TAD SC-Style Long Shaft Wiring Kit

Bought the kit to install into my Gibson Les Paul Classic, as the previous owner had installed a solderless EMG active set (25K pots) and I wanted to revert to passive again.

Pots are decent CTS quality and have a nice solid feel without being too tight. The single core braided wire has a plastic insulation layer as opposed to the more traditional waxed cloth insulation. You must be very careful not to overheat the outer braided wire, because it will melt the inner core and create shortages. This can be quite tricky as the braided part often needs to be soldered to the solid part of the pots, requiring quite some heat close to the melting point of the inner core. I failed on one of the leads, but fortunately there was sufficient braided wire supplied to solder a new one.

As these are pots with long shafts, you will usually need to adapt the spacing from the inside of the cavity in order to make the pot meter protrude the right amount on the outside. This requires a washer on both the inside and outside of the guitar. However, only a single washer was supplied per pot, so I had to order some additional washers separately. As this stalled the installation and increased the cost and effort to find the correct washers (you will need the 3/8” version), it was a huge disappointment.

Conclusion
Pros: Pots are high quality, sufficient wire supplied
Cons: Braided wire core is plastic and prone to overheating, it should contain 4 additional washers.