saving sliders from the shades (yes, YOU can fix slide pots!!)

[pinkjimiphoton]

so a while back, i saw this guy on ebay had a precursor to the reslie tone, i forget the name of it.

it came from NYC and was rumored to have been possibly used by the greatest guitarist of us all back in the day.

anyways, one of the sliders on it was busted. of course, as all mortals do, that meant instead of fixing it, they pushed on it harder and wiggled.

it finally stopped working completely, and was being sold as parts/repair due to the fact. the guy wanted entirely too much money for even a WORKING effect. so i contacted him and said i'd love to take a look at it. originally i intended to take gut shots and try to trace the circuit for posterity but if ya think i actually did so ya way misjudged my  commitment to much of ....well, anything.

two days later it was at my door. i opened her up to have a viddie, and for the most part everything seemed good but that one slider.

a quick google search proved without an act of that god i don't believe in, there was no way to find an appropriate replacement for a 50+ year old japanese part.

so repair was the only option.

i carefully pried the little pins open and took it apart.

it had two major problems... first, from idio.....errr.... people pushing on it, they had broken the actual bottom of the pot, the part where the carbon track was in half. there was even a small bit missing.

second, by being idio....errr... people pushing on it, they had broken the little brass slider that makes contact with the carbon track clear off the tactile part of the slider itself... what to do?

well, first off, i noticed there were actually two brass sliders, and i could see where the broken one had been. it was fairly small, but not that bad, and i quickly tacked it back in place with some decent solder and nailed it on the second try.  you gotta be quick and precise, check first a couple times before ya commit. once in place again, was easy to adjust the thing with some needle nose pliers back to where it had to be to ride the track correctly. bend behind or in front of the solder joint, not AT the joint... the soldered part won't bend, it will just crack and break again. and there's not a lot to work with, either!!!

ok, so first problem solved. i tried to put it back together to see if it worked, and it DID to my amazement, but only the top half of the slider track was working. so i took it apart and opened it again.

this time i took some of my fav crazy glue, and i just glued the broken plastic base piece, and the carbon track itself, back together. i wiped off any squeezeout, and made sure it didn't squeeze out onto the carbon track itself.

now when i put it back together, i got the full range of the pot... albeit with a slight glitch in the middle.

this was still unacceptable... what to do? carbon track cracked, how to repair it?? i tapped my pencil in frustration .

and realized... hmmm... carbon. pencil lead = graphite = carbon with a little wax to hold it together... or maybe lube the pot?

i took the pencil to the crack and worked it over it until the crack dissappeared completely. just kept going until it filled in with pencil lead, and left the over....ummm... penciling?.... in place on the carbon track.

bingo. no more glitch, didn't seem to fark up the sweep of the slider, and one reslie tone was back in business. no more broken slider, no more glitch, and one very satisfied studio owner in new york city.

just thought i'd share my experience, in case it can help someone.

btw, the reslie tone is far cooler than the univibe...

it has a bitchin tremolo mode, in addition to the chorus and vibe modes

and there is a range switch for the speed control. it goes from glacial movement to the bugs mosquitoes have buzzing in THEIR ears fast.

definitely both worthy additions if you're working up a univibe.

anyways...

[thermionix]

Hendrix?

[pinkjimiphoton]

beats me. that was how the cat described it. i doubt it was. i think he was just hoping to get me to buy it for 1800 bux
hendrix was never mentioned by name.
it was in really great shape other than the busted slider. somewhere i did take pics with my crappy crappy phone but that was a couple years ago now and the phone takes really lousy photos. my shaky ass hands don't help much either

[highwater]

Ya gotta love pencil lead. I've "fixed" many a dodgy connector (though none on an actual Dodge) by snapping-off a piece of 0.5mm mechanical-pencil lead in the appropriate place. Works especially well for telephone/ethernet plugs (until someone knocks the credit-card machine off the counter again and the piece of lead falls out).

That rubbery thing other end of the pencil (y'know, that bit that you only need when you're writing with a pen) is also pretty useful for cleaning corroded contacts that *haven't* lost their spring.

[pinkjimiphoton]

it really worked well, i heard from the guy about 6 months ago on facebook, he said the thing works perfect. that had to be 2-3 years ago!

rubber erasers can be great for all kindsa stuff, too, for sure!

[duck_arse]

so 6B for log, 6H for antilog, and HB for linear?

[pinkjimiphoton]

i like 2b's, they are softer and take less time to scribble.


you can make your own resistors with em too. scribble on a piece of paper until ya get the desired value, and use roach clips on wires
to connect them

it DID add a bit of a "BUMP" to the sweep so i guess it made it kinda antilog in the end.. just slightly. all i know is it worked.

i tried sharpies too, but....