Loose pot

ramspam

One of the pots on my guitar(Ibanez AXS-32), the one that controls the tone on the bridge pickup i think, has become loose. So I can no longer control the gain on it.

I was wondering how I can tighten it again? I looked in the back of my guitar and the other 3 knobs were in firmly and there didn't seem to be screws securing them to the guitar.

I'll probably take it to a guitar store to get it repaired but not until the holidays which is in about 4 weeks so I was wondering if there was a way I could fix it without damaging my guitar, thanks.

who's_pearljam?

Well, it could be one of three things. I'm not sure what's actually loose.
If 3 of the round metal casings are tight and one is loose when you're looking into the back of the cavity, then go to number 2.

1) Is the plastic knob loose and the shaft doesn't turn? Possible, and you can sometimes tighten the set screw on the knob, or there is no screw and the plastic is worn. You can pull the plastic knob head off and see if the shaft turns. Sometimes you can spray with tuner cleaner from Radio Shack or an electronics store to free up a stuck shaft.

2) is the whole knob and assembly loose?
When you pull the knob head off, you'll see a nut that holds the threaded shaft in the guitar. This would cause the whole pot to turn and you would see that turning from behind the cavity. Just tighten that nut with a wrench and you're probably good to go. Make sure the wires weren't jarred loose at the solder joints on the pot from it moving back and forth.

3) If the shaft going into the pot spins but doesnt do anything, then it's broken and you need a new pot. Pretty easy job if you can solder, but if not, a tech can put a new one in pretty easily.

Hopefully it's just a loose nut holding the pot to the front of the guitar!
Good luck!