Pot Replacement

[marnold]

Sorry for you hippies, but this is a THC-free post.

It's a good thing I decided to replace the pot on my Fender with a push-pull. I was looking at the wiring today and the hot lead to the jack had come off the middle lug of the volume pot. The lead was not tinned. I'm rather surprised that I hadn't had any crackling or cutting-out up to this point. I also found out that the shaft for the push-pull pot that I bought is thicker than the stock one so I'm going to have to make the hole ever so slightly bigger. I need a 3/8" bit and, of course, we don't have one.

I reworked the plan that DVM has on his site for cutting the screw coil of the humbucker to adjust for the difference in wire color between Duncan and Fender. It should be easy, but those lugs for the push-pull part of the pot are awfully small and I haven't soldered in a long time.

 

[marnold]

I decided to test drive my soldering skills by tinning a few wires. The first one worked OK, but it looked like a solder lollipop from the blob on the end. Sure was shiny though. After that I decided to strip the loose connection on my current pot, tin it, and reconnect it. I managed to get it all done pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. I ain't no DVM (yet), but it's nice to know that I can now do basic guitar electronic repairs by myself.

FWIW, I bought the Terry Downs "Fundamental Soldering Skills" DVD which is very helpful indeed. Highly recommended if you don't have a friend who can show you the soldering ropes.

BTW, could one of the mods move this thread to "Mods, Projects, Repairs, Fixing"? It would be more appropriate there. I forgot about that forum when I originally posted.

 

[duhvoodooman]

BTW, could one of the mods move this thread to "Mods, Projects, Repairs, Fixing"? It would be more appropriate there. I forgot about that forum when I originally posted.

Done!

 

[marnold]

Inspired by DVM and not only his amazing thread-moving skillz but also his soldering wizardry, I decided to go ahead and install the new push-pull pot. I made a couple of rookie mistakes and thus had to unsolder and redo some bits. The connections to the posts look quite nice, if I do say so myself. The ground on the back of the pot is a bit ugly. Part of the problem is that I tried to prep some of it before my iron was fully hot. Despite being a bit ugly, all of the grounds are tight. Both the volume control and the push-pull control work as designed. My only remaining issue is getting a properly-sized drill bit so that I can permanently install the pot.

The single coil tone sounds thinner but very similar to the full-bucker mode. The drop in volume, however, is quite dramatic. Since the Atomic II is rather middy and hot, thinning and quieting it out was pretty much what I was shooting for. Color me pleased. I think I'm capable of taking on the Model 7 project now.

I want to thank DVM and the other "modders" here for giving me the encouragement/inspiration to go ahead with all of this.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Way to go, Marnold! Feels good to be able to wire up your own mods, huh? R

A tip on handling those inevitable "flubs"--get yourself a roll of copper desoldering braid at Radio Shack or other electronics store, if you don't already have some. It's great for cleaning up excess solder and correcting mistakes. Also, it sounds like you learned the importance of using a fully heated iron!

 

[marnold]

A tip on handling those inevitable "flubs"--get yourself a roll of copper desoldering braid at Radio Shack or other electronics store, if you don't already have some. It's great for cleaning up excess solder and correcting mistakes. Also, it sounds like you learned the importance of using a fully heated iron!

Yep, I've got one, but I've got to work on my "technique" using it. I did learn that the heat from the iron will travel up the braid relatively rapidly

 

[ShortBuSX]

...I've got to work on my "technique" using it.

I found a bunch of junk circuit boards and other electronics junk and practiced soldering on that stuff...when I felt confident enough I moved on to my new pots and fancy wire...worked for me.

 

[marnold]

If anyone is interested, I posted some pictures and comments on the pot replacement on my Telebotomy blog.