Mandobird volume control knob

[Sheryl McDonald]

I acquired someone's cast off Mandobird IV and it's never been set up. One thing I noticed right out of shipping is the volume control is wiggly and doesn't work unless turned up 100%. Even then I get static.

How do I take the knob off to check it out? Yank? (I hate to start breaking things out of the box)

2nd question - in adjusting the intonation, I've noticed that the G string screw is turned in pretty tight without a lot of adjustment left. Is it possible to take off the spring thats in the adjuster area, and put in a shorter one, so I can adjust the intonation more?

Thanks.

[mandroid]

The Knob is a press on , [unless you see a setscrew] under that there is a nut to tighten to stop the wobbling, but if its a bad Potentiometer , It has to be replaced.

spray in some electronic contact cleaner first , could just be dirty.

But there is a Patch to unscrew on the back, that was put there for assembling it,
But I suspect you will be better off jobbing that out to a repair tech ..

part of the cheap price is the electric parts chosen , 2 new Pots and a Jack are a good all at once job.

Long prior thread on the pickup re placers that have hot rodded their MB, in the Archived thread.

[Sheryl McDonald]

Thanks. I've read through a few of the archives, but nothing specific about taking the 'bird apart.
The nut under the control knob appears to be missing. I'm going to visit a guitar tech tomorrow and let them assess it. The nut needs to be cut down too -- if I can find someone who is comfortable working on electric guitars, I figure this is the same thing, only smaller.

[rohan]

I acquired someone's cast off Mandobird IV and it's never been set up. One thing I noticed right out of shipping is the volume control is wiggly and doesn't work unless turned up 100%. Even then I get static.

How do I take the knob off to check it out? Yank? (I hate to start breaking things out of the box)

2nd question - in adjusting the intonation, I've noticed that the G string screw is turned in pretty tight without a lot of adjustment left. Is it possible to take off the spring thats in the adjuster area, and put in a shorter one, so I can adjust the intonation more?

Thanks.

U mention a problem with "G". Might take a look at the entire bridge see how the other screws are set. I would take tension off the G and set the bridge to be somewhere in the middle of its travel then re-tension and tune. Hopefull there will be enough adjustment available for D, A, E to be tuned in a similar fashion. I would expect the bridge would need adjusting for those strings as well.

If Ur handy, take the pot to Radio Trash and get another.

[mandroid]

If the intonation is out of length, has the bridge piece Butted up against the back of the Base,
plugging the screw holes under the bridge, and drilling a new set allows you to shift the whole thing back a little bit.

and you can find wiring schematics on the web, Stew Mac has some , to get an idea of what each wire is for, to label it , when you de-solder the wires from the Pot.

[Sheryl McDonald]

All the issues on this 'bird have been fixed. I stopped in a local music store where the owner is a guitar tech, and he had fun fixing all the issues while I waited.

Some tips I learned: the adjuster screw on the G string is too long to adjust intonation. He took the screw out (and spring) and cut the length on both-- which allowed for more adjustments. Also, the bridge screw near the G string was sticking up a hair too much to get the string course backed up, so screwing that down fixed some more issues.

The volume pot only needed some cleaner spray, and it was good to go.

It was fun watching the tech go at it... 30 minutes and $20 and it was good to go.

Someday I'll get a new nut cut -- with closer spacing, but I can wait on that.