Fixing loose volume knob

[mallen]

I'm trying to fix a  loose volume knob on my Burns guitar. There is no set screw. I assume it would pull off? I don't want to break it.

[Grahame Myers]

HI Rusty
thanks for the info :-) Just goes to show, here in Europe everything is different! When I buy CTS pots, I buy them from Göldo here in Germany, and their CTS pots are 10mm. See here:
http://www.goeldo.de/artikel.php?artgr=14 (Shaft is called Achse in German, plural is Achsen)
The Japanese Pots that Göldo sells are 8mm shaft, and have a finer spline than the CTS pots. Sometimes I come across USA CTS pots with a plain shaft (1/4"?) for use with knobs with a setscrew.
It's sometimes a lot of fun trying to repair the Asian production guitars, the quality of the pots and switches they use is often quite abysmal. I love those 5-Way switches they use, you know, the ones with the small ball-bearing in them that falls out after a while, rendering the switch useless :-) The other day, the music store that I do the repairs for unpacked a shipment of China Strat copies, and two of them had defect switches right out of the box! QC in China? Er...yeah..
On the other hand, what do the customers think they're going to get with a guitar for €99, complete with a strap and a gigbag? :-)
It won't be too long now, and then they'll probably throw in an Amp too, for the same price...and the famous book "How to be a rock star in only 7 days!"
Grahame

[Grahame Myers]

I've just discovered CTS pots with a 6mm shaft here:
http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Electric...
How many times have I surfed the pages there without ever seeing them?

Grahame

[mallen]

Thanks Grahame.

[Rob Mercure]

Grahame,

Do you have access to Allen Bradley pots? There symbol is AB within an octagon and mfg. code is 211. These are the pots used in the USA in military specification equipment and superior to CTS and everything else. In fact I don't know of any other pot made like these as they are sealed and this summer I found about a dozen that had been accidentally dropped in the grass when I moved back to Wise in 2003. They had laid out in the weather and there was a slight spot or two of rust on the casing. But the pots turned smoothly and made no noise in circuit (unlike some CTS and other that had also been lost - all were "goners"). Allen Bradley no longer makes these, I think, but some other company bought the equipment and markets them as "type AB" pots - you'll never change one of these in your lifetime but I suspect that they are sold to the general public as the only sources I've got are surplus outlets like All Electronics.

Rob