Essential 31 (3)

Here we go - the cavity route for the Ibanez AZES31 is the HSH version. Hope this gives some joy to the people out there who have plans to mod theirs. Of course, the after market Strat / RG pickguards will NOT fit. Please be informed. 

The pots might be the initial consideration for you folks if you ever consider swapping out stuff to make things sound 'better'. Not that these are bad - I like them - they are the 500K version & this is the reason why the tone is bright in this one. It might be too much for some of us. The Dynamix switch (between the pots) is actually a circuitboard & not something a 3-way toggle can handle if you wish to replace this one as well. There's a whole bunch of wires actually hiding underneath the pickguard as seen here. I have plans for pickup replacement but I will save that for another episode.

Hope everyone is safe & please continue to be safe. The Covid numbers are running crazy & it's only gonna get crazier so safety first, yes?

Arc-tung, baby

Another pair of dead pots. Do we actively handle those metal parts of pots during play? Of course we don't. We wonder how corrosion crept into the cracks & fine lines to eat away into the system & kill the pots eventually. A simple answer would be repeated changes in temperature. But it's not seasonal here in Singapore, why would this account for parts corrosion? 

1. Air-con vs non-aircon environment. That's right, we subject our instruments to lower temperatures at places & then subject them to the heat & humidity at other times. This is how moisture penetrates into unseen places. We won't know this until it's too late.
2. Sweat. For those of us who perform, especially. Sweat from our hands could get to seemingly out of reach spots.

Those dead pots were from my Spector Arc 6 guitar. They were replaced in 2013 by Beez who was still doing business at Katong (Roxy Square). So four years later, they had to make way for replacement parts once more. Remember, these are expendables, don't get too worked up once they decide to stop working. 

Weekend is here, it's gonna be a long one. 👍

UNO, game!

Dead electronics. L-R: 3-way selector switch, push-pull tone pot, volume pot.

The selector switch was stiff, connection was intermittent, I'd rather invest in a new one so into the trash bin it went. The first step in dealing with dysfunctional pots is to give it a squirt of contact spray. Maybe let it be for a minute before getting it to work but this pot was beyond stiff, it just won't budge. It's a dead pot. That capacitor had an unexplainable puncture & it felt oily so it's beyond saving. Lastly, that volume pot was also too stiff, too stubborn, too dead. 

All those parts came from my Uno War Zone guitar. New components were bought & the guitar brought to Beez yesterday. They were professionally replaced & the instrument was back to life in under 30min. This War Zone was bought in 2011, the pots went dead in 2013. This time both pots & 3-way selector switch went dead so it's about a 4-year gap between replacements. Electronic components are expendables, they have a finite life regardless of constant maintenance/ treatment. The onus is on the owner to make sure they last as long as they could & if an overhaul should take place, the owner should consider investing in better components to prolong usage. The default parts lasted for 2 years, thereafter I replaced them with Proline parts (Korean) & currently there are Gotoh components in there (Japan) plus an Ernie Ball (USA) selector switch. 

DP

Dead pots. It happens, nothing lasts forever. Don't let people tell you oh, you should have taken care of your guitar better. These expendables bear the brunt of your sweat & other penetrating moisture even when they are not in use. 

So it's off to Beez's after lunch. Beez did a 2-guitar job (both involving dead pots) in under 15 min. 😧👍 Where is Beez located? Excelsior Shopping Center, basement, in line with Memphis Music.

Sure signs (of death)

How dead pots/ selector switch look like. These are beyond saving. Before they died, I was treating them with contact spray but this isn't a cure, it's just temporary rectification. Replacement should be done. 

Special pot

Not too long ago, my friend Riko bought a Fender American Special Strat & had one of the pots replaced with a super smooth YJM (Seymour Duncan) pot. The one you see above is the default pot. It seems that Fender recently used a brass shaft pot for their guitars.

Pot!

If you insist on Gibson parts for your em... Gibson guitar, Davis GMC has Gibson pots for you... at affordable prices, of course.

Smooth operator

This is the same Duncan YJM pot you initially read here: CLICK It's now available @ Davis GMC.

If you need a little convincing as to how smooth this pot is, the manufacturer had packaged each pot in such a way that the shaft protrudes out of the casing for your testing pleasure.

Make sure you get the correct value pot for your guitar. Despite Malmsteen being a committed single coil user (which would dictate the provision of the 250K version exclusively... but no), the manufacturer also offers this pot for humbucking guitars so for people like me, I've gotten myself the 500K version as indicated there on the top side of the package.

Malmsteen's POT

It's a great time for Malmsteen, he has a new set of signature pickups, Marshall amp & even his own, cutomized volume pot. Notice how Malmsteen has his pinky ready at the volume pot? That's because he utilizes it as second nature, muting & accentuating notes for a differentiated tone all the time. It'd be a clumsy affair should the pot in question not address this quick roll on-off...

... so Seymour Duncan customized a pot for him which in fact is a super lubricated unit, nothing extra. This product is manufactured by Bourns for Seymour Duncan but ladies & gentleman, even if you do not possess the YJM pots, there areothers out there which are equally easy to manipulate- I have a GOTOH unit in my Ibanez GRGR010 as proof. However, no harm trying this one, yes?

Inside

What you see here are the innards of a volume pedal which had its base plate removed & tilted sideways. If yours becomes dysfunctional, the chief culprits are labeled above:

• A: Rack gear. This contraption looks like a saw blade, it's attached/ connected to B. The rack gear moves up & down as you rock your treadle. The rack gear might snap under intense use.
• B: Pinion gear: The pinion gear you see here is rather large, in many wah units, the pinion gear is attached to the pot's shaft as standard issue. This contraption might break under intense use as well. The manufacturer usually applies lubricant between these gears to prolong their good lives. We know that moving parts which are in contact with each other wear out over time.
• C: Pot. Over time, the pots in the volume & wah units wear out or they disintegrate internally & you'll hear scratchy responses instead of smooth volume swells/ wah voicings.

Mustang's return

It's August & my (Fender) Mustang bass is back from an electronics make-over. I see this as a consolation in seeing through a sluggish July. The original volume & tone pots decayed beyond salvation & the input jack crackled with constant loss of signal so everything went into the trash bin. This is also the first time I am not using Gotoh pots, Beez has an alternative brand called Prolink (Korea) in store & I had the 250K pots in there. These units feel smooth & responsive in use so its down to performance durability which would be proven over time.

Despite sporting a shorter scale length, the Mustang taunts me with its vintage-thin frets. I get frustrated doing fast runs because I play clean & light touches are not helping me in any way. My (Fender) ST-72 is also equipped with thin frets by default but I have overdrive to see me through when I play guitar unlike the bass. I somehow believe the bass should be played clean so it won't interfere with the guitar's frequencies.