs).

Metric pots generally come mounted into smaller mounting holes (5/16"). These will need to be enlarged to 3/8" with a reamer or Dremel sanding bit to fit our American CTS pots. Additionally, metric solid shafts measure at 6mm and American CTS solid shafts are .25" - take this into account when buying new pots as you may need new knobs. Lastly, most metric split shaft pots come with 18 knurled splines - American CTS pots come with 24 knurled splines.

3/8" (9.52mm)

Pro-level Gretsch guitars from the current era require solid shaft pots. Electromatic and Streamliner guitars from the current era will require split shaft pots (even if your guitar has metric solid shaft pots).

This era of Gretsch guitars require split-shaft pots. The stock pots from this era are solid shaft, but they are a smaller (metric) measurement than the American CTS pots we use, therefore requiring the split shaft.

Pre-1989 or "vintage" Gretsch guitars require solid shaft pots.