Total Beginner Electronic stuff

In my naive uni days, I spied an odd bargain, a Gibson Strat copy at a pawn broker (Cash Converters) for less than $100AUS. One tone, one volume, two individual switches to turn each single coil neck or bridge pickup on. It wasn't until after I got it home I realised it was exactly the same... font as the Gibson headstock, but it was actually branded Givson. Anyhow, it was a piece of rubbish thing. Why am I telling you this?

I'm building the Webb-caster, a radiata pine laminated three piece (as in three 15mm think planks, one on top of the other) dual chrome humbucker Tele type guitar, using the neck of the Givson (it's got a zero fret, I think that's cool, but the scale is a little longer than a standard Tele) But I know bugger all about electronics, soldering (see how it's spelt with an L in it, because you actually pronounce it with an L in it), very little about woodworking, and can play ok.

I deconstructed the Givson to see what was in it, and to aid with the learning process, and with the cheapish Multimeter I bought from Dick Smith (read Radio Shack for USA reader) I got the following resistance measurements.
Both pots were marked 100k, with the volume measuring 94k and the tone 84k. Neck pickup (single coil) read 7450ohm and bridge 6200ohm.

I've bought new parts for the Webb-caster, so apart from practice soldering, do any of these old parts sound like they are worth using for another guitar?

Since it's total total beginner electronic stuff, I'll venture an answer. Toss all those Givson pots ............ save the pickups. Potentiometers are relatively cheap. Most Telecasters use 250K pots.

Hi Brendo,

It really depends on the tone. I have read many threads where people can disagree quite strongly over tonal issues. So it largely depends on what you like. It is highly likely that the cheap components in the guitar wont sound very good whatever you put them in, especially the pickups. But if you get some good pickups you like and try them out with the pots you may find the pots are ok.

Although jwells393 does make a very good point.

I think I'll keep the pickups, but I'll put them in a build for my son (he's 8 1/2, can't play yet). Pots will be tossed. Does it matter which way you have the pickups i.e the higher resistance at the neck end or the bridge end? Or are these close enough to be similar whichever way they go?