Oh, mylanta...FENDER, seriously? *Recanted*

[lars]

I recently have been doing some mods to my Strat. I thought it would be interesting to combine my volume and tone control into one concentric potentiometer, just like they do on some Tele's and Jazz Bass's. As far as I know, the only concentric potentiometers Fender sells are made by CTS. The one I bought is part #0019268049.
So far, so good. It's a very nice potentiometer.
Now for some genuine Fender-branded concentric knobs. They have upper and lower concentric knobs (sold separately, of course) which are part #'s 0049411049 and 0049412049, respectively. The upper concentric knob fits perfectly and uses the same size allen key as a typical Strat bridge saddle.
Great!
Then all hell breaks loose. For some idiotic reason, the lower concentric knob uses a tiny allen key that is not a standard size on any typical allen key set. And of course, they don't provide the key with the knob. Then in an even greater bout of stupidity, the Fender-branded lower concentric knob does not fit the Fender-branded concentric potentiometer!
I had to drill out the center of the lower knob to get it to fit. On closer examination, the upper and lower knobs aren't even made by the same manufacturer. Yet all three parts are in genuine Fender packaging, supposedly made to work together.
Oy, vey! Obviously nobody in the entire company is actually testing their replacement parts to see if they fit.
What else is being done wrong?

[Muadzin]

A luthier once lamented to me about Fender replacement parts, nothing fits. Fender also constantly changes things so that a pickguard screw holes that fits on one guitar doesn't line up on another. And it doesn't help that many companies use metric, as they are in metric countries, while the Anglosaxon world persists with Imperial. So that adds to the fun. Many, many MANY times did I order knobs that turned out to be metric and wouldn't fit on imperial measured pots.

[matmosphere]

Honestly, everyone who isn't using metric should just make the switch.

I have some pots on a bass that have shafts that are just a tiny bit too big for all the knobs I try. I've bought several sets that should fit, from measuring. The only set that did work ended up going on a pedal that was gifted to somebody. Had I only know.

[lars]

I contacted Fender about the problem and I was surprised to get a friendly and appreciative response. They mentioned they would let the parts team know and asked if I was able to get the parts to work together.
Fender support team for the win.

[jimilee]

Honestly, I've always heard good things about both the Fender and Gibson team.


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