nigelchadwick Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 hi just got a 1968 es335 all original. The volume (on both pups) only comes through really between 8 and 10 on the dials - so rather than smooth increase in volumes, its almost volume on or off..... when its volume is there, its extremely sweet - but its not very practical to gig with. someone has suggested swapping out the pots to solve the problem. has anyone any experience of this or suggestions to get the volume through smoothly accross the range of volume dial....and what effect if any on tone will changing the pots out. have been suggested to leave the caps alone. but there is a lot of treble within this guitar - so i find myself heavily rolling off the tones, to get sweet sound on neck pup, and cut the harsh/biting treble on the bridge. thanks for any help/suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L5Larry Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 The first, cheapest, and most non-invasive thing I would try is "cleaning" the pots. get a spray can of potentiometer cleaner with the little tube attachment (available at any Radio Shack type store here in the States). This product used to be known as TV Tuner Cleaner when TVs had the dial tuners, so a TV repair shop might also have it. It is a cleaner/lubricant that you spray into the solder lug opening of the pot, spin the pot back and forth a couple of dozen times, and it works any corrosion, dirt or dust out of the pots. This same product and process is what you would also do for scratchy pots. While this is easier to do with a guitar with better access to the pots than an ES, it is still the first thing I would try. If you can't get the spray tube positioned properly through the f-hole, you might have to pull the mounting nuts to drop the pots to where you can get to the hole for the spray. Replacing the vol pots on this guitar should be the last resort. The other thing to note about the way this guitar is wired is that in the "both pickup" switch position, the vol pots work together. If either one is on "0", there will be no sound from the either pickup. If one vol control was barely on, you might also get the operation on the other one similar to what you are describing. The only way to test the pots is by having the switch in the single pickup position and checking the pots for that pickup. Put the pickup switch in the neck position and test that pickups volume control, then do the same in the bridge position with it's volume control. If they both work properly in their respective individual pickup positions, there is nothing wrong with the pots, see paragraph above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaicho8888 Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 +1 ...What L5Larry said... Also since it's difficult to get in the f-holes to spray, you can remove the knobs by pulling straight up. Then try to spray between the stem and the rim/nut. The cleaner will seep down and you can spin the potentiometer. You will have to spray a few times with the guitar laying flat. Make sure you protect your guitar finish with rags and clean up any cleaner right away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobv Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Dan Erlewine recomends rigging up some tubing so a large piece of tube fits on the threads of the pot and seals around it, then progressively smaller tubes fit inside until you get to the little red spray tube from the aerosol can of cleaner. This way the spray is forced down around the pot shaft into the guts, all from outside the guitar. You might find tuner shower/contact cleaner spray in the spray paint section of the hardware store, but it's definitely available at Radio Shack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelchadwick Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 thanks. notice since that increasing the tone dials, increases the vol. significantly so. ie. with tone rolled off (and vol. on 6 say) then the vol is v low,.......the less i roll off the tone, the higher the vol. its like the tone control increases the vol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 i noticed stew-mac had a new tool for this: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Cleaners_and_lubricants/Pot_Cleaning_Cap.html obviously you wont be able to use their aerosol but as stated above, pot and switch cleaner is available in the UK from most electronics places. do not use WD40! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobv Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Sorry I didn't realize you don't have Radio Shack. Then again, I've got to search around for Lagavulin, so you have it better. I'm going to see if any plumbing bushings or faucet parts will fit that 3/8 x 32 thread - I'm betting there's a chink of brass sitting in a mason jar in my basement that will fit just like the Stew Mac part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rigormortis Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Lots of good advice here about cleaning pots. I'll get back to the pots a little later, but I wanted to say something about the tone controls: 10 is supposed to be real bright. Suppose you leave everything at 10, you can still roll off a lot of treble with the amp settings. I suggest setting your rig up so that with the guitar at 10, the treble and mid on the amp is down just barely enough to make it pleasant to your ear. Then you can use the tone control on your guitar in the upper end and get more useful volume. That may solve your problem. The volume pot sends a lot of signal to ground as it is turned "down". The capacitors determine which frequencies go out of the signal. When we are fine-tuning our guitar electronics, we can choose different values of capacitors to give the tone control a different action--more or less volume loss. A faulty capacitor (or a short across the pot lug) could possibly act essentially as a volume control. Since your guitar is basically a collector's item, I guess you should keep it as original as possible, as long as you're digging what the original parts are doing. But as a last resort, you will get really good results by putting in new Gibson pots and new caps and re-wiring it so that in the middle position you can turn one pup volume down to nothing and still have a nice volume control; this allows a better blending than the other option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelchadwick Posted December 3, 2008 Author Share Posted December 3, 2008 some fantastic and really helpful information ; amazing this forum - first time ive used it. thanks to all. yeah - getting used to this older guitar is a different experience - takes some getting to know (and as i tend to roll off tone, for jazz, then i wasnt helping the volume get through at all !!). Only inadvertantly did I open up the tone and hey presto....the volume blooms out ! I got the guitar to gig with, but wish also to keep it original - there are some fantastic sweet sounds on the neck pup, with tone rolled down - and the middle blend is great (i dont mind having to use all the dials to blend this in - although it will take a bit of getting familiar with, so that i can mix it with confidence on gigs). Have been playing it through fender vibrolux ('72 original) and new princeton re-issue.....so have tended to turn down the treble on the amp. These can be brightish amps anyhow, so a boogie may be better in situations where i need to rock out on the bridge only pup. However, the fenders just sing real wonderful when the tones are rolled off - commented on already by a number of people; sweet, woody, resonant and punchy, where you just want to hang onto that note. thanks again for all your help. its been incredibly informative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troels Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Before soaking the guitar in strange chemicals try some mechanical massage... Turn the pots from stop to stop 50 times while pulling in the knobs... That (sometimes) removes the dirt from leading surfaces inside the pots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelchadwick Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 someone has suggested swapping the vol pots out for newer 500k cts taper pots....(retaining the originals of course)...The later es 335's apparently had these, which gives a smoother feed in of volume, without affecting the tone to any ascertainable degree. Has anyone done this with their '60's 335 ? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.