A Question for Matthew about the lefty pots in the electrics

[Mikeymac]

I know you're a busy guy, but if you see this have have 10 seconds to respond, that would be great.

When we talked a couple years ago (when the RS-4 first went into production) you said you were rebuilding pots for the left-handed guitars so that they would be high quality pots AND work "correctly". Are you still doing that, or is CTS now making some lefty pots for you?

Just curious, as it would be nice to be able to buy some from them if they're in production...

Thank you, sir...now you can get back to work on those new "Tele's" (or as they used to be called, "Telly's"). 

[Matthew Larrivee]

The RS-4 uses CTS long shaft pots because of the thickness of the maple carve top - There are just not enough lefty users of long shaft pots to justify most companies ordering a batch of 10000 (the minimum). Allparts could afford to do it, but for some reason they haven't. However there are left handed SHORT shaft pots out there as the short shaft is a common modern pot and allparts could justify the minimum order.

The ONLY thing that makes a lefty pot different from a righty is the carbon wiper seen here:



In addition the wiper on the short shaft is the same as the long shaft ... Sooo following that logic, I remove the lefty wiper from a short shaft lefty pot and install it on a righty long shaft pot. The process takes me about 5 minutes a pot so its not too bad - but it has to be done carefully in order to maintain the integrity of the potentiometer.

On the future tele, I am trying to get Seymour Duncan to offer a lefty liberator system for ease of wiring - however if they can't I will use short shaft lefty pots and manually wire it. There is no difference in tone. It's just easier for me :>

[Mikeymac]

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Matthew - I appreciate your thoroughness, too. 

I'm used to playing left-handed guitars wired "right handed," since lefty pots are so rare. I've built all my Warmoth's with right-handed pots and wiring, so if the Larrivee lefty Tele had right-handed pots/action, it wouldn't phase me! 

But I understand why some people want them to work lefty - some techniques like volume roll-on/off just work easier that way.

[unclrob]

I have rebuilt old pots on vintage guitars so that they work again but Matthew your crazy addicted.I don't know many companies that or for that matter even a boss of a company that would go to this far to take care of doing it right.So a BIG THANK YOU for going above and beyond.