Hofner Bass Pot Query

JezWynd

Recently picked up an old Hofner Professional Bass, dated 1963. Lovely little thing but with a couple of issues.

Firstly, the pickup seemed near to death - that's gone to Bareknuckle to be rewound.

Second is the tone pot. At one end of its travel it abruptly kills the sound completely. When the pickup comes back I'll try some contact cleaner on it to see if it is just dirt in the pot but I think it might need to be replaced. It looks like this -



- which is nothing I've ever seen before. Would it be possible to obtain an exact replacement if necessary and if not, what kind of pot should I get in its place? The wires leading off the bottom of the pic are the pickup wires.

The bass -

ICBM

It's unlikely to be the pot - more likely a shorted tone cap or the wiring. What's under the black cable? It looks like the third terminal might be touching the casing tab, which it shouldn't be.

JezWynd

Actually, I think that might be the volume pot in centre of pic (I took it so I would know where to reattach the wires) Are the fibre board covers integral to the pots or can they be removed, looks as if they may have been rivited?

ICBM

Ah, OK. In that case the third terminal should be grounded!

It's still much more likely to be a cap or wiring fault - a shorted pot is rare. You can't remove the fibreboard piece easily.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

Ah, OK. In that case the third terminal should be grounded!

It's still much more likely to be a cap or wiring fault - a shorted pot is rare. You can't remove the fibreboard piece easily.

I don't know which is the third terminal (or the first and second come to that!). I'll have a go at sorting it out once the pickup is ready to install. Thanks for info, I had thought that perhaps the track of the pot had decayed but I know nothing about this stuff. I should probably just drop it off at my local store.

ICBM

Ah... before you go any further, I missed something important.

You said the tone pot killed the output, *and the pickup is now away being rewound*... not that it's already been done. ie you have not heard it with a correctly-working pickup.

When you get the pickup back, the tone pot will work properly .

The tone pot acting as a second volume is totally normal when the pickup coil is broken.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

When you get the pickup back, the tone pot will work properly .

The tone pot acting as a second volume is totally normal when the pickup coil is broken.

That sounds like good news, thanks. I've just heard from Bareknuckle that pickup is on its way to me, so hopefully I'll be able to reassemble it shortly.