Help! Has anyone removed anyone pot from their Cutlass?

[Astrofreq]

Hey there,

I’m thinking of removing my tone knob in lieu of a arcade style kill switch. Next time I change strings I can take a closer look, but wanted to see if anyone had done this (at least as far as removing a pot). Are the pots removable from the circuit board or is it a huge ordeal?

 

[DrKev]

I have not done it for attempted, but my experience working with larger circuit boards is that if your soldering skills are not up to scratch you could permanently damage something. Of course if you soldering skills are good you may get away just nicely.

I have some photographs of the circuit board somewhere. If there are useful I’ll try and pull them out for you later tonight.

 

[jones4tone]

I have some photographs of the circuit board somewhere. If there are useful I’ll try and pull them out for you later tonight.

I haven't seen the electronics in a Cutlass, so would be very curious to see this as well.

 

[DrKev]

Here ya go!

http://forums.ernieball.com/members/4915-albums2739.html

 

[phatduckk]

Do the pots just pop off by taking off a nut on the top? If not id just buy another PG and start fresh w/o risking breaking the board

 

[Astrofreq]

It looks like the three contacts are soldered to the board. That doesn't look too bad. I guess my next question would everything still work if the tone pot was removed? May be a CS question.

 

[beej]

It's sometimes tricky getting those off, as you have to heat the multiple contact points at the same time. Another option is simply to cut the lugs off the pot, then you can remove the remnants from the board one at a time. (It's just a 500k pot, you can get another if you want to swap back, down the road.)

Will it affect your tone? Probably will make it a tad brighter, since you'll be losing the load of that pot. If that's an issue, you can simply wire a 500k resistor in its place. (Couple of ways to do this, but the easiest might be across the outside lugs of the volume pot.)

 

[Astrofreq]

Thanks beej! That helps a ton.

 

[beej]

No prob!