Budding Young Luthier Needs Help With Knobs!

Hello James and Welcome,

jamesakabob wrote:
Before you ask (Pollyanna!) I will post complete before and after pics, history,
medical history, national insurance number etc on the member's Westone
thread!

Oh dear, am I that much of a dragon?

Anyway, it's good that you have the bottle to repair/restore your own guitars, good for you James!

Right, first things first about how to remove those knobs:

1. Check to see if there are any little grub screws at the side of the knobs, if so, loosen them with an allen key.

2. Whether the knobs are with/without grub screws, grip the knob firmly either side and pull the knobs gently but firmly in a straight up direction and they should come off.
If they seem to be difficult to pull, you can always try using pliers or carefully put the flat end of a screwdriver underneath and prise them up that way. If you do use that method though, I would recommend putting something over the guitar to protect it first - a piece of plastic or something similar. Also, be careful if you use pliers, put a cloth between the pliers and the knob so as not to damage the knob.

Good luck and I hope it works!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Pollyanna wrote:

Oh dear, am I that much of a dragon?

Lol no, I'm glad of it, means I have lots of shiney member pics for refference!

Thanks for the advice, the knobs had no grubs and were INCREDIBLEY difficult to remove, hence double checking so I could blame someone else!
Finally got the wee beggars off and thought I'd post progress so far (more for my reference rather than anything else!),

Grubby fretboard with slightly corroded frets:



The bridge and knobs are filthy and heavily corroded:



Whilst the polepieces are slightly rusted, the copper coil and all other electronics/wiring are in good nick, albeit a little ganked up and dusty:



So here is my girl's current state, all internals cleaned and dusted, fretboard almost done but the frets themselves still need work:




You may notice one battle scar near the dual tone switch but I prefer her the way she is! I like the bass having a history, and also I could never bring myself to sand a guitar down!

Will probably finish this today as I'm getting quite obsessive

Thanks again, and I will post more pics as I go,

Cheers,

James

Good work, that man! Now, oor Polly has devised a fiendishly clever scheme for getting that brass looking sweet as, so if you ask nicely, she may share this info with you (but not if you call her a dragon!!) Filing the frets is not something I've done; I've piddled about with most everything else but leave that to 'my' luthier; ie I'd rather pay for an hour or two of his time to start than 5 or six to replace the frets that I've munted!!

Hehe, already did the first bit of brass earlier , just needs a bit of polishing and it'll be right as rain, did spot a part of a thread from Polly somewhere mentioning clear coat lacquer, maybe I'll dig it up and give it a go!

Pics, pics and more PICS!

Before,



After 1st stage, (although camera phone doesn't do the knobs justice!)



Should be getting shiney new phone with 8 megapixel camera within the next few days so will bombard with EVEN MORE (better) pics!

Ooh, just found that thread, turns out ammonia is already recommended by the powers that be, woohoo! Although I'm not sure I could cope with 1 part ammonia to 6 parts water, bit too strong for my tastes (well, smells)
These old Westone parts really scrub up nice! Shame I couldn't get more done today, but didn't want to risk starting up again after a few pints of "artistic inspiration" after band practice

.... looking good!! That knob with the arrows on it is intriguing; my VA900 has the same sort of knobs but not the arrows; what knob is it?

corsair wrote:.... looking good!! That knob with the arrows on it is intriguing; my VA900 has the same sort of knobs but not the arrows; what knob is it?

That'd be the "Equalizer Tone" knob that when the active circuit is on controls how much of a boost is given to Bass or Treble. Apparently us Thunder players need arrows to tell us what way to turn the knob, I know that I would've been stumped for days otherwise, *ehem*

Just looked up your VA900 on the forum, thats a nice looking guitar , I assume that's an LED for showing the active circuit is on? That'd be really usefull for me as I always forget that the active in my Thunder turns on when you plug the guitar in, and that the switch is a "By-Pass" switch and not an "On/Off" switch for the circuit

Ha - so Thunder players ARE thickies!! I've suspected as much... Yeah, that's what the wee light does on the VA - it needs a 9V battery to run it, though and it is switched with the lowest of the 3 mini switches that turns the pre-amp on. The other 2 are coil split and phase reverse; what's wrong with the p'up to warrant changing?

Hello out there,

A good way to remove tight knobs, get two tea spoons, place either side of knob and press handles, pop they just come off.
Place a cloth on guitar to protect the body or two thin slithers of timber.

Cheers
Daim.

Yep; good tip, thanks Westbone - there's nothing quite like a little leverage to shift them pesky knobs!! Mind you, I wouldn't back any modern teaspoon to the job; the buggers'd bend; you need good old Sheffield cutlery for that job!