GK 1001rb-I brittle broken pots. All of them!

[zequ]

Last night had a jam with friends and noticed one of my pots was a tad crooked, so i tried to give it a gentle nudge to straighten it. CRACK! The metal tab breaks off! I was so gentle, but it broke anyhow. I try another one, and with just a slight pressure it breaks off too and I'm stuck with the knob, and the knurl in it, i my hand. Looks like the metal used to make those pots was shoddy. Now all my knows have broken off and I'm going to have to source them out and replace them all! All 11 of them.

Just wondering if anyone might of heard of a situation like this.

Believe me I didn't have to push hard on those knobs and they just cracked like bread-sticks. %*&@#!

I emailed parts@gallien.com to see what a full set of those pots would put me back, but still...

Anyone might be able to point me in a good direction to get the 3 types of pots for it?

PART# DESCRIPTION QTY REF
070-1513-0 POT,50K-15A,7MM,KNURL,.1W 2 R75,91
070-1514-0 POT,50KB,7MM,KNURL,.1W LINEAR TAPER 7 R20,25,33,40,46,56,61
070-1522-0 POT,2KB,7MM,KNURL,.1W LINEAR TAPER 2 R10,70

Thanks, fellow bottom-feeders

[johnk_10]

i'd just contact the very capable customer service dept. at GK and have them send you some new ones for it. IME, all split shaft knurled pots are pretty fragile (they're aluminum and aluminum gets brittle) and will break pretty easily when you try to straighten them. even the brass shafted pots are prone to this.

[derridiandrift]

You did the right thing by contacting GK. IMO, the pots and jacks on those amps are an area where GK cheaps out in order to keep the price point real low. If you hadn't broken the stems off, you might find that the pots would start to get crackly with time and eventually need replacing anyway.

[zequ]

Ok. Well GK pointed me to a distributor in Canada : Yorkville.

He just gave me a phone number and zero sympathy. I'm going to try to source the part on my own. Not sure about putting back in what GK used.

I'd sure appreciate any links to these pots that anyone might have or find.

Preamps is sitting on the shelf now, and I'm out 1 bass amp.

[BassmanPaul]

Pots are always a bear to find one suitable to replace existing ones. I'd advise getting the OEM parts and being more careful in the future.

Is the amp in a rack case??

It might also be helpful to fill out your location. There might just be someone local who can help you out.

[jelwood]

Call Lany Valdez at 209 234 7300 ext. 120 9AM to 5 PM PST. Just tell her you need all pots for your 1001RB-II, they'll be at your door before you know it

EDIT: I have a 2000RB that is 10 years old, haven't had to replace or clean one pot on it, none of them are even a little scratchy. Only exception was when I dropped the preamp and the right volume pot broke, but that wasn't because of GK using cheap parts. I have never heard of something like this happening to a GK amp.

[derridiandrift]

Originally Posted by jelwood

Call Lany Valdez at 209 234 7300 ext. 120 9AM to 5 PM PST. Just tell her you need all pots for your 1001RB-II, they'll be at your door before you know it

EDIT: I have a 2000RB that is 10 years old, haven't had to replace or clean one pot on it, none of them are even a little scratchy. Only exception was when I dropped the preamp and the right volume pot broke, but that wasn't because of GK using cheap parts. I have never heard of something like this happening to a GK amp.

You know, GK is funny this way. I bought a brand new 1001RBII a few years back and took it back after the first weekend. It was noisy. That put me off of GK. Then I played my friend's GK, and I used one at a rehearsal space and I liked it. Quiet, great tone (I preferred running it to sound like an old 800). So I picked up an an old beater 1001RBII that I never kept in a rack. It was fine except for needing new speaker jacks. When I had it open to replace the jacks I wasn't impressed with the way the pots were set up. I called my friend to ask him if he ever had any trouble with the pots. Coincidentally, he tells me he's been going out of his head with a bunch of them getting noisy all of a sudden.

All in all, I would say that as long as you have one that's quiet, it all works out in the end. They're a great sounding amp, loud as all hell, but they have some quirks. They're so cheap to buy that dropping a bit of money into it every now and then is not the end of the world.

[derridiandrift]

Originally Posted by zequ

Ok. Well GK pointed me to a distributor in Canada : Yorkville.

He just gave me a phone number and zero sympathy. I'm going to try to source the part on my own. Not sure about putting back in what GK used.

I'd sure appreciate any links to these pots that anyone might have or find.

Preamps is sitting on the shelf now, and I'm out 1 bass amp.

You'll have a hard time finding pots that are small enough to fit in there. If you like the amp, take it to L&M to either get it fixed or to get the parts. It's not a hard repair to do if you're handy with a soldering iron, except you have to take all the nuts off of all the pots and disconnect the board that they're all soldered to. It's time consuming. If you let L&M do it, they'll service it at Yorkville and you'll be back in business.

By the way, yours is not the first one I've known to have all the knobs sheared off. I did a multi-band gig where the bass player in the band before us had one like that. He notched the posts a bit so that he could adjust things with coin. I talked to him about it and he said he barely changes his settings anyway, so it was no big deal to him. You do whatever works when you're on a budget.

[WingKL]

If you want a more durable, low noise potentiometer, see if you can get ones that are sealed conductive plastic types. The feel will be different from the greased up carbon pots but they should theoretically be noise free and last longer. Bourns, among others, makes them and you can look up digikey, mouse or newark to find the ones that fit.

[sonic 7]

Funny, if it was a Carvin there would already be 3 pages of posts ranting about Carvin being junk.

[B-string]

Originally Posted by sonic 7

Funny, if it was a Carvin there would already be 3 pages of posts ranting about Carvin being junk.

Sorry your point?
I have a Fender BXR, a Crate and a Hartke here with damaged or broken pots. Fortunately no one uses Carvin around these parts?

[sonic 7]

Originally Posted by B-string

.Fortunately no one uses Carvin around these parts?

Exactly

[Rebmo]

Originally Posted by sonic 7

Funny, if it was a Carvin there would already be 3 pages of posts ranting about Carvin being junk.

That's because there are P-bass parts in GK heads.

[zequ]

Well, here's a wee update.

I broke the input level pot totally when bolting the pot back into the case. I was giving it like, .5 ft/in² torque and it the shaft sheared off the casing. Obviously the pots are total crap and I'm just going to solder them all out and put replacements in.

I've order some Alpha pots off ebay and went out and bought a A50K for the input level and just soldered it in with wires going to the board.

I dremeled slits into the existing stubs to be able to turn them with a screwdriver or my fingernail (ala derridiandrift's friend) and will practice that way.

This amp is quiet, and I think it sounds super, and I AM on a budget, so fixing it is my way to go. I'm patient and good with a soldering iron. Got some good advice for friends and strangers and all those good bottom register vibes from this forum. I've got high hopes.

Thanks

Not sure right now if I am going to put back PCB mount pots or go for wiring it up to regular solder lug pots (worried about creating noise). Otherwise, I'll just dremel the old pots off, unsolder the legs and put in the Alphas.

[BassmanPaul]

I like Alpha pots, I use them myself. By not using the OEMs you have just devalued your amp by a whole lot. If you look around you'll be able to find knobs that will fit the 1/4" shaft. If you bought the 6mm shaft all bets are off.