Orange Amps Forum

A few of the knobs on my Orange are loose and jiggle. They weren't like this before I took it to a technician. I guess my best bet is to take them off and try to put them back on or something. Any suggestions as to how I might get them back so they are solid again.

Mine had small set screws to hold them in place. I've had to tighten them on every Orange I've owned.

Just get a small jewelers screwdriver and tighten them down.

The problem with new Oranges is that the shaft is meant for friction type knobs and not meant to be used with set screws:



Might be worth trying to fill the gap in the shaft with something to make it more solid.

When using a knob with a set-screw on a split pot shaft, it works best to align the set-screw with the gap so that it does not pinch the sides in when you tighten the screw. It is also good to only tighten the screw enough to keep it in place so that you don't chew up the splines.

Randy Bass wrote:When using a knob with a set-screw on a split pot shaft, it works best to align the set-screw with the gap so that it does not pinch the sides in when you tighten the screw.

Kind of hard to do that and get the position marker on the knob in the correct place...

Sooner wrote:

Randy Bass wrote:When using a knob with a set-screw on a split pot shaft, it works best to align the set-screw with the gap so that it does not pinch the sides in when you tighten the screw.

Kind of hard to do that and get the position marker on the knob in the correct place...

It is a compromise indeed!

When I want to use set-screw knobs on split shafts, I fill the slot in the shaft with a piece of an old credit card. Often it's an exact fit; if it's a little loose I wrap masking tape around the piece of card.

"Jiggly" knobs suggest that the technician overtightened the set-screws without having aligned them with the slot, so that the tines of the shaft have collapsed in toward each other. The fix is simple -- take off the knobs and spread the tines of the shaft apart. But it's very easy to snap one or both of the tines off while spreading them. If you flex a tine outward just a little past straight it'll snap right off. Set-screw squashing usually bends one tine in farther than the other, and the natural way to spread them is to stick a screwdriver in the slot and twist. But if one tine is squashed in farther than the other, twisting a screwdriver applies equal force to both tines and the straighter one will bend out too far and snap before the bent one gets straightened. To avoid that, you have to poke the screwdriver into the slot and push on the bent one without bending the straight one.

But even if you do it right, sometimes a tine will snap off. If a tine snaps it may be necessary to replace the pot and that's a pain. (If the knob aligns correctly, you can just use a longer set-screw and get away with using the single remaining tine, but most often the alignment won't be right, plus any strong bump on the knob will shear off the remaining tine.)

Did you notice the problem when you picked it up at the shop, or after you got home? There's a chance the technician didn't cause the problem -- any mild bump/impact could cause it. I'm really surprised that Orange would use set-screw knobs on split-shaft pots because that's just asking for trouble. Push-on knobs spread the forces evenly all around the perimeters of the tines, but set-screw knobs concentrate the forces onto two spots -- under the set-screw and a narrow patch on the opposite side. My Tiny Terror has split-shafts but proper push-on knobs.

Since you're asking about it, I guess it's likely you've never dealt with squashed split-shafts before. As I said, they can snap very easily while spreading them, and if you break them they won't be covered by any warranty. So you may be better off taking it back to the tech and letting him fix it. Ask him to fill the slots while he's at it (or do it yourself after he fixes them) because the problem can easily reoccur.

bwise wrote:if it's a little loose I wrap masking tape around the piece of card.

+1

you'll never know the masking tape is there, and you risk no damage to anything. I've done this before with great results.