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Loose tone pot on P-Style bass - FIXED


Funky Dunky
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I have an old Jim Deacon Precision copy and the tone knob is loose. There is a tiny wee screw on the side of the pot. Tightening it made no difference. I can't get the pot off to look inside - or at least, I'm afraid to give it a good yoink in case I break or damage anything. The whole job is attached through the pickguard.

Can anyone advise so I can repair it myself without having to shell out?

Edited by Funky Dunky
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The wee screw on the side of the pot is to hold the knob on. If you undo the screw the knob can come off. Underneath that you will find a nut and hopefully a washer that is holding the pot in place by way of a thread that is coming through the hole in the pickguard.

Sometimes it is possible to tighten that nut in situ, but I would prefer to pop the screws out of the pickguard (safe to do) and gently lift the corner up so you can get your fingers in to hold the pot still whilst you tighten up the nut with a spanner. Don't over-tighten.

If you are going to that effort, you might just want to also make sure that no wires are being pulled tight or look frayed around the solder tags on each of the pots - if you can see. It doesn't hurt to take the strings off and carefully lift the whole guard off, but when you reseat it, make sure all of the wires sit back in their channels safely so they don't get squashed by the pickguard when refitted. I recently had a chap bring his American P over which had died on him. Turns out the previous owner had being tinkering with the electronics, caught a wire and over time it cracked.

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best to unscrew and lift up that end of the scratchplate so that you can hold the pot still underneath whilst you tighten the nut on top

a friend of mine (cough) once made the schoolboy error of tightening the nut on top of the scratchplate whilst not doing the above - the result is that the pot underneath [b]can[/b] spin around as you are tightening the nut - worst case scenario is that it overstretches and snaps any of the wires soldered on to the pot lugs

luckily [s]i had[/s] my friend had their toolkit in the car and was able to solder the snapped wire back in place on the pot 20 minutes before the gig was about to start with no spare backup bass :D

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If the spindle of your pot is slotted, put a spanner on the nut and a screwdriver in the pot shaft, turn the shaft all the way to the end of travel then carefully tighten up the nut. Don't put to much stress on the shaft doing this though. Once its semi tight, the washer on the back of the scrach plate should bite in a bit and allow you to fully tighten up the pot.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Apologies, gentlemen, I meant to let you know that I tightened the pot successfully by following your advice and now it's good as new. Funny how some things seem daunting until you try them, and then you realise that some repairs and maintenance tasks are well within your capability.

Thanks for your advice, and apologies for not replying sooner. Bad form on my part. The shame :(

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