PRS John Mayer Silver Sky Volume Pot doesn´t work anymore

[Philipp Elfers]

Hello folks,
this is my first post in this great community and its because i´ve got a problem. I purchased a Silver Sky in August this year and like many people here wondered about the loose or wobbeling pots, however you may call it. I played the guitar in some rehearsals and also on a few smaller gigs.

But at the end of october, i started having issues with my volume pot. It didnt mute the guitar properly anymore when i rolled it back, instead it sounds more like a tone pot. The mistake started to appear from time to time, but not constantly. A few weeks later it got worse, because I couldnt roll the volume down at all. I decided to send the guitar back to the dealer where i purchased It, because its a case of warranty. The technician found a cold solder joint o a mass cable and fixed it.

When the guitar returned to me four weeks later, I noticed that the old issue was still there and the cold solder joint was not the reason of the not working volume pot. I called the technician of the dealer and he recommended to install a gibson pot, because its more solid and maybe wont get broken that fast again. Otherwise he could install a PRS Silver Sky pot instead, but I am afraid that it could be get broken again after time.

This is a difficult question or decision, and thats why I wanted to ask this great community for help.
Do you have experience with broken Silver Sky volume pots or other PRS pots?
How did you solve it, and what would you recommend for me?
Is there technically a difference between the gibson pots and the one from PRS if you use the same resistance range?

I actually played one bigger show last weekend with the broken pot and ended up muting the guitar with my pedalboard. But I definately want the problem to get repaired.

By the way, Im an elecrical engineering student, so you can talk to me on a technical level. Before you ask: I cuould fix it by myself, but ist still warranty on that guitar and im afraid that I would damage more becaus ive got no experience in repairing guitars worth over 2500 bucks.

I open for your thinkings and opinions about this.

I hope you all have a great day, Greetings from Germany,
Phil

 

[goat-n-gitter]

I would be pretty upset that the dealer's tech didn't fix a simple wiring problem on the first try.
The dealer is responsible for handling this kind of warranty issue, and they should do so in a way that does not risk your warranty coverage (like using incorrect parts). PRS uses top notch parts, especially in core model and higher guitars.
As far as the pots go, the circuit won't see a real difference between two pots with the same resistance rating and taper.

 

[Tim S]

If you find the PRS pots wobbly, then give the Gibson pot a try. Just hang on to original PRS pot in case you want to sell the guitar at a later date.

 

[88prs]

Contact Customer Service and have them send you a PRS volume pot. Still under warranty and they are REAL good about that.

[email protected]

 

[bodia]

Contact Customer Service and have them send you a PRS volume pot. Still under warranty and they are REAL good about that.

[email protected]

This is the correct answer. Also, keep in mind, there's a little extra mojo that goes into the SS pots. You won't find the same thing on the open market.

 

[Philipp Elfers]

If you find the PRS pots wobbly, then give the Gibson pot a try. Just hang on to original PRS pot in case you want to sell the guitar at a later date.

I also tought recently that the value of the guitar will shrink if I use non PRS Parts. At least its like this on the old vintage guitars. I think the SS will only be sold when Im dead, lol.

 

[Boogie]

A ‘broken’ pot, ignoring language use (love my German friends’ use of powerful terms in English) , should never happen. Except for shipping abuse, the reseller should have taken care of any issues before you even saw the guitar.

With that said, and you being an engineering student - please tell me you own a good soldering station - you should absolutely tackle the job yourself. Now that the reseller screwed up the repair, you can tell if the pot is the problem or if it was workmanship. Take the volume pot out, hook up a VOM, and watch how the resistance curve reacts to turning the knob. A taper (audio) is a logarithmic curve, so you should see the respective change in resistance. Resolder all connections and make sure the mounting screw is tight, securing the pot properly. If something still isn’t right, demand that the reseller get it corrected, properly, with genuine PRS parts.

Good luck!

 

[dmatthews]

I voted original PRS SS pot.

 

[alantig]

Personally, I'd get the PRS pot. As was noted above, there's a little something extra done w/the Silver Sky pots. And you can always ask the customer service folks if installing the pot yourself would affect the warranty. You shouldn't have any issues soldering the new pot in - I'm fairly novice at soldering, and I've done pot and pickup swaps numerous times.

 

[shimmilou]

After you are done, be sure to inform the dealer that they need to get rid of the slacker they have and hire a tech that knows what he is doing.

 

[CyFan4036]

Just out of curiosity, what is different about a SS pot?

 

[Rider1260]

The Silver Sky Vol pots are set to a specific KOhm rating not the generac 250k or 500K if I remember correctly its 300K part of the reason it sound the way it does.
Contact PTC they will get you straight

 

[dmatthews]

The Silver Sky Vol pots are set to a specific KOhm rating not the generac 250k or 500K if I remember correctly its 300K part of the reason it sound the way it does.
Contact PTC they will get you straight

I was under the possibly mistaken impression that they used certain pots, which had somewhat variable readings, and they added certain resistors specifically to end up with an exact desired reading.
I think...

 

[bodia]

I was under the possibly mistaken impression that they used certain pots, which had somewhat variable readings, and they added certain resistors specifically to end up with an exact desired reading.
I think...

This is it exactly. Since all pots have a variance range, they measure each individual pot and add a resistor to get to the number they're looking for.

 

[Philipp Elfers]

Thank you all for all the kind answers. I wrote to PTC and they´ll sent me a new pot and I will swap them out then by myself. I built the soldering station by myself so i think its pretty good, haha. Just kidding. It was part of the formation.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

That’s good news, the PTC guys and gals are great. Was that Maryland or Europe?

 

[Philipp Elfers]

Actually it was Shawn@PRS from Maryland and he even answered in under an hour.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Actually it was Shawn@PRS from Maryland and he even answered in under an hour.

Aye he’s not a bad wee chap!

 

[Guitar54]

Did the new pot fix the issue? Have same problem. Thx.

 

[Philipp Elfers]

Hey guys,
it has been a while. I swapped the old pot back then with the new one sent to me by PRS. The repair was quite tricky because the caps of the pots fit very tight. I had fear to break the pickguard, but in the end it worked. I soldered the wires onto the new one like they were before and put everything back together. After that, the pot worked fine like it should again. Its exactly the same like he old one and also the resistor on it is the same. You can see it if you look at the coloured rings on it. Now my SS works perfectly fine again and i have played several gigs since the repair. No problems anymore. If some of you wants to see some pictures you can check my Instagram via the link below. Cheers!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEB1HulnLEy/