New (broken) pedal day (but it's all good)

[irishstu]

I was helping a friend build up some flatpack furniture last night. He's a really good pianist/keyboardist and occasionally uses a guitar pedal for adding dirt to the keyboard.

Anyway, he uses an Ibanez Tubescreamer, but also had a pretty beat-up Maxon OD808 lying around with a missing knob.

I picked it up and noticed that the tone pot nut was loose. Then I noticed that I could freely turn the pot 360 degrees. Then I noticed that I could freely turn ALL the pots through 360 degrees. I mentioned its broken-ness to him and asked him if he wanted to sell it to me cheap. He said I could just have it as he was given it and he never uses it.

I opened it up just now and found exactly what I was expecting to find.

It looks like someone tried to hold one of the pots together with a cable tie previously.

Anyway, it won't be a problem to fix and hopefully everything else is in working order. Happy days.

 

[Stratguy]

With parts so easy to get, it's funny that someone used a zip tie to fix it.

HNBPD!

 

[Knox in Box]

I see an order for three pots in your future.

 

[Chad]

Looks like an easy fix.

 

[Modern Saint]

Easy fix indeed

HNBPD

 

[Bob411]

HNP&ProjectD

 

[irishstu]

I'm fully intending to change the pots, but last night I decided to just see if I could clip them back together in the meantime. They feel pretty strong.

I had some of the correct Overdrive and Balance knobs lying around so stuck them on. The Tone knob's just temporary till I can find a better match.

Tested it out and the Overdrive and Balance pots both work great. The Tone's a bit spotty, but I think some contact cleaner inside should sort that out (yes, it would've been the IDEAL time to do that while it was open--oh well).

 

[irishstu]

Well who'd've though it would be so hard to source an audio taper 20Kohm pot, especially this size/shape?

I decided in the end that it would be worth completely taking the tone pot apart and at least trying to fix it. Nothing to lose, right?

It breaks down into a surprisingly large number of parts:

I gave the carbon strip a good clean:

And the wiper:

Reassembled the pot:

Tested it (it passed with flying colours):

And put the pedal all back together (I'd managed to locate a correct tone knob):

Surprisingly I've never used a tubescreamer before. Oh man, this sounds so sweet. Definitely a keeper.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Nice work!

 

[shoeless]

Acquired beat up TubeScreamer...$0.
Fixed messed up pots...$0.
Found correct knobs...$0.
Glorious TubeScreamer Tone...priceless.