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My Historic knobs are falling apart

AA00475Bassman

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UPjjoGV.jpg
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Keefoman

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The knobs on my ‘06 R8 broke a couple of years after I bought it in 2010. I replaced them with original Gibson amber knobs. Not correct for the R8, but I think they look better, and so far no cracks.
 

BluesForDan

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OK, pictures:

wildwood featherweight ebony R7

Bridge volume knob, as you can see it is split and starting to separate

The Neck knob is starting to have issues too, but the splits are not full thickness yet

Also you can see that the Bridge knob is developing a crack toward the opposite side, and once it reaches full thickness, it looks to me like the thing will just fall apart. There is also a crack at just shy of 90 degrees to the full thickness split that is on its way to going all the way down too.

I just emailed Gibson Custom via their website to ask if the knobs are under warranty, and if not, where I can buy a set. We'll see what they say.

EDIT: LOL, my eyes are going bad..I just looked at the pictures more closely and the Neck Volume knob is also starting to split between the 10 and the 0.

I need some new damn knobs!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I have seen probably over 1000 Historics over the years and NEVAH have i EVAH seen anything like that. Wow. Hey, dude, yer knobs are falling apart. Oh, wait, you said that already. :spabout

*sorry, not meaning to make light of your situation. But wow, pictures really do tell the story, to paraphrase Rod S a little bit :)

They look like they took an impact, wonder if something heavy landed on the case over the area of the lower bout. Are the studs of the tailpiece still straight?
 

Trans-Am

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Wow them knobs sure show em' cracked and brittle alright .

I think the shaft has expanded like the wood :##or the knobs have shrunk therefore. (just being funny on the first part):peace2

Yeah I've one on my 2005 LP Std. GT

Not sure if the Historic's have the same aging process like the bindings/pick guard/TRC as well.:hmm

Or Gibson is installing some very OLD STOCK parts, but then again I would think it's the environment and age that reacts to certain condition we are at.

If you catch it first before the 1st year warranty ends they the store/place you got it from should replace them at once and you should be able to keep the old ones just in case your not ready to opt for the new set for the time being as it does add a bit of character. I just left mine alone, maybe I'll superglue it nicely so to keep the OEM vibe of it Historically.
 

BluesForDan

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OP, I have NEVAH seen anything like those knobs EVAH. I've seen about a thousand historics over the years since 2002 and not one had that kind of cracking. If I didn't know any better, I'd say something hit the case in the area of the lower bout and damaged those knobs. How are your bridge studs?

Thanks for the pictures. To paraphrase Rod, every picture tells a story :salude
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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The knobs on my ‘06 R8 broke a couple of years after I bought it in 2010. I replaced them with original Gibson amber knobs. Not correct for the R8, but I think they look better, and so far no cracks.

The original Gibson knobs are not much money so I may get a set just to see what they look like on my guitar...the amber may look good with the ebony top.
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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Wow them knobs sure show em' cracked and brittle alright .

I think the shaft has expanded like the wood :##or the knobs have shrunk therefore. (just being funny on the first part):peace2

Yeah I've one on my 2005 LP Std. GT

Not sure if the Historic's have the same aging process like the bindings/pick guard/TRC as well.:hmm

Or Gibson is installing some very OLD STOCK parts, but then again I would think it's the environment and age that reacts to certain condition we are at.

If you catch it first before the 1st year warranty ends they the store/place you got it from should replace them at once and you should be able to keep the old ones just in case your not ready to opt for the new set for the time being as it does add a bit of character. I just left mine alone, maybe I'll superglue it nicely so to keep the OEM vibe of it Historically.

I did move last winter so there were some significant environmental and temperature shifts. I kept the guitars cased, but still.

You know, that's a good idea about the super glue! I've got nothing to loose. I could take them off glue em and see what I'm left with. I could always just put on some kind of replacements.
 

Trans-Am

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I did move last winter so there were some significant environmental and temperature shifts. I kept the guitars cased, but still.

You know, that's a good idea about the super glue! I've got nothing to loose. I could take them off glue em and see what I'm left with. I could always just put on some kind of replacements.



I would just glue it from the bottom in a fine line so that it doesn't crack any longer all the way unless it has then just a small line where the crack and it wont crumble on you but will be intact and have that nice looking aged character as OEM.:peace2
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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OP, I have NEVAH seen anything like those knobs EVAH. I've seen about a thousand historics over the years since 2002 and not one had that kind of cracking. If I didn't know any better, I'd say something hit the case in the area of the lower bout and damaged those knobs. How are your bridge studs?

Thanks for the pictures. To paraphrase Rod, every picture tells a story :salude

You know when I first noticed it about 8 months ago, I don't think that it was quite as bad. No damage has happened in the meantime, but the cracking has continued. But as I mentioned above, I did move across the country during the middle of winter. My guitars were subjected to cold and dry air, but cased. Actually I took my R4 and R7 into the hotel rooms with me. My R4's speed knobs don't have any significant cracking whatsoever btw. It is very strange I suppose.

The bridge studs are OK, and like I say, I don't think any damage was incurred by the guitar at any point, at least that I know of..I mean who knows, my 6 year old could have jumped on my case for all I know, but I don't think so. Actually when I first noticed the cracking I was concerned that it may have been from damage, and I did check the case and the rest of the guitar, but found no evidence of foul play. Again, the cracking was not nearly as pronounced I don't remember at that point. But since I wasn't familiar with the cracking thing I did do a search on cracked knobs, including on this forum. This is when I saw that people had reported such a phenomenon to happen spontaneously, and so I thought that explained it and didn't worry about it. A few weeks ago, I looked at the knobs closely again and noted that the cracking had definitely progressed to the state that they are in now. But yeah the rest of the guitar seems totally fine, and while taking pictures of the knobs today I had a real close look at the bridge of the guitar while messing with it.
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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I would just glue it from the bottom in a fine line so that it doesn't crack any longer all the way unless it has then just a small line where the crack and it wont crumble on you but will be intact and have that nice looking aged character as OEM.:peace2

Great idea, I will try it. Thanks!
 

