Ibanez Sure Grip III Deep Honey

count how many knobs exist on the musical instruments' market for electric guitar and bass: with at least 30 or 40 different basic designs, vintage-inspired and classic-inspired, modern and futuristic included, what's so special here to go the trouble, for Ibanez, to design and maintain on a catalog for thirty and more years?

it does what the name says: your grip with this one is sure, totally sure, one-hundred percent sure.

i've bought this before, i just wanted it with another finish, and now my collection is complete (black, gold, and honey, which i now can compare).

i use them when i install EMG pickups with "split" function on archtops that i like to activate with push-pull pots, which isn't necessarily an easy accomplishment on standard plastic knobs.

these have a rubber-like ring on the upper portion, just above the dial marks... it isn't sponge-soft, and surely isn't rubber, either, but it's indeed easy to grab, offers some substantial grip, and stands the test of time nicely – i have touched ones on instruments with forty years of age that were as good as new ones.

one word of caution is