Crunchyriff
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2001
- Messages
- 2,530
The x-tra up-charge for the "Premium" RS kit can be justified for two reasons- first, and this is the biggest reason, you get hand-selected CTS pots that all measure 520k. All 500k CTS pots are not equal, and have varying values.
Due to certain tolerance criteria that the factory determines, they will all fall within a certain 'Range' of measurement, I don't know what the minimum is, but say anywhere from 460-520 (maybe more), so you have lots of wiggle room. And this "wiggle room" means differences in tone. Just-off-the-shelf CTS pots are a crap-shoot; and as such, yes, even from RS you can get a more inexpensive kit, but they won't be matched pots; therefore, you probably won't get optimum results.
Case in point: the huge difference in vintage PAFs, and the lack of consistency with those.
IMO, The RS 'premium' kit is an effort to minimize the "guess factor" in achieving the desired results you want, and establishing some form of consistency (pickups themselves notwithstanding..). And when you are talking about @$20 extra, at this level of price point for the instrument itself, $20 is chicken feed, really. Whoopee- two sets of strings...
Though I have no personal experience with the Hovland caps, I have heard nothing but raves.
I will be placing my "RS Premium Kit for Historics" after I get off this thread. My '01 R8 ( my avatar) is getting a set of Rolph's installed, and I am going to do it right.
Due to certain tolerance criteria that the factory determines, they will all fall within a certain 'Range' of measurement, I don't know what the minimum is, but say anywhere from 460-520 (maybe more), so you have lots of wiggle room. And this "wiggle room" means differences in tone. Just-off-the-shelf CTS pots are a crap-shoot; and as such, yes, even from RS you can get a more inexpensive kit, but they won't be matched pots; therefore, you probably won't get optimum results.
Case in point: the huge difference in vintage PAFs, and the lack of consistency with those.
IMO, The RS 'premium' kit is an effort to minimize the "guess factor" in achieving the desired results you want, and establishing some form of consistency (pickups themselves notwithstanding..). And when you are talking about @$20 extra, at this level of price point for the instrument itself, $20 is chicken feed, really. Whoopee- two sets of strings...
Though I have no personal experience with the Hovland caps, I have heard nothing but raves.
I will be placing my "RS Premium Kit for Historics" after I get off this thread. My '01 R8 ( my avatar) is getting a set of Rolph's installed, and I am going to do it right.
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