Test guitar pot w/o disassembling

[alex1fly]

Can you do this? I have a sneaking suspicion the pots in my P Bass are 500k - it'd be great to test this out without taking off strings/pickguard etc. Any way to do this? Or do you have to take it out, unsolder wires, and re-assemble?

 

[Mincer]

Usually it is printed on the pot, so you'd have to take the strings and pickguard off, but no un-wiring.

 

[Artie]

Do you know the DCR of the pickup? If so, you can measure at the output jack, and then do some simple math.

 

[alex1fly]

Do you know the DCR of the pickup? If so, you can measure at the output jack, and then do some simple math.

Well Fender says its 10.5k. 1962 Original Precision Bass pickup. Found a pretty informative thread here: https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/measure-pots-resistance-without-taking-them-out.338647/

 

[Artie]

That's pretty interesting. Different than how I'd do it, but his way sounds like it might work better and be more accurate. Thanks for that link.