[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":140},["ShallowReactive",2],{"guide:\u002Fguides\u002Fpot-codes":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":127,"draft":128,"extension":129,"heading":130,"kicker":131,"lede":132,"meta":133,"navigation":134,"path":135,"seo":136,"stem":137,"updated":138,"__hash__":139},"guides\u002Fguides\u002Fpot-codes.md","How to Read Guitar Pot Codes: CTS, Centralab, Stackpole",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":120},"minimark",[9,13,16,21,41,55,58,62,65,87,90,94,99,108],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Turn a volume or tone pot over and there's a number impressed into the casing, six or seven digits long. It's a source-date code from the American electronics industry's own numbering convention, the EIA code, and it does two jobs at once: the front of it says who made the part, the back of it says when.",[10,14,15],{},"That date belongs to the part. An instrument gets assembled around its parts, sometimes a year or more after they were stamped, and the size of that gap is what decides how much the code is good for.",[17,18,20],"h2",{"id":19},"reading-the-digits","Reading the digits",[10,22,23,27,28,32,33,36,37,40],{},[24,25,26],"strong",{},"The first three digits are the maker."," ",[29,30,31],"code",{},"137"," is CTS, ",[29,34,35],{},"134"," is Centralab, ",[29,38,39],{},"304"," is Stackpole, three of the American suppliers whose parts turn up inside vintage American guitars.",[10,42,43,46,47,50,51,54],{},[24,44,45],{},"The digits after that are the date, year first, then the week of that year."," On a seven-digit code the year is two digits: ",[29,48,49],{},"1377305"," is a CTS pot from the fifth week of ",[29,52,53],{},"1973",". On a six-digit code the year is a single digit, which is the older convention and can't name a decade on its own. It gives the last digit of a year and nothing more, so the decade has to come from somewhere else on the instrument.",[10,56,57],{},"Some numbers on a pot aren't source-date codes at all. A number that fits neither shape is one of those, and forcing it into the convention produces a confident wrong answer rather than no answer.",[17,59,61],{"id":60},"how-much-of-a-date-it-settles","How much of a date it settles",[10,63,64],{},"A pot code gives you a floor. An instrument can't have been assembled before the parts inside it were made, so a code from the twentieth week of a year rules out everything before that week. It rules out nothing after it, for three separate reasons:",[66,67,68,75,81],"ul",{},[69,70,71,74],"li",{},[24,72,73],{},"Bulk buying."," Factories bought pots in quantity and fitted them over a long period, so a pot can sit in a drawer for a year or more before it goes into a guitar.",[69,76,77,80],{},[24,78,79],{},"Replacement."," Electronics get repaired, upgraded and swapped, and on an instrument several decades old there's no guarantee that the pot in it now is the pot that left the factory in it.",[69,82,83,86],{},[24,84,85],{},"No code at all."," The convention is an American one. Imported parts commonly carry a maker's name and no source code, so on an imported instrument there's often nothing here to read.",[10,88,89],{},"The rule that follows from all three: a pot code is corroboration, never a verdict. Read alongside the serial, the hardware and the finish it tightens a range. Read on its own it's one component's birthday.",[17,91,93],{"id":92},"when-this-is-the-check-that-matters","When this is the check that matters",[95,96],"gs-guide-decoder",{"placeholder":97,"scope-note":98},"e.g. MN512345","Six brands · auto-detect",[10,100,101,102,107],{},"Start with the serial. Where a number can be read, the pots are a cross-check rather than the evidence. It's when the serial comes back declined that this becomes the main line of inquiry: a ",[103,104,106],"a",{"href":105},"\u002Fguides\u002Fgibson-1961-1975","Gibson from the six-digit years",", a Fender from before the serial moved to the headstock, or a Fender amplifier, where the tube chart is the primary date and the pots are the second opinion. Our own answer names the pot codes in all three.",[109,110,113],"gs-callout",{"title":111,"tone":112},"Where this reading comes from","method",[10,114,115,116,119],{},"No serial-number chart we carry covers pot codes. This page carries its own sources instead: Vintage Guitar and Bass and Still Kickin Music both give the same code structure, the same maker numbers and the same year-and-week order, and both were fetched and re-read in August ",[29,117,118],{},"2026",". The limits come from them too: the bulk buying and the replacement from Still Kickin Music, and the imported parts carrying a maker's name and no code from Vintage Guitar and Bass alone. What our own tables contribute is where the check belongs, because they name the pot codes among the things to read when a serial number can't be dated.",{"title":121,"searchDepth":122,"depth":122,"links":123},"",2,[124,125,126],{"id":19,"depth":122,"text":20},{"id":60,"depth":122,"text":61},{"id":92,"depth":122,"text":93},"The code stamped on a guitar pot names the maker and the week the part was made. How to read the digits, and how far that date carries to the instrument itself.",false,"md","How to read a pot code","Electronics","The code stamped on the back of a pot names the company that made the part and the week it left them. That date belongs to the part. Where a serial number carries no year, it's still often the best evidence on the guitar.",{},true,"\u002Fguides\u002Fpot-codes",{"title":5,"description":127},"guides\u002Fpot-codes","2026-08-15","tI_ys9HCt7DOt3RlUMGSvfr0WkK5gw03sm5XcWHnoKI",1788533579137]