Oahu Tonemaster (late 30’s edition?) tone knob ‘hump’ ?

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Mark Evans
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Joined: 27 Jan 2016 8:55 am
Location: Colorado, USA

Oahu Tonemaster (late 30’s edition?) tone knob ‘hump’ ?

Post by Mark Evans »

(Perhaps this is a no brainer… I’ve only done a wee bit of tinkering with circuits)

I have a recently acquired Oahu Tonemaster 229K lap steel. Oy! Love the tone/distorted tone of the pickup. Fun fun.

Had the panel off the back; the guts look original.

When I work the tone knob, at zero the is sounds fat (bassy), as it turns it acquires a nice treble tone and as it goes to the other end it goes back to full on bass. Is this normal? I reckoned one end would be phat/bass and turning up/down it go to very treble. Is a hump shaped arc typical? Is this a situation to experiment with different component values? I’d rather not lose the authentic tone, and I’m okay with it as is… just curious if there is … more?
Larry Pogreba Baritone 'Weissenheimer
Late 30’s Oahu Tonemaster
LSLME Chatsworth (Lap Steel Legacy Mark Evans)
Early 40’s Mysterious Employee built National ‘New Yorker’
2017 Richard Wilson Style 1 Weissenborn
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Steve Lipsey
Posts: 2138
Joined: 9 May 2011 8:51 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA

Post by Steve Lipsey »

My Oahu Diana pots all work as expected...possibly your pot has a broken carbon strip and shorts out at the end of travel...you can take the post apart and check ..not that hard to get them apart and back together...or just live with it and feel unique..
https://www.lostsailorspdx.com
Shoji & Williams S10s, Milkman "The Amp 100"+Missing Link Hybrid D-120
Ben Bonham Resos, 1954 Oahu Diana, 1936 Oahu Parlor