Replacing a bad pot in a new T486

[Flyinhawaiian]

Aloha from Hawaii,

I have a T486 purchased about 3 months ago.  I have 2 Gibson Les Pauls that I love, but my new favorite is this Eastman. It is amazing!

Everything has been great with this instrument until last week when the bridge volume pot started crackling when turning. I tried some contact cleaner spray in the pot, but to no avail.  I had some good quality 500k pots, so I thought I’d just try to replace it.  I put thread/ strings on all the pots and proceeded to try to remove the harness.  I immediately ran into a major issue. I couldn’t remove the first pot through the f hole.  I tried everything that I thought was reasonable without trying to force it and damaging the finish.

my question to the group is:  has any one replaced the pots and is there something obvious that I’m doing wrong?  

I thought I might try removing the bridge pickup to see if that’s the way the wiring was installed.  Can any confirm that this might work?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

thanks,
m

[Meathead]

Hey M - 

I'd probably recommend removing the bridge pickup to take a look - I had my bridge pickup partly out last week, and while I wasn't looking directly in the area you reference, there is some space down in there.  Good luck, and hopefully others might chime in too.

Welcome to EGF, by the way, glad you joined!

[Flyinhawaiian]

Ok Eastman t486 owners.  While changing strings today I had a chance to remove the bridge pickup.  The Eastman guys are so awesome that they made the perfect cavity in the bridge to feed through the wiring harness if you ever need to repair or replace any of the components.  FYI, the stock pots WILL NOT fit through the f holes, so don’t waste you’re time.  You’ll still need to put on the fishing thread on each pot, switch and jack.  But it’s a much easier job using the bridge pickup cavity.

The longer I have this guitar, the more I like it and Eastman.   Great thinking to make a pain in the ass job very easy.  Thanks Eastman!

[pdxbmw]

I would suggest using DeOxit instead of regular contact cleaner.  I have an old MIJ Squier Strat from 83 that constantly gave me issues and contact cleaner never really fixed it.  DeOxit completely cleared up the issues.  I have also brought amps back from the dead using DeOxit.  Pure static until I cleaned them.  That was a few years ago and the amp still sounds great.

If you need to fix the pot, go through the bridge pickup route.