KR1

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Cracking "Historic" knobs are very common (at least in Colorado). I've owned a bunch and have seen many more. It's a legitimate complaint, IMO. I'm guessing, but it seems the vender didn't match the splines on the pot shaft or missed the diameter spec.
 

BluesForDan

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a 6 year old

uh-oh

that changes everything

you have no idea what goes through a child's mind. "Whack the gold buttons on daddy's guitar to make it play" :bug:hee
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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Cracking "Historic" knobs are very common (at least in Colorado). I've owned a bunch and have seen many more. It's a legitimate complaint, IMO. I'm guessing, but it seems the vender didn't match the splines on the pot shaft or missed the diameter spec.

Yeah, I've heard that Colorado could be really hard on guitars due to the oscillations in temperature and humidity. I didn't realize that this also would affect knobs.

On that note, I live in North Arizona and keep my guitars in a 35-40% humidity, on the average. Sometimes it will dip in the low 30% range when I am not home to constantly control the humidity.

But the cracking started significantly when I was living in Georgia, albeit it was the winter time and I did store the guitars in a room at my parents' house for a few weeks. The air does get dry due to running the heat and they didn't run a humidifier like I do. But I did notice the cracking right after that, hmmm...

But yeah mostly, it has to be a spec mismatch between the spline and the diameter of the knob hole, exacerbated by environmental factors maybe.
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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a 6 year old

uh-oh

that changes everything

you have no idea what goes through a child's mind. "Whack the gold buttons on daddy's guitar to make it play" :bug:hee

LOL, but no, based on how and where the guitars were stored when the problem arose, and since, there is zero chance of this happening. But great visual! Actually you may totally roll your eyes at this but please trust me when I say that my 6 year old is really well behaved and would never do anything like that..but perhaps more germanely the guitars were never left in vulnerable position for 6 year old attack :hee:hank
 

Tor

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OK, pictures:

wildwood featherweight ebony R7
JWNQ3vQ.jpg


Bridge volume knob, as you can see it is split and starting to separate
FvcRDIc.jpg

gCrITja.jpg


The Neck knob is starting to have issues too, but the splits are not full thickness yet
UkqhwTV.jpg

s3YevaY.jpg


Also you can see that the Bridge knob is developing a crack toward the opposite side, and once it reaches full thickness, it looks to me like the thing will just fall apart. There is also a crack at just shy of 90 degrees to the full thickness split that is on its way to going all the way down too.

I just emailed Gibson Custom via their website to ask if the knobs are under warranty, and if not, where I can buy a set. We'll see what they say.

EDIT: LOL, my eyes are going bad..I just looked at the pictures more closely and the Neck Volume knob is also starting to split between the 10 and the 0.

I need some new damn knobs!

From what I can see, these knobs don't look to much different from the Gibson original knobs.
You should be fine picking "gold" or amber knobs. :peace2

Probably only the "True Historic" and "Custom Historic" series that got the previous mention details down.
:hmm
 

TM1

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8,349
These are Not the True Historic knobs
OK, pictures:

wildwood featherweight ebony R7
JWNQ3vQ.jpg
. These are

Bridge volume knob, as you can see it is split and starting to separate
FvcRDIc.jpg

gCrITja.jpg


The Neck knob is starting to have issues too, but the splits are not full thickness yet
UkqhwTV.jpg

s3YevaY.jpg


Also you can see that the Bridge knob is developing a crack toward the opposite side, and once it reaches full thickness, it looks to me like the thing will just fall apart. There is also a crack at just shy of 90 degrees to the full thickness split that is on its way to going all the way down too.

I just emailed Gibson Custom via their website to ask if the knobs are under warranty, and if not, where I can buy a set. We'll see what they say.

EDIT: LOL, my eyes are going bad..I just looked at the pictures more closely and the Neck Volume knob is also starting to split between the 10 and the 0.
The
I need some new damn knobs!
These are not “True Historic” knobs. These are the regular ABS plastic ones that were designed to be used on the regular production LP’s that Custom made. The “True Historic” knobs are made from CAB (Butryte) plastic exactly like the original 50’s ones. The shafts on the regular production pots were a different size vs. new, True Historic pots.
 

Trans-Am

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These are Not the True Historic knobs These are not “True Historic” knobs. These are the regular ABS plastic ones that were designed to be used on the regular production LP’s that Custom made. The “True Historic” knobs are made from CAB (Butryte) plastic exactly like the original 50’s ones. The shafts on the regular production pots were a different size vs. new, True Historic pots.

Yes the CS/Historic's used here are not the real actual production made for the 50's. Those would have only come with the original Paul's made then. Same with the Bakelite plastics made by Fender in the same period.

Gibson here will not make nor include the real thing, for whatever reason due to cost in manufacturing and availability or tools used in the making as far staying true to the only authentic side of the original Les Paul spectrum.
 

RocknRollShakeUp

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Ah, well that makes it easier then. For some reason I thought the CS used different knobs on the Historic line compared to their USA models. I'll just get some Gibson Original Knobs form Sweetwater.
 
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