Dual Concentric Tone Knob?

bushmanjr83

New member
Ok, kind of a newbie here, so forgive me if I say or ask anything stupid. Ive played guitar for about 15 years, but have just recently started to dabble a little in the custom arena. These may be silly questions right out of the gate, but i just thought it'd behoove me to check with some folks who have done tings like this a lot more times than i have before I take it for granted and go soldering away..lol. Long story short, I have a Strat style solidbody, and I would like to consolidate the 2 tone pots into a single stacked pot. (see pic, the new stacker on the right, and the two tones id like to consolidate to the left and above left) My 1st question is, do I just hook the wires and capacitors back up to their respective row of lugs on the stacked unit the same as they are on their dedicated knobs right now? I feel like that is the correct way, but I just wasnt sure if there would be any kind of problems with 2 capacitors crowded together like that kind of on top of each other.. And my second question is, since this pot has the solid shaft down the midde, with the c-clip holding it all together on the bottom, is it ok to just use the side of the pot as my grounding point? Clearly it is all metal so I assume it would work the same. I just wasnt sure if I would maybe ruin something with the heat from the soldering iron.
Anyway, please take it easy on me..I have a feeling I'm going to need you guys for my future custom axe endeavors. This is my second attempt at reaching out on a forum to people who know more than I do about a subject related to music, which happens to be pretty near and dear to me, bc I just didnt want to ruin anything when its so easy to fid and consult with some people who may know a little more than I. The first was on a mixer forum trying to get my band's mixer back up and running, and lets just say if I had 5 minutes alone in a room with every smartass who had a response to my "elementary" question, I'd probably have just as many felonies on my record. Never got my question even remotely answered, and they shamed me right out the door of their little mixer dork club. So....Im here out of respect for you folks' knowledge, and any you could share would be much appreciated. TIA, my friends.
 

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Basically, yes. The black and yellow wires simply go to each center terminal, and then one end of each cap goes to the right-hand terminal as we see it in the pic. The other end of the caps can be twisted together and soldered, (carefully), to the case. Just don't overheat it. And, the wafer closest to the pickguard is the "outer" knob. The center shaft will be the upper wafer in your pic.

Edit: On second thought, I don't think I'd solder to the case, since its plastic. I'd twist the two cap ends together, then solder a small length of wire to those ends, and run them to a ground somewhere. I wouldn't risk melting that plastic case.
 
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Yea thats what I was worried about with the ground. I wasnt sure if I was overthinking it or not as I have a tendency to do that. But for sure, better safe than sorry I suppose. I didnt think about running them eslewhere. Ground is ground no matter where its at right.? As long as its not looped..? Very good. Ty for the advice my friend!,
 
Yup. Within the confines of a guitar cavity, ground is ground. Good luck on your project. Let us know how it turns out.
 
Ganged pots often use a ground washer at the mounting nut instead of grounding to the casing.
Of course ground is ground; a connection to ground somewhere else just as good.

0336025_solder-lug-washers-set-of-8.jpeg
 
And don’t worry, this forum is one of the most decent and helpful that I’ve found on the web. There are no stupid questions, only better answers!


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