What We Do


We are different. We are musicians who know what matters, man.

Differences In Our Kits - Classic / Premium 

  • Classic Series: Modern style tone using Orange Drop caps. Full dynamic range giving a bright distinct sound. Nice improvement over stock components found in today's guitars.
  • Premium Series: Step up to our best kits using higher end PIO caps. The best for clean warm & jazz tones plus when driven gives that bluesy grit sound when needed. Improved sustain. Excellent for all genres of guitar sound.

Plus a few Specialty Kits:

  • Special Eric Johnson Series: EJ Strat tones using a .1uf PIO cap. Wired for T1 neck T2 bridge tone control.
  • Special Strat 64s Blues series: Using specific .1uf tone cap, filter circuit for volume control tone controlling, wired for T1 neck-Middle T2 bridge tone control. Warm clean SRV busy tones.
  • Special Tele 60s Blues Series: Using specific value tone cap with filter circuit for volume tone controlling. Great for all genres of playing.
  • A few kits have option to choose cap values

We do offer some custom built kits to your guitar specs or needs. To find out if we can custom build a kit for your guitar Email us details to www.tonemanguitar1@gmail.com

Long or Short shaft pots - What do I need? :

Always best to pull one pot out and measure bushing length. Threaded part of shaft only. Long shaft = 3/4 inch Short shaft = 3/8 inch.

  • Long shaft: Gibson USA manufactured from 1977 to present (exceptions a few LP historic RI that use short shaft). Some LP Specials use long shaft.
  • Short shaft: Gibson LP manufactured prior to 1977. All LP Jr, all hollow bodies and most off shore made guitars. Les Paul Specials and all Epiphones

If not sure measure your guitar bushing threaded length.

Why 50's Wiring:

It simple improves your overall tone and sound. This is the way Gibson & Fender wired up their electric guitars in the 1950's and some in early 60's. Notes open up after you play them. It’s stronger, tighter and adds clarity. By rolling back your guitar volume some you can clean up an over driven amp. Helps reduce treble loss when turning down volume.

Both volume and tone controls are very responsive and smoother. It's simply Ole School Technology and the best way to wire your guitar.

Our premium components:

  • Bourns ProAudio Pots: We have found them to be the very best pots for longevity, taper and over all tone performance.
  • Tone caps: We use Orange Drop or Paper-In-Oil aged caps. For best tone and performance.
  • Wire: Gavitt cloth vintage push back wire just like Leo used in the early years. No plastic wiring.
  • Switches: Centralab or Switchcraft 3 way toggle switches. Brand depends on availability. Both are excellent. Oak Grigsby for blade style 3 or 5 way style.
  • Jacks: Switchcraft for solid connections and long lasting.

Potentiometer bushing pot hole size & knob fitting:

  • We use full size Bourns pots that require a 3/8 inch pot hole size. If your guitar came with metric style pots you will need to ream out pot holes to 3/8 inch. Easy to do.
  • Bourns pots require coarse spllne 18 teeth style knobs. We sell knobs that fit our kits.

Capacitor values:

There are various tone cap values used in guitars. Either Orange Drop and Paper In Oil (PIO). Each has its own specific tone characteristic. Measured in uf's

  • .022 uf is a common value. Gives a modern style brighter tone. Good for single coil or humbuckers
  • .033uf is becoming more popular. Gives a warmer vintage tone. Good choice for PIO caps.
  • .047uf is used with many single coil pickups. Commonly used in Stratocaster and Telecaster. Available in Orange drop and PIO.
  • .1uf is a cap value Fender used in the early years. Very warm vintage tone. Mainly PIO type caps.
  • .015uf is mainly used with guitars with 2 humbucker or P90s for the neck pickup tone cap Neck pickups tend to be dull due to location. .015uf brightens up the. neck pickup tone.
  • Note our PIO tone caps are the real deal. Truly aged tone caps (NOS). Not reproduced copies or fake like some. 

Bumblebee caps:

We do not offer these in any of our products. The ones you see in today's market are not true BB caps. Most are attempted reproductions. Nothing more than an inexpensive mylar type cap wrapped in a bumblebee wrapper and way overpriced. There is plenty of documentation proof on line about this. My advice is don’t waste your hard earned money. Invest is a real aged NOS PIO Paper In Oil cap.

Switches and Jack hole requirement:  

  • Jack require 3/8 inch hole
  • Toggle switch requires 1/2 hole
  • Blade switch has 1-5/8 inch distance between mounting screw holes.

Left Handed Guitar Wiring: 

We do not offer left handed wiring kits. Wiring regular pots backwards will result in a very unusable taper and degrades the tone of your guitar. Although other companies will do this anyway I strongly advise against it. My recommendation is to find a company that truly builds left handed pre-wired kits using Left Handed Tapered Pots.