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CTS pot fail


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Or is it a Rabs fail? :)

 

I was wiring up one of my builds today.... Then I got the point where I was finished and was putting the knobs on...

 

Oh dear...

 

You know how knobs are... You push down and often you get that final click at the end when it pops into place... Well I had pushed them down so far and the didn't seem all the way down so then I leaned on the top of each one with my hand and each one made that final click sound... Which was re-assuring at the time.

 

But then I tried to turn them and straight away realised something was wrong... I had gone too far [crying]

 

DSC_0704_zps232c97fd.jpg

 

DSC_0706_zpsb49a4eca.jpg

 

All I can say is.. DAMMmnnn!! I tried plugging it in anyway and was getting absolutely nothing from the guitar... So I will need to re-wire the whole thing again :(

 

Oh well, live and learn I guess.. The weird thing is that ive done like 6 guitars now and this has never happened before...

 

Anyone else have this happen before?

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I've seen it before bit never done it. I've never known a knob to click on to a pot shaft though?

That's just what I find.. I kinda push it gently as I can but for that last little bit I find I need to use that much more pressure and I get a small click as it goes in the other couple of mm..

 

Doesn't always happen but often. Well to me anyway.. )

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Sad to hear this, Rabs, but at least the guitar top wood seems fine, and this is much more important than two pots I believe.

 

Although I never broke a pot while pushing on a knob, I killed two pots in the past when trying to pull a knob off. [crying]

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Sad to hear this, Rabs, but at least the guitar top wood seems fine, and this is much more important than two pots I believe.

 

Although I never broke a pot while pushing on a knob, I killed two pots in the past when trying to pull a knob off. [crying]

Yeah its not really a biggie.. Just a bit annoying :)

 

And it was actually all 4 that went... Ive never had any break like that before.. Maybe it was a duff batch or something?

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Yeah its not really a biggie.. Just a bit annoying :)

 

And it was actually all 4 that went... Ive never had any break like that before.. Maybe it was a duff batch or something?

Could it be the knobs were 6 mm and the pots 1/4" which is around 6.35 mm?

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Could it be the knobs were 6 mm and the pots 1/4" which is around 6.35 mm?

Hmm, possibly I guess.... But ive not had this happen before... Donno... I will try again tomorrow...

 

Its a bit strange it happened to all 4 aswell.. Im starting to think they were a bad batch...

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I've had this happen when trying to to put standard knobs on metric shafts.

Yeah.. you guys may be right... it would make sense...

 

I guess I really am going to have to make EVERY mistake possible [rolleyes]

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That happened to me recently with an aftermarket CTS volume pot I was using to mod one of my Les Pauls. The back casing is flimsy and gave out.

 

That has never happened with a Gibson stock pot.

 

I also noticed that this particular CTS pot has a slighly longer shaft and the knobs will not sit close to the guitar body.

 

CTS has several lines of products with different levels of quality and materials. You can get CTS pots with aluminum shaft, they are cheaper.

 

Also this CTS pot that fail has the so called "vintage taper" which is essentially a synonimous for an "on"off" switch, worst absolute taper ever. I should have bought the RS Guitarworks superpot for this project, and now I will.

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One of my buddies is an Electrical Engineer and a Gibson enthusiast as well and his recommendation was Bourns Pots. He's always been worth listening to so maybe it would be worth a shot?

 

http://www.allparts.com/bourns

Well I haven't had this issue before.. CTS are pretty much the industry standard... As been mentioned I may have just been trying to fit the wrong type of knob to them...

 

I have some more and will check all the measurements properly tomorrow.

 

 

Thanks for the input :)

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