Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Here's a friggin' story for you. It's 6am on Saturday and I'm playing my 370/12SPC JG to get ready for 10am practice.

The treble volume was jerky. It needed the nut tightened. So I unscrew the thing a little. Knob won't come off.

I open up the cavity to see what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is going on cause this is crazy. Nothing funky on the inside.

Next I take a flathead screwdriver and start to pry. Nothing. TWO screwdrivers should do the trick, right? It sure did. Snapped the friggin' edge off the knob. Gone, outta here, fogettabattit, for our NYC readers. Check out the gnarly edges now.



I finally got it off, though. Can anyone see how? I'll let you look at the photo again and guess. I have been laughing at myself for an hour now. I can be a real dummy sometimes. Lesson learned: think outside the box. I couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Has anyone ever seen this before? It doesn't look like a post-factory mod. Maybe an error? Does that happen?

Jason: I've never seen a knob with two set screws before. That's a new one on me!

That's a new one to me too....

I've seen knobs with two set screws (I have some), just not these types.

I have a chrome knob with 2 screws ... it was on a 4004L ...

a good rule of thumb ... don't pry your knobs off with a screw driver ...

Always check for a second set screw. Manufacturers make knobs like these so that they can be used on shafts that are slightly smaller. Sometimes, even after loosening set screws, the knob may not come right off due to a burr on the shaft. Usually, rocking the knob back and forth or simply turning it will get it to lift off.

The oven type knobs seem particularly fragile, or maybe I had a bad one. While tightening the set screw one snapped completely in half.
I only needed two out of a set of four.

Dad's #1 rule of torque: tighten until it breaks, then back it off 1/4 turn.

Jason, do not feel alone. I've done more damage to my guitars "fixing" them than I ever have playing them.

You got double screwed!

How odd. Well, the set screw on the treble vol. knob on my April '74 "all-black" 4001 is not at the "12 o'clock" position (taking the little white dots on it as the "6 o'clock" position, that is) but rather at the "10:30 o'clock" position. I assume such set screw holes to be cut by a human operator rather than a machine.

Double set screw knobs abound. The two set screws are always 90 degrees offset.

"The two set screws are always 90 degrees offset"

I have seen one exception to that. Canham view cameras make their focusing knobs with the screws at 180 degrees apart. This is one of the reasons I do not like their cameras. A friend of mine bought one of Keith's DLC57 models and the knobs kept coming off. I tracked the problem down to that very ill advised design flaw.

Might I also suggest that you don't tell any English/Aussie friends you were up at 6:00am playing, and broke your knob??

Only too happy to lower the tone (knob)

Where I come from, a broken knob at 6am means you have had a very good evening, and an even better early morning...

One would be bragging loudly...