Alco Flower Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 Hello, I've got an 1994 SG and the 3-way switch is a little lose, is there any way to tighten this up. I would like to keep as much original as I can. My next question would be who sells a good replacement if that's what it comes to. Also the pick-up (for the neck) is tilted down (toward the bridge pick-up) just a small amount, should/how do I fix this. I'm new to fixing or knowing what to fix on my guitars. Any help is much appreciated. Alco Flower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alco Flower Posted December 13, 2017 Author Share Posted December 13, 2017 I would take the switch out of the guitar (de-solder the wires from it) and inspect it very closely to see what parts of it are loose. The primary function is to make contact from the common pole to the switch positions - in your case 2 individual positions that can be contacted in 3 different ways. That being said, it should be easy enough to understand what has "failed" in the switch. I know it is not the same thing, but I can do this with any "Fender-type" 3/5-way switch. Even the Super switch is easy enough to see what is going on when you look close enough. Either way, this is the easiest way to see if you can understand what is going on internally. If you want it to be somewhat original, get a Gibson switch. May cost more though, but it should most likely work for your guitar. There are plenty of replacements available though aside from the Gibson part. Just type in "Gibson toggle switch" when you do a Google Shopping search. And make sure you know what your switch looks like - what the part of the switch looks like that is in the control cavity of the guitar. Okay thanks I will try this, also one thing that bugs me a little but I don't think affects performance is the tone knob for the bridge pick up can move up and down, meaning it will be flush to the guitar body but can be pulled up like a 1/16 of an inch. I didn't want to yank it off but was not sure how to fix that or even if I need to fix it. As I said I am new to fixing guitars so I do apologizes. Thanks, Alco Flower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alco Flower Posted December 13, 2017 Author Share Posted December 13, 2017 The potentiometer (volume or tone) needs to be firmly secured to the body of the guitar. This is easy to do when you remove the knob and get a deep-welled socket that fits the nut. You probably have to remove the rear cavity cover and hold the pot with your hand as you tighten the nut just to be safe as not to spin the pot too much when tightening that may cause a wire to break from a connection point. IMPORTANT: Make sure you have the washers in the correct places as well before starting to torque down the nut around the pot's shaft. If the shaft itself is loose in the pot's housing, then that pot is bad, time to replace it. It's easy to tell what to replace it with if you have a multi-meter. You simply measure the resistance of the outside terminals and it should be within tolerance of something common (250k or 500k). I have a Nighthawk, and this is stock 300k on the volume... Nonetheless, pots are cheap, easy fixes. If you have good soldering skills and don't burn wires, super easy fix. I have gutted many guitars and rewired them from scratch - of course with a schematic handy. Never to go into this without a plan... Also, the taper typically is an audio taper. Again with the Nighthawk, I believe this 300k is linear taper. And all the taper is pertaining to is how the resistance changes on the wiper (center terminal of pot typically) as the shaft is rotated. It is either logarithmic (i.e. audio) or linear. I want to go out on a limb here and say most designs are audio tapered for both tone and volume controls... Either way, if you don't like it, replace it with a different taper type. You won't break the guitar, haha! Anyhow, good luck! Man, a lot of talk about nuts and shafts here, haha! Although, I am trying to be serious in my explanation as I am referring to a guitar's hardware. Gotcha, thanks for the info. Some times describing how things work or parts may sound a bit odd but I understand. Anyway thanks. Alco Flower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 Excellent information! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alco Flower Posted January 7, 2018 Author Share Posted January 7, 2018 I would take the switch out of the guitar (de-solder the wires from it) and inspect it very closely to see what parts of it are loose. The primary function is to make contact from the common pole to the switch positions - in your case 2 individual positions that can be contacted in 3 different ways. That being said, it should be easy enough to understand what has "failed" in the switch. I know it is not the same thing, but I can do this with any "Fender-type" 3/5-way switch. Even the Super switch is easy enough to see what is going on when you look close enough. Either way, this is the easiest way to see if you can understand what is going on internally. If you want it to be somewhat original, get a Gibson switch. May cost more though, but it should most likely work for your guitar. There are plenty of replacements available though aside from the Gibson part. Just type in "Gibson toggle switch" when you do a Google Shopping search. And make sure you know what your switch looks like - what the part of the switch looks like that is in the control cavity of the guitar. I went in and I found I didn't even have to take the switch out. Nothing was broken it is just worn from time and time again of flipping it up and down. So..., I took needle nose pliers and squeezed up on the two contacts coming of the switch, the helped a bit but it's just old and worn. If it truly fails I'll fix it but for now I will just keep rocking the way it is. Thanks for your information! Alco Flower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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