So I acquired a duncan over the weekend, a mono jack and a 500k pot to switch my guitar from an EMG to a passive. Being that it's a Rhoads, I had to fish the wire though the wing and into the control cavity, get the pickup in the ring and installed, etc.
Once this was all done, I went to put the pot in the guitar. Well, the post of the EMG pot is slightly thinner than the CTS 500k pot I have, and the CTS won't fit in the guitar. So my question, does someone make a narrow post 500k pot?
Is it a split shaft or a solid shaft pot? I think the solid shaft pots are thicker. Honestly, I've never run into this problem with a Jackson before. Even the oddball eighties ones.
I wish I was kidding. It's a solid shaft pot. The problem is the threaded part at the bottom. Like the CTS is American and the EMG is metric, or vice versa... it's a CH too small.
I seem to recall that CTS pots come in both metric and standard sizes, but I could be wrong. I would hate to drill that thing, since you risk chipping paint, and I know it has a lot of paint.
I bought whatever pot Matt at Action handed me. Is there such a thing as a mini and non-mini pots?
I haven't swapped pickups in a guitar in 15 years. I put EMGs in my King V in '97, but I seem to remember that the deal was Mike could have the passives out of it if he did the install
The EMG pots are always the small size, or at least they have been since the early '90s. Stew-Mac has them. (You need the mini-pot with the 5/16" mounting diameter.)
I've had to use a knife to increase the size of the hole slightly on my guitars before (although they're not NAMM Jacksons, LOL) but it's hidden by the pot so not like it's a huge deal unless you're super anal or going to revert it when you sell it or something
You can ream the hole very slightly larger. Just get a cheap reamer from a hardware or auto place and give it a couple of light twists in the hole from either side. You should be able to pick one up for 5 to 10 bucks.
I always use split-shaft pots and have never had a problem going back and forth between passives and actives. If you can't get the proper size in the solid-shaft variety, at least you've got an option that doesn't involving guitar modification.
Pots ordered. The shipping was more than one pot, so I bought a few, just in case I decide to convert some other guitars. I guess I'll have some soldering to do over Christmas.
i've put square 1x1cm pieces of plastic (from grocery bags, cymbal bags, etc)... sometimes one square, sometimes two... depending on how heavy or thick the plastic bag was - and placed them on the bottom of the knob, then pressed onto the pot post. The plastic acts as a conforming shim and does a great job at holding knobs on. Since it envelopes the pot post all the way around, it tends to self-center the knob onto the post so you dont get any weird wobbles.
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