Ok. So I decided it was time to overhaul my PRS electronics. Brought it to GC after "rave reviews on soft." Those who raved about GCPLEASE EAT YOUR WORDS.
So went from a 5 way rotary with PRS standard 500k volume and tone knobs to a switchcraft 3 way switch, CTS 500K volume pot and CTS 500K push pull tone pot.
Before I brought my guitar in, I only wanted for a cts new push pull tone and switchcraft 3 way toggle. Kelvin told me that it costs $80. Fine. A little pricey, but it will do.
Next day I brought my guitar in, I wanted a new cts volume pot rewired as well. The price jumped from $80 to $150. WOW! Can you believe it? Extra $70 for rewiring a single volume pot + the pot itself.
I argued about this to him for awhile. Ok. Final price was $100. Sounds fine to me though still pricey. Decided to proceed. BBBBBBBBBIGGGGGGG MISTAKE.
What I got was - an allparts 3 way toggle (not the switchcraft), a crap CTS volume pot which cuts off the guitar's sound at volume 1.5 when typical pots cut off at volume 0-0.5.
So that means, I paid money for a lousy pot and a fake switch. --> I've been scammed, at least the switch.
Right. Went on to sweelee to buy a dimarzio pot for 12 bucks. Brought my guitar down and told him about the problem with the volume pot. Then Kelvin started grumbling + black face "YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WITH SUCH A PROBLEM. I DO SO MANY TIMES FOR OTHER PEOPLE ALL NO PROBLEM. I HAVE 20+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. YOU ARE THE ONE WITH THE PROBLEM. IF I CHANGE THE POT AND THE PROBLEM STILL REMAINS YOU BETTER PAY."
So I shouted back at him. "YOU NOT HAPPY THEN FINE DON'T DO LAH."
To which he started shouting back at me "YOU BETTER NOT LET ME LOSE MY TEMPER HERE. I RUSH THE WORK AND GET PAID AT SUCH LOW PRICE I STILL DO FOR YOU. YOU BETTER WATCH WHAT YOU SAY HERE. YOUR GUITAR SO WHAT $5K? I HAVE SO MANY $20K GUITAR IN MY SHOP. YOU DON'T BELIEVE THE VOLUME POT NO PROBLEM I GIVE YOU GIBSON HISTORIC BLACK BEAUTY TO TRY."
To which I replied in a calmer tone "After you did your work I actually had burnt marks in the finish from small flakes of solder flying out. I actually buffed them out. (I know exactly what happens when hot solder lands on the finish leaving an imprint so I know what I'm talking about).
Then he shouted back at me "YOU DON'T ANYHOW SAY OK. I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. YOU DON'T BELIEVE I SHOW YOU HOW IT LOOKS LIKE IF SOLDER LANDS ON YOUR GUITAR." To which he actually moved his soldering iron towards the finish of my guitar as though he wanted to burn it.
No choice, I quickly told him "YOU WANT TO TRY YOU TRY ON YOUR OWN GUITAR. DON'T TRY ON MINE". Then I told him to relax and cool down a little. Let him yell at me a bit more cause my guitar was at stake. Finally he got his Gibson from the glass case outside for me and asked me to go test. Which I did. What do you know? THE VOLUME POTS WORKED PERFECTLY FINE, UNLIKE MINE!!!
So he unsoldered everything, and soldered my dimarzio pot in. And it worked FINE!! WOW! IS THAT A MIRACLE?
After that he took my PRS to try, and while it was highly evident that I have sound from the amp even when my volume was down to 0.5, he told me "I HEAR NO DIFFERENCE. FORGET IT LAH. I DON'T CHARGE YOU FOR THE SOLDERING."
WTF? He still had the guts to say that? Isn't that admitting that he actually heard the difference but didn't want to admit it?
Right. Same day, brought my guitar to standard value to try out the Sound Drive amp. Well well well, what do you know? NO SOUND!!!! The nice guys at standard value then proceeded to check my wiring for free. Found out that the grounding wire was in contact with the metal legs of the capacitor causing the circuit to short out. A bit of insulating tape around the grounding wire and it was fine. All done for free! Now how many guitar shops would actually charge you a diagnostic fee? And I didn't even request the standard value guys to help me go over the wiring, they suggested it themselves.
As it turned out, Kelvin had also made a mistake by using a 0.22 cap (meant for singlecoils) instead of a 0.43 cap (meant for humbuckers). So I paid an extra $13 for it to be rewired to the proper specs for the caps.
This makes a total of an extra $25 due to the mistakes Kelvin made. I am at the losing end aren't I?
Today. My 3 way toggle spoilt. Why? Because the toggle was so lose and wobbly that if I just jiggled it in the middle position POPS will be heard as the circuit connects from the lower output neck humbucker to the higher output bridge humbucker. Attempted to bend the metal tabs to tighten the toggle then I lost my entire signal.
On a hunch, I told shredcow about this. WOOHOO we made a surprising discovery that my toggle is not switchcraft.
Here's the punchline. I removed the knurled nut from the 3 way toggle and WOOHOO! OCTAGON SHAPED HOLE!!!
Here are the pics:
Nice hole?
It's a good thing the 3 way toggle nut barely covers the hole. Ok it doesn't.
Yes this is a switchcraft.. NOT!
