Move That Volume Pot Out Of The WAY!!!

[Bengal65]

Bengal 65 Tech Tip of the month

I got tired of hitting my volume pot and turning it down. Plus, my pinky has taken a beating everytime I use palm muting on my Soloist with recessed trem.

I found these neat plastic plugs from McMaster Carr. A few dollars for 100. The mod is totally reverseable and the plugs stay in any 3/8" or 10mm opening. They are also paintable which I'll do my Bengal later. I just removed the tone pot (I don't use anyway) and relocated the volume pot to the tone pot hole, then pushed in the plug. My badly beaten pinky thanks me now!





In the headstock too. I painted these gold. They are textured, so maybe a heavier primer is needed to get the polished look. These come in handy if your going to put a FR Speedloader on your standard headstock.

[Norton]

I've been thinking of doing the same thing for about a year.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

i think that the volume knob was in the perfect place. thats one thing i really like about Jacksons and Charvels, the put the volume where you can get to it the quickest. plus you can do that volume swell voilin sound with your pinky when its right there.

i used to accidently turn it down aswell, but now that i've got RS guitarworks Super Pots in all my passive guitars, the volume stays put untill i want it turned down. its volume taper is awesome but what i like the most (beside how much it opens up the sound of your pickups) is the pots friction. it seems real stiff, but when your ripping and go for the fast vol out, it responds perfectly and i never accidently truin it down. if you can solder yourself, its so worth the $$.


but those plugs look great for what they do.

[cdwillis]

I always do that to my guitars when I can, I just never bothered to mess with plugging the holes.

[Bengal65]

i think that the volume knob was in the perfect place. thats one thing i really like about Jacksons and Charvels, the put the volume where you can get to it the quickest. plus you can do that volume swell voilin sound with your pinky when its right there.

i used to accidently turn it down aswell, but now that i've got RS guitarworks Super Pots in all my passive guitars, the volume stays put untill i want it turned down. its volume taper is awesome but what i like the most (beside how much it opens up the sound of your pickups) is the pots friction. it seems real stiff, but when your ripping and go for the fast vol out, it responds perfectly and i never accidently truin it down. if you can solder yourself, its so worth the $$.


but those plugs look great for what they do.

I have the RS Superpots in all my guitars right now. Yes, they are great, but with my picking technique, my pinky gets shredded on the knob in it's standard location. It only happens on Soloists with recessed trems or Strats. My RR1, KV2, and PC1's and (Charvel's with standard mount trems), I don't have a problem with. On the Strats, I just put a new guard on with 2 holes, 1 Vol and 1 shared tone, similar to the Ibanez JEM's. For volume swells I use a pedal. Interesting to note, the video that was posted last night in the Jackson USA section, had Phil Collen saying, when he was working up a signature guitar, and Jackson gave him some Soloists to try, he said the volume put needs to be further away. "I keep hitting it".

[Bengal65]

I always do that to my guitars when I can, I just never bothered to mess with plugging the holes.

Now you can plug them and make it look cool as well. The paint works very well on these if you decide to paint them.

[jackson1]

Bengal, how much should I transfer to your PayPal account to have you send me 5 of those, please?

...or do you have a link to where they can be purchased?

I love your Bengal! I love any Bengal actually

[jackson1]

I just Google'd and found http://www.mcmaster.com/.

Gah! Their home page holds hundreds of links!

[Sunbane]

I should get a few of those. I always relocate the vol knob for the same reason, and I have two empty control holes in my M6 that need to be covered up.

Volume swells are for sissies anyway.

[jackson1]

Jackson should sell those. Custom painted by Mike Learn

[Axewielder]

Best mod evah! You can sometimes find chrome hole plugs at Home Depot as well. Here is one in my BKGF WR1:

[Bengal65]

I just Google'd and found http://www.mcmaster.com/.

Gah! Their home page holds hundreds of links!

Henrik, Here ya go http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.as...etNm%3D_parent

It's part number 9688K241, Finishing plug, unvented, 3/8" diameter.

Gah! It won't link. Too many pages. That catalog is huge. Just enter the part number and the catalog page will come up.

[Bengal65]

Best mod evah! You can sometimes find chrome hole plugs at Home Depot as well. Here is one in my BKGF WR1:

Ahh, there ya go. I know other's have done this before. Good job!

[Axewielder]

Yeah the chrome plug was the easy part on that mod. The hard part was finding and installing a 500K ohm resistor in the control cavity in place of the tone knob. That custom custom pickup was kind of shrill without it.

[delt]

Bah, what's wrong with having some loose holes, just draw/paint/stick "bullet impact" graphics around them, & maybe red lines spilling out