Broken tone knob on a secondhand guitar, how do I proceed?

HunterBurgan4Me · #1 03-15-2013, 01:59 PM

So today I bought a secondhand guitar, it retails at about £370 but I got it for £60 cause the guy I bought it from bought it secondhand as well and it has a custom paintjob he doesn't like.

It plays beautifully but the pickups have been replaced. They used to be ESP humbuckers and now they are ESP EMG look alikes. The tone knob is broken, it is either all the way on or all the way off with some crackles in between, the knob itself moves fine but there is no change going down until right at the bottom where it gets into a muddy sort of tone. When the tone is on full there is a bit of an audible buzz that isn't there before.

Is this a DIY job or a music shop job? I've never attempted many repairs before.

Also how much should I expect this to cost me if I do go to a music shop? My local one attempts to rip me off every time... once I went there to have an electronical fault looked at on my fender bass and the cheeky monkeys changed the strings and asked me to pay for the new ones and the labour price!

Thanks in advance!

I know this is a question about guitars not basses but I don't really trust the guitards at ultimate-guitar.com and I figure the electronics can't be so different! So feel free to move or delete if it's in the wrong place.

Biggbass · #2 03-15-2013, 02:05 PM

sounds like bad tone pot. $5 bucks for a new one and a soldering iron to fix.

**awilkie84** · #3 03-15-2013, 02:42 PM

+1 for replace it. It's cheap & not worth worrying about. Soldering is rather simple, or you could have a shop do it for a small fee. My last pot cost me $20 installed.

Saxn · #4 03-15-2013, 02:47 PM

Yep... just make sure you don't get 'tunnel vision'/'target fixation' while changing that pot if you go the DIY route... check the entire grounding system while you're in there for loose connections, cold solder joints, etc. That way you won't button it back up, plug in, and find your self going "WHAT THE FRAK??" because you're still getting buzz.

bjabass · #5 03-15-2013, 02:47 PM

Yep, the pot is cheap if you have soldering skills, and if you have to take the strings off to do it you'll see why the shop replaced your strings when you sent it to them......

DigitalMan · #6 03-15-2013, 03:11 PM

Take a quick pic (or three) of the way it is before you start working on it and you'll do fine.