How do you change a pot in a 335?

[Platefire]

I never thought about the issues of maintenance on my Aria 335 copy when I bought it. I use the neck pickup volume to do volume swells and have to work it back and forth a couple of minuets before I use it to get the scratchiness out of it. I have used contact cleaning spray by pulling the knob and spraying it around the shaft but---it only corrects it temporairally and the scratchiness comes right back. It would be nice to get rid of that, but I can't imagine how you would go about changing a pot in this? Anybody had experiance with this that they could tell me how?  Thanks, Platefire

[LooseChange]

I use a combination of wire and dental floss to guide the pot back into the hole.
Before you drop the pot out, attach some dental floss to the pot shaft. I use a piece of wire to hook on to the pot to pull it out if gives me trouble... Makes sense?

[Willabe]

I've seen pics of Dan Erlewine using soft rubber surgical tubing as a way to get the pot back in place. Like a fish tape for running wire in conduit. You get it with an ID to fit over the pot shaft snug enough so it wont let go as you pull it back in thru the hole, but your still able to get it on the pots shaft. You put on before you loosen the pots nut. Then loosen the nut and let the pot fall into the cavity, feed the tubing in until you get the pot where you can grab it with some kind of tool, like forceps or needle nose pliers. Don't let the rubber tubings back end go all the way thru the hole into the cavity or you wont have anything to pull the pot back into the hole.

I guess string might work also.


          Brad       

[Platefire]

OK Thanks, I think I'm getting the picture? All the time wondering/assuming that there is enough slack in the wires to pull the pot out the "F-hole", desolder/solder it outside before re-installation. I guess once you get the new pot in place there is no way to hold the pot stationary while you tighten up the nut. Platefire 

[overtone]

OK Thanks, I think I'm getting the picture? All the time wondering/assuming that there is enough slack in the wires to pull the pot out the "F-hole", desolder/solder it outside before re-installation. I guess once you get the new pot in place there is no way to hold the pot stationary while you tighten up the nut. Platefire  

I have never tried to go out through the F hole, that seems to be way too small.
I lift out the bridge pick-up, then take everything out as a harness and make the repairs outside of the box where I can see everything.
Here's a picture from an ES-295 to give you an idea, but make sure you use the pulling cord / wire / rubber thang on an ES thin body. You can see this one had a failed cold joint on the braided sleeve to the neck tone control.
Best, tony

[G._Hoffman]

• Take off the knobs,
• tie some thread or (unwaxed, please) dental floss around the pots' shaft (you will likely have to pull them all at once, by the way, so you should tie a thread to each of them, and the switch and jack too while you are at it).
• Remove the bridge pickup. 
• Remove the pots' nuts, and use the bridge pickups wire to pull out the "harness."  Tie all your little guide threads to the pots nuts/washers so you don't loose anything, and the thread doesn't fall inside the guitar
• Make your changes, and test it BEFORE you put everything back in (cause you don't want to have to do this s#*t agian!). 
• check it again
• reverse most of the process to put everything back in.
• Discover you wired the pot backwards, and start again from the begining!

Though, apparently, back in the `50's-60's, the ladies who wired them up all worked through the F holes.  I'm not sure I believe that, but I've been told it is true.


Gabriel

[Platefire]

Second thought, I may need to buy a volume pedal for volume swells

overtone--thanks for the pix. Where are your guide strings?

Greg-That don't look like a job for the faint hearted. A lot of things there to go wrong and mess up the whole works. Just when I thought I was becoming somewhat of a guitar tech, this brings me back to reality!   Wouldn't be so bad if you had an experianced hand watching you do the whole operation for the first time that could say "Stop" you need to correct this before you go any further! What are you all doing Saturday night?

OK, I'll meditate on that one a while. Thanks, Platefire

BTW-Please look at my post on the Jay Turser/PRS. I have some questions about the long shaft pot.    

[HotBluePlates]

Though, apparently, back in the `50's-60's, the ladies who wired them up all worked through the F holes.  I'm not sure I believe that, but I've been told it is true.


Gabriel

To this day, Gibson still works through the f-holes. Though, when I worked there, there was a single woman who did most of the ES-style guitars, because she was so proficient at getting the harness installed.

The harness is initially wired on a jig, so that the spacing of the pots is correct, and because the shield of the wires is also the signal ground, and is soldered to the pot backs.

The entire harness is collapsed along an axis running roughly from the jack to the rhythm pickup volume control, so it's in a long relatively-thin assembly to feed in through the f-hole. If memory serves, the pickups are installed first, the wires brought out to the pots and selector switch, and everything soldered up before the pot harness is installed. Yes, you test the pickups and controls before feeding the mess into the body.

We used a long metal arm, which had a bend to it, as well as a forked end. The arm was used to push the parts into their holes from underneath, generally starting with the jack first. As soon as a part was fed up through its hole, the washer and nut were used to secure it. One installed part helped hold the harness in general position for the next part to be installed.

Naturally, you need a second test to verify all the pots wound up in the correct hole, but I seem to recall that the length of the shield wires were staggered such that once the jack was in the correct place, the only way for the selector switch to reach its hole was to have each pot in the correct hole.

I think that might be the only way to get the harness installed for the first time (can't use the dental floss trick on the initial install), at least when you're dealing with a semi-hollow body style that has a solid block underneath the pickup routes.

[Platefire]

Thanks HBP

Aint nothing like info from an insider of the Gibson factory for how it was done. The only pot I need to change is the neck pu pot. If there was just enough slack to get that one pot out of the closest f hole--I could change it out and use the dental floss trick to pull it back in place.
 

[G._Hoffman]

Thanks HBP

Aint nothing like info from an insider of the Gibson factory for how it was done. The only pot I need to change is the neck pu pot. If there was just enough slack to get that one pot out of the closest f hole--I could change it out and use the dental floss trick to pull it back in place.
 

Seriously, it is MUCH easier to work through the bridge pickup cavity.


Gabriel