WTF - Adventures in removing a dome knob from a 30 year old pot.

[Iron1]

Was cleaning up my Fernandes BXB-75 bass this morning and wanted to swap the 35 year old tarnished dome knobs. I thought I had a set in my guitar junk drawer, but alas I did not. So, I ordered some and thought, well in the meantime I'll just snag the ones off my 1994 Ibanez RG470.

So, I go over to the Ibby and start pulling on the tone knob and... WTF...

I literally just started laughing as I've never had this happen before... Out of curiosity I pushed the pot rod back in to see what would happen and it doesn't even connect to anything... like the pot must have disintegrated inside.

Apparently when I go to install the new dome knobs, or reinstall the old ones, I'm gonna have to break out the soldering iron and replace the pot(s?) too.

 

[Byrdman]

Maybe you should spend less time in the gym

But for real, is that the only one that pulled out like that?

 

[LiveeviL2000]

Have you tried less steroids?

I’ve had something like that happen to me a couple of times but never where the entire post came out.

It was probably due for new pots anyway.
Have fun soldering. I know how much you like doing that.

 

[HomespunEffects]

Didja loosen the set screw?

 

[Iron1]

Didja loosen the set screw?

I wondered that, but these are the old 90s sleeved knobs, where there's a sleeve over the pot shaft, then the knob goes on the sleeve. So, the knob didn't let go of the sleeve, and the sleeve didn't let go of the pot-shaft, but the pot got un-shafted...

Man, the unwritten jokes in all this are nigh infinite.

 

[aerial7]

Just did the same thing; the knob I was trying to remove did not have a set screw... Haven't had the heart to even look at the mess I've made; I just slid the knob back into place and noticed that it seemed to turn as if the pot still works....but I'm guessing it will never push-pull again.

I've since learned the spoons technique, but I have no idea whether that would've made a difference.

 

[norminal]

I had this happen on an Alpha Push/Pull. I was pissed because it was a 25k, which isn’t exactly readily available.

FWIW, CTS uses a circlip to prevent this:

 

[Iron1]

I had this happen on an Alpha Push/Pull. I was pissed because it was a 25k, which isn’t exactly readily available.

FWIW, CTS uses a circlip to prevent this:
View attachment 20626

Apparently the Ibanez factory in Korea was fresh out of circlips in 1994.