refurbishing another Rickenbacher

[billcreller]

I'm doing another early 30s Rickenbacher steel guitar. These are made of cast aluminum, and have the horseshoe type pick-up.  The nick-name for them is "frypan" since they look like a small frying pan !!
This will be the 7th one I've done (so far )
Being that these are over 80 years old, a lot of hacking has been done to them in their lifetime.  This one is worse than usual.  The holes for the volume & tone controls have been moved a couple times, and it was converted to a 7 string from a 6...then the jack was moved from the player's side, to the other side etc..
It was painted black wrinkle finish, which covered all the things that were done to it.  Holes that were not used were filled with some sort of epoxy, or ??  Paint sure does cover a multitude of sins !!
My aviation buddy has TIG welded a bunch of the holes shut that I'm not gonna use etc  I machined the welds flush with the surfaces and started on sanding it in order to polish it....

[billcreller]

I was gonna post some pictures, but they didn't work for some reason.   I'll work on that !

[sluckey]

Be sure the file size is not too big.

Restrictions: 4 per post, maximum total size 2048KB, maximum individual size 1024KB

[pompeiisneaks]

If you want full hi rez, then you may want to use image hosting sites, like google images, imgur, etc.  Then you can link to the album instead.

~Phil

[billcreller]

The pics are a minor detail right now...  I'm trying to find a tone pot that wont have all the control at the end if it's travel, for this mentioned guitar.  Should I use a linear type ? 
The pot I have in there is likely an audio curve type, and doesn't do anything until the end of it's travel.

[pompeiisneaks]

If it does change in a non linear fashion, that's an audio taper which is logarithmic, yes.  for guitars I do believe you want linear taper.

~Phil

[billcreller]

Thanks Phil  I have a couple ordered & I'll see how a linear works in there.

Bill

[Willabe]

for guitars I do believe you want linear taper.

No, you want an audio tapper pot for guitar volumes. 

[pompeiisneaks]

Oh, sorry.  I guess i'm thinking backwards.  The problem you're having, then, may be due to the pot going bad.  (ignore me, I'll go crawl in a hole, thnanks Willabe :)

[billcreller]

No...I'm working with the tone pot.
 
The volume pot is OK.....

I even thought about using a resistor in series with a smaller ohm tone pot, to get control of the the end that works !  Probably another brain fart !  Maybe I'm not very clear on explaining this !!

[pompeiisneaks]

Well now, I think i was right, but not sure, I was researching what is the 'norm' and at least from this forum post it seems that there is no consensus that volume is linear or log and tone is log,

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?71605-difference-between-tone-pot-and-volume-pot

I also read volume can be more of a 'to your taste' type thing.  Either way, it can't hurt to try a different type and see, so long as you get the right resistance, normally its 500kfor a humbucker and 250kfor a single coil.  (from the same thread).

~Phil

[Willabe]

You can use either log or linear pots for volume or tone but, it's about how fast the pot will react as you roll them off.

Using a linear pot will roll off much faster then a log/audio pot.

I can't imagine wanting that for a guitar/instrument volume/tone control because it will have less of a smooth control as you turn it. It will be touchy when trying to dial in volume or tone.

But if you like it.       

[billcreller]

As it turned out, the linear pot for the tone had more of a spread of control than the audio curve type did, and not abrupt toward the end etc...
I shipped it back to Hawaii today.....mirror finish on the cast aluminum body !