Ah! Sorry, my mistake. Change KC TO Kelvin. I got the initials mixed up. BIG apologies to KC.
So went from a 5 way rotary with PRS standard 500k volume and tone knobs to a switchcraft 3 way switch, CTS 500K volume pot and CTS 500K push pull tone pot.
Before I brought my guitar in, I only wanted for a cts new push pull tone and switchcraft 3 way toggle. Kelvin told me that it costs $80. Fine. A little pricey, but it will do.
Next day I brought my guitar in, I wanted a new cts volume pot rewired as well. The price jumped from $80 to $150. WOW! Can you believe it? Extra $70 for rewiring a single volume pot + the pot itself.
I argued about this to him for awhile. Ok. Final price was $100. Sounds fine to me though still pricey. Decided to proceed. BBBBBBBBBIGGGGGGG MISTAKE.
What I got was - an allparts 3 way toggle (not the switchcraft), a crap CTS volume pot which cuts off the guitar's sound at volume 1.5 when typical pots cut off at volume 0-0.5.
So that means, I paid money for a lousy pot and a fake switch. --> I've been scammed, at least the switch.
Right. Went on to sweelee to buy a dimarzio pot for 12 bucks. Brought my guitar down and told him about the problem with the volume pot. Then Kelvin started grumbling + black face "YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WITH SUCH A PROBLEM. I DO SO MANY TIMES FOR OTHER PEOPLE ALL NO PROBLEM. I HAVE 20+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. YOU ARE THE ONE WITH THE PROBLEM. IF I CHANGE THE POT AND THE PROBLEM STILL REMAINS YOU BETTER PAY."
So I shouted back at him. "YOU NOT HAPPY THEN FINE DON'T DO LAH."
To which he started shouting back at me "YOU BETTER NOT LET ME LOSE MY TEMPER HERE. I RUSH THE WORK AND GET PAID AT SUCH LOW PRICE I STILL DO FOR YOU. YOU BETTER WATCH WHAT YOU SAY HERE. YOUR GUITAR SO WHAT $5K? I HAVE SO MANY $20K GUITAR IN MY SHOP. YOU DON'T BELIEVE THE VOLUME POT NO PROBLEM I GIVE YOU GIBSON HISTORIC BLACK BEAUTY TO TRY."
To which I replied in a calmer tone "After you did your work I actually had burnt marks in the finish from small flakes of solder flying out. I actually buffed them out. (I know exactly what happens when hot solder lands on the finish leaving an imprint so I know what I'm talking about).
Then he shouted back at me "YOU DON'T ANYHOW SAY OK. I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. YOU DON'T BELIEVE I SHOW YOU HOW IT LOOKS LIKE IF SOLDER LANDS ON YOUR GUITAR." To which he actually moved his soldering iron towards the finish of my guitar as though he wanted to burn it.
No choice, I quickly told him "YOU WANT TO TRY YOU TRY ON YOUR OWN GUITAR. DON'T TRY ON MINE". Then I told him to relax and cool down a little. Let him yell at me a bit more cause my guitar was at stake. Finally he got his Gibson from the glass case outside for me and asked me to go test. Which I did. What do you know? THE VOLUME POTS WORKED PERFECTLY FINE, UNLIKE MINE!!!
So he unsoldered everything, and soldered my dimarzio pot in. And it worked FINE!! WOW! IS THAT A MIRACLE?
After that he took my PRS to try, and while it was highly evident that I have sound from the amp even when my volume was down to 0.5, he told me "I HEAR NO DIFFERENCE. FORGET IT LAH. I DON'T CHARGE YOU FOR THE SOLDERING."
WTF? He still had the guts to say that? Isn't that admitting that he actually heard the difference but didn't want to admit it?
Right. Same day, brought my guitar to standard value to try out the Sound Drive amp. Well well well, what do you know? NO SOUND!!!! The nice guys at standard value then proceeded to check my wiring for free. Found out that the grounding wire was in contact with the metal legs of the capacitor causing the circuit to short out. A bit of insulating tape around the grounding wire and it was fine. All done for free! Now how many guitar shops would actually charge you a diagnostic fee? And I didn't even request the standard value guys to help me go over the wiring, they suggested it themselves.
As it turned out, Kelvin had also made a mistake by using a 0.22 cap (meant for singlecoils) instead of a 0.43 cap (meant for humbuckers). So I paid an extra $13 for it to be rewired to the proper specs for the caps.
This makes a total of an extra $25 due to the mistakes Kelvin made. I am at the losing end aren't I?
Today. My 3 way toggle spoilt. Why? Because the toggle was so lose and wobbly that if I just jiggled it in the middle position POPS will be heard as the circuit connects from the lower output neck humbucker to the higher output bridge humbucker. Attempted to bend the metal tabs to tighten the toggle then I lost my entire signal.
On a hunch, I told shredcow about this. WOOHOO we made a surprising discovery that my toggle is not switchcraft.
Here's the punchline. I removed the knurled nut from the 3 way toggle and WOOHOO! OCTAGON SHAPED HOLE!!!
Here are the pics:
Nice hole?
It's a good thing the 3 way toggle nut barely covers the hole. Ok it doesn't.
Yes this is a switchcraft.. NOT!
Ah! Sorry, my mistake. Change KC TO Kelvin. I got the initials mixed up. BIG apologies to KC.
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