Knobs & Tip installation instructions:
Knobs:
Remove the old knobs. Position the shafts of all four potentiometers in the full-open position (on ‘10’).
Starting with the shaft that is the closest to the neck, put a new knob on. If the knob touches the surface of the guitar (most likely with La Perla or La Llama guitars), you will have to shim the knob. Business cards are perfect for this! Take one, and cut it in half down the long side. Put the two halves on the face of the guitar, one on each side of the shaft/nut. If this doesn’t give you enough distance between knob and guitar, use two 1/2-business cards on top of each other.
Push the knob down onto the business cards or just down onto the shaft, positioning it so that the indicator dot points straight ahead at an imaginary point about 5cm/2inches below the g-string tuner knob, and tighten the set screw. Tighten it ridiculously well!
At the workshop I position the knobs so that when they are on ’10′, they point parallel to the strings, so that when you’d hang the guitar on the wall, the knobs would point straight up to the ceiling. You can of course position them differently, according to your needs and taste. The thought behind the way I do them comes from my good friend and former bassist Martinus B. Gerritsen: when playing, the dot is visible over a big portion of the rotation of the knob – actually over that part in which you are most interested.
Remove the business cards, and repeat with the other knobs. Do the knob closest to the plug last.
Done.
Switch tip:
To install the aluminum tip on the metal lever of the five-way switch, due to tolerances in the switches, you have three possible out-of-the-box-fits: too loose, too tight, or just right. These switches are made for plastic tips and therefor not very precise in their tolerances. Nothing we can do about that. Here are the three ways to install:
1. Just right:
In 90% of cases, the lever is going to be ‘just right’: hopefully you are among these: the tip slides about halfway down onto the lever and then appears to get stuck. Lay the guitar onto a double-folded towel or the like on a sturdy flat surface. Put the switch in the middle position; put switch tip on lever as far as it will go; take a piece of wood and position it on the top of the switch tip. With a medium-size hammer, gently drive the tip home, until it hits the shoulders of the lever. Done. If needed, it can be removed by pulling on it forcefully.
2. Too tight:
The tip will not slide onto the lever. You will have to file down the lever itself. Best done with a …nail file, the black emery boards you can buy at any supermarket. Do not use the red variety found at gas stations. It is best to put some cardboard around the switch area so that you will not harm the guitar when the file slips, and to put some tape over the slit where the switch protrudes out, to prevent filings from entering the actual switch. Put switch in the middle position; grip the lever tightly (if you can get away with it, with your thumb and finger), and file the sides of the lever down, with a slight conical shape, meaning it is slightly narrower at the top than at the shoulders. Blow away the filings frequently. File until the tip behaves as in number 1 above, and follow those instructions.
3. Too loose:
The tip slides on, but also slides off. The easiest way to fix this is with superglue. Do NOT apply superglue to the lever from above: it may run into the guitar! Do NOT do this with inferior superglue from the gas station. The best superglue is the one from StewMac: to be found at:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Glues,_adhesives/Stewart-MacDonald_Super_Glues/Super_Glue.html
I recommend the #20.
Lay the guitar FACE-DOWN on a flat sturdy surface, on top of a double folded towel or something similar, with the neck sticking out over the edge of the table. Make sure the switch is hanging in the air, not lying on the table. Best way to do this is to angle the guitar horizontally at about 45 degrees. You can have the neck and switch sticking out, yet the guitar is in good balance on the table and needs no additional support.
Put switch in middle position and apply superglue to the sides of the lever, the entire side from the top to where the shoulders begin. Don’t overdo this. Now with a clean glue-free hand, grab the switch tip and glide it onto the lever until it hits the shoulders. Keep it motionless in place for about half a minute. My favorite trick is, to put on the tip and then reposition the guitar slightly so that the switch plus tip now rest on the table.
Alternatively, you can spray some StewMac accellerator into the switch tip right before you glide it on: bonding then is instantaneous. It may leave a slight white film that you can polish off.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Glues,_adhesives/Stewart-MacDonald_Super_Glues/Accelerator.html
As always, any questions, please call or email me: teye@teye.com