Epi Stock linear volume pots and upgrade thoughts

[meursalt]

Hello,

 

I'm planning, when I get my tax refund, to make some upgrades to my Epi Goth Explorer, just to "make it my own" so to speak. After a lot of listening and research, I've settled on a Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz neck pickup combination. I'm planning on adding a coil split, so two or three push-pull pots are in order (at least one for each volume control, maybe one on the tone control for a killswitch or anything else I can think of). I'll probably top it off with some Q-Parts abalone-topped black knurled metal dome knobs, and I just might order an abalone pickguard. But here's a couple of things I'd like feedback on:

 

1. Have any of you dealt with Pickguard Heaven ? Particularly, has anyone seen any of their abalone work? Were you impressed with the look and the quality? Or can you recommend anyone else who works in abalone for a reasonable price who can be trusted to fit an Epi Explorer (the screw holes are different from Gibson Explorers, which have about three different screw configurations amongs themselves).

 

2. I'm stressing a little about the dimensions of the pots and knobs I've picked. The knobs only come with 6mm holes. Can these be gotten onto "American" split-shaft pots like those made by Dimarzio or sold by Stew-Mac? I suspect that the pots have 1/4" shafts, though I haven't found the dimensions of the Dimarzio split-shaft push-pull pots I'm looking at.

 

Stewmac's push-pull pots require 1 1/8" body cavity depth. I measure 1 1/4" depth in my cavity (hehe). Have any of you ever encountered trouble with push-pull pots fitting into a Explorer?

 

3. Here is the weird thing: I've noticed that my volume controls really kind of suck. They make very little appreciable difference until rolled back to about 2, then they quickly fade the volume. This is part of the reason I'm replacing the pots along with the pickups and knobs. So, when I did my measurement just now, I discovered that my volume pots are both type B (linear), and my tone is type A (logarithmic or "audio taper"). What the hizzle? This seems bass akwards, as the French would say. Does Epiphone normally use type A audio pots and type B tone pots? Or did someone at Daewon screw up? This makes me curious.

 

Any general thoughts? Does the abalone knob/pickguard combo sound cool, or just gaudy? I would consider green pearl (not the cheesy acrylic stuff, but like this, if I could find something similar for an Epi Explorer.

 

Thanks,

-meursalt