Members mightysasquatch Posted March 7, 2011 Members Share Posted March 7, 2011 I finally got sick of the pots on my Hagstrom Viking Deluxe. I love the guitar, it plays, sounds, and looks great, and I got it used for a GREAT price. The pots are terrible though, the tone pots are pure mud, and one of the volume pots is creaky. Last night I unscrewed the nuts from all four pots and fished them out through the f-hole. All of the wires coming from the pickups/switch went either to the output jack (which is a cheapo tiny jack) or to the good volume pot. Then the wires come off of the good volume pot and connected to the bad volume pot and the tone pots. All of the pots were cheap import mini pots with crappy no name caps on the tone pots. I cut the wires after the good volume pot off and tossed the length of wire with the bad volume pot and both tone pots in the trash. I whipped out the soldering iron and wired the bridge pickups wires to the remaining volume pot on the same lugs as the neck pickups. Now I have the pickups going to a master volume then straight into the output jack. The sound is VASTLY improved, much more sustain, volume, punch, and just an overall better tone. The next time I place a parts order I am going to order a Switchcraft switch & jack, as well as a Bourns low-friction pot with some cloth pushback wire and and completely rewire it. I know what I am doing usually, but the leads aren't marked and being a semi-hollowbody I didn't wanna yank out everything through the pickup hole until I get the good parts in. However now, it is doing some wacky stuff! The 3 way switch works backwards now, but that isn't the big thing. With the volume at 8, I get all three pickup sounds. With the volume on 10, both are on no matter what is selected on the switch. If the switch is set to the bridge or middle position, the volume knob at 0 kills all sound. At the neck position though, the volume knob has no effect on the pickup. I am glad I did it, as the sound is much better and with some new parts and a proper rewire it will kick butt. However, I am just curious what is going on now. Also anyone got any suggestions for what to do with the three empty holes where the pots were? I know I can put three pots and knobs there and just not hooked up, but I figured somebody might having something a little more unusual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members robbdeman Posted March 7, 2011 Members Share Posted March 7, 2011 bolt a pick holder through one of the Pot holes, that 2 way tape NEVER lasts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mightysasquatch Posted March 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2011 I have one on my mic stand, but you're right, 2 sided tape never sticks, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mightysasquatch Posted March 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2011 Anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mightysasquatch Posted March 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2011 Last try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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