Rick. B6 Tone Pot not Working

Exploring the beauty and tone of Rickenbacker Lap Steels

Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4

Post Reply
jolasa
New member
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:42 pm

Rick. B6 Tone Pot not Working

Post by jolasa »

Tone pot on my 1939 B6 does not work. Turn the tone knob all the way left and right, tone does not change. Volume knob works fine.

How to fix?

Is there somewhere to buy a replacement pot?

JonS
rshatz
RRF Consultant
Posts: 466
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 11:31 am

Re: Rick. B6 Tone Pot not Working

Post by rshatz »

Yes. Get a 500k audio taper pot. Stewmac has them.
User avatar
Seans
Intermediate Member
Posts: 673
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 6:10 am

Re: Rick. B6 Tone Pot not Working

Post by Seans »

Are there any loose wires, are all the earths connected or is something touching where it shouldn't. If you have a DMM, you can check the resistance of the pot, from the centre lug to one of the outer lugs, wind the pot on and off to see if the resistance changes, if it does the pot may still be ok and the Capacitor may be the problem.
User avatar
cjj
RRF Moderator
Posts: 10900
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Contact:

Re: Rick. B6 Tone Pot not Working

Post by cjj »

Seans wrote:Are there any loose wires, are all the earths connected or is something touching where it shouldn't. If you have a DMM, you can check the resistance of the pot, from the centre lug to one of the outer lugs, wind the pot on and off to see if the resistance changes, if it does the pot may still be ok and the Capacitor may be the problem.
Yes, best to check it. Pots don't often fail, they certainly can, sometimes just get dirty, but generally get noisy/scratchy instead of just completely dropping out. Caps on the other hand, especially old types such as paper/oil and such that were around in the '30's and '40s often fail...
I have NO idea what to do with those skinny stringed things... I'm just a bass player...
User avatar
Seans
Intermediate Member
Posts: 673
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 6:10 am

Re: Rick. B6 Tone Pot not Working

Post by Seans »

cjj wrote:
Seans wrote:Are there any loose wires, are all the earths connected or is something touching where it shouldn't. If you have a DMM, you can check the resistance of the pot, from the centre lug to one of the outer lugs, wind the pot on and off to see if the resistance changes, if it does the pot may still be ok and the Capacitor may be the problem.
Yes, best to check it. Pots don't often fail, they certainly can, sometimes just get dirty, but generally get noisy/scratchy instead of just completely dropping out. Caps on the other hand, especially old types such as paper/oil and such that were around in the '30's and '40s often fail...
The Allen Bradley Pots were certainly a quality item too, even for a mass production unit, a CTS pot is $5 or so now, bets they weren't far off that price in 1930.
Post Reply

Return to “Rickenbacker Steels: by Richard Shatz”