I noticed that the Small Bear site is now carrying a replacement knob that looks like a perfect replacement for Kustom amps.
I am gonna order some to see how well it matches the old ones. They are in the $1 price range, so hopefully there will be a reliable source for replacement knobs!
The new knobs from Small Bear arrived today and they look like exact duplicates of the originals. Tonight, I'll be able to side by side compare them to the originals.
They are 1" diameter at the skirt and have the same feel as the originals. They fit with set screws, so they should work with all versions of pot shafts.
They cost $1.20 each for quantities less than ten. You can check out the website for discounts on larger quantities.
Last night I side by side compared the new knobs with original Kustom knobs and they are a perfect match! So if you need replacements these are the ones to order.
I did notice that the original Kustom knobs have two different sized white dots. Some are about 1/32" in diameter and others are almost 1/16" in diameter. The new knobs match the 1/16" diameter.
As Rodak mentioned, these same style knobs were used on a lot of musical stuff back in the day. The original Rick knobs have printed labels for volume and tone, etc.
I've seen these knobs used on Univox amps and Foxx fuzz pedals, as well.
Maybe we can get them to stock the smaller 3/4" size knobs for metal fronts as well.
rodak Messages: 511 Registered: October 2001 Location: Georgia
Senior Member
Yes, the older Rick knobs had the lettering on them(slim chance of finding those, I bet!), but I believe they started using the plain, unmarked knobs in the early 70's. My '73 4001S bass has the lettered knobs, Grover machines and checkerboard binding. I know they dropped the checkerboard binding in 74, and I'm pretty sure they went to Schaller machines and unmarked knobs that same year.