While rehearsing with an old band mate from years back, last night, he showed me his Supro Lap Steel and wondered if I could breathe any new life back in her. The pickup was cutting out on him and worse yet, one of the tuning knobs had broken away, leaving just the steel shaft. He acquired it years ago for $ 15.00 at a lawn sale. He did not want to put any big investment in it.
The first thing I did was plug it in and play it. It seemed to work OK. The tone control did not seem to work, but the volume rev'd up n down good.
Shadow, having told me that it broke up and was noisy's words rang in my ears as I opened her up.
Someone, years ago had changed the jack. They replaced it with an enclosed long acoustic guitar jack with the strap button. It was pressed in tight. When I got it apart, one of the two wires going to the jack had broke off. I used my handy dandy knob puller to slowly pull the jack out. A quick solder to the ole wire and tapped the jack back into the body using a rubber hammer. Now for a quick clean'n lube to the pots with WD 40. Using Electronic Contact Cleaner on these old pots could result in freezing them up for good. The tone control was not working because the old original oil/paper capacitor was Kaput. I made a judgement call on this relic, worn though she is. I decided to leave the cap in the system for originality. Knowing my friend, he may run it through a wah pedal which will alter the tone.
Now for the broken tuner.
The tuners were made by Klusin, as many in the 40's and 50's. I removed the cover, exposing the gear and shafts. I was hoping that it was the type of tuner where I could bend open the keepers a bit and slide out the broken shaft. No cigar. These babies do not come apart. John did not want to change the tuners if possible. The buttons on this were smaller than a guitar; more like a mandolin. I did have one half of a set of mando tuners on a strip. I took one tuner off the strip and locking the shaft end in a vise, I cut the button off the shaft using a hack saw. Next, locking my cut off button, face up in a small vise, I placed on the drill press. I used a drill close to the shaft size (A Mistake!) to attempt to drill out the steel shaft end out of the button. I've read where guys use all sorts of elaborate techniques to establish the center of the part to drill, but those expertise's are beyond my skills. Well, the button tapers down where you place your fingers to hold and turn it. My drill was just big enough that it drilled out through the side, ruining it. Sigh.........
Oh well, I had four on the strip; three to go. I sawed the second button down.
This time, a bit of the shaft stuck out from the button. I filed the nub down so the button bottom was nice and smooth. This time, I used a much smaller drill bit and locked my 2nd button in the vise and drilled her.
I drilled till I knew I was short of length still but wanted to see where it stood with the old tuner shaft. The shaft was too big and required filing down to accept the new button. File, file, file; rotate, file, file, file, repeat...........
Eventually, I whittled her down to a point where the button could do on. My center hole was not perfect, but pretty close. I mixed up some J B Weld Epoxy and glued my new button onto the old tuner shaft. I wiggled it to what appeared to be a straight alignment and waited for ole J B Weld to cure.
My new button was white. These old ones were white 50-60 years ago. I took a cherry wood stain marker to create my old patina.
Of course, I lubed up those ole tuners generously before I replaced the covers. My new button felt great under the string winder.
We'll leave that gash alone! Even the Shadow doesn't know how that got there!!!!
