DIY guitar knob puller?

[oc disorder]

[Richard]

How about a vacuum knob puller?

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It's not my bag, Baby!

[Freddie]

Go to the local auto parts store they have plastic pry bar sets used for automotive interior work, some have forked ends. Slide one under the knob put your finger on top of knob and pry the knob off. Results knob off no damage.

[Steve A.]

I just ran across this tool in one of my many tool boxes and have no idea when and where I bought it.* Before snapping these pictures I looked on-line for them. No such luck. In any event I was able to pry off the other two knobs on my guitar du jour,* a 2013 Gibson LPJ,* putting a songbook under the wider radius fulcrum point to prevent damage to the body.

Note: There are no markings on the tool and some of the edges of the handle portion are a bit rough. Total length is around 9 inches. If anyone knows of a current source for this tool please chime in!





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Steve Ahola

P.S. This $15.99 pry bar/scraper set from Rockler looks like it would work okay, too. Just be sure to put something under the fulcrum point that will absorb the pressure to protect the body from dings. A magazine with a decent thickness would work. Perhaps put a shop rag under the magazine to prevent the transference of ink to the body.



Stainless Steel Pry Bar and Scraper Set | Rockler Woodworking and Hardware

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Bill Moore identified this as a brake adjusting tool (thanks, Bill!)

I'm resurrecting this thread because I finally found the perfect item to place under a pry tool to remove pot knobs without damaging the top of the guitar: the clear hard plastic cover of a retail box for Gibson pickups! It is fairly thin and very hard.





My years of hoarding crap has finally paid off... these pickup boxes were just too nice to throw away! (I just knew that they must be good for *something* !)

Steve A.

P.S. I just checked and the plastic cover is 3mm (7/64") thick which in some cases is too thick so I'll use a thin piece of metal, preferably galvanized because it is stronger than brass.

[big_teee]

Most of the guitars I work on, belong to working regional musicians, and they are beat up anyway.
No one wants a shiny new out of the box guitar around here.
If you put a new part on, you have to beat it up to look old.
Most knobs that have been pulled a time or two, can be pulled off with your fingers.
Never found that knob pulling to be that big of deal, or anything worthy of buying special tools for.
But, YMMV?
T

[Mick Bailey]

The real pain is vintage knobs that have gone brittle (like 50s Gibsons) and have become welded to the shaft, or any knob that's been glued on - especially with cyano.

[bob p]

It's funny, I always viewed working musicians not wanting a shiny/new out of the box guitar to be someone who was making excuses for not being able to afford one. Battle scars on an old warhorse guitar are one thing, but I've never understood the allure of intentionally abusing a guitar's finish to give it a fake "distressed" look. I've seen guys take belt sanders to sunburst strats until there's only few square inches of paint left... as if that makes them play more like SRV... geez. That just shrieks out "poser" to me.

I've had the fragile knob problem on old Gibsons and you definitely have to treat them with care. I agree that on those valuable instruments an automotive-type gear pulling design seems to work best at pulling knobs without damaging the guitar. I've also had the problem of not being able to pull off a new knob on my G&L. In both cases the solution is the same -- a dedicated knob puller.

With my new G&Ls the knobs sat so low that I could barely slip a credit card under them to try to wedge them up. I ended up damaging the plastic sheet that was still on the pickguard. If it weren't for the plastic sheet then I would have scratched the pickguard. I think I would have done more damage with a metal knife than a plastic card. The nice feature of the padded gear pulling design is that it allows you to center the pulling force on the axis of the pot shaft so nothing gets bent or scratched.

[Enzo]

It is after all show business. However creative or not, a guy has a stage persona he wants to project. Maybe it is the guitar equivalent of shoving a cucumber down the front of your trousers, but hey...

Acid washed jeans? That thing where you take a razor blade to your jeans and make them look all holey and ragged? That is back big this year.

[bob p]

I've noticed the razor-blade jeans thing coming back. Girls are wearing it with those faddy shoulderless long sleeve shirts. Unfortunately, telling the gals that their fashion sense makes them look like shit would be suicidal ... like telling them that their jeans accentuate the fatness of their asses. I won't go there, lest I get condemned to using one of these:

[eschertron]

I've noticed the razor-blade jeans thing coming back. Girls are wearing it with those faddy shoulderless long sleeve shirts. Unfortunately, telling the gals that their fashion sense makes them look like shit would be suicidal ... like telling them that their jeans accentuate the fatness of their asses. I won't go there, lest I get condemned to using one of these:

Back on topic, I see. Is that some kind of gear puller?

[Enzo]

Well, yeah. It pulls on your gear.

[big_teee]

The ones that are hard to get off, are the ones super glued to push pull pots.
They get to where they come loose all the time, so players super glue them on.
You can take heat to those, and eventually get them off.
So far, I've never had any knobs, that I couldn't get off with everyday shop tools.
GL
T

[rjb]

Some people just need to have a special tool for every job. I stumbled on this while shopping for cheap banjo tuners:

Yuker Pocketable Stainless Steel Tool Multi Spanner Wrench for Guitar Switch Knob Tuner High Quality Guitar Parts & Accessories
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pock...StoreLevelAB=3
Just $1.94, with free shipping. And it has the advantage of costing under two dollars.

Being an acoustic kinda guy, I don't know how I've managed to get through life without this guitar-shaped keychain bridge pin puller.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1Pcs...StoreLevelAB=3

-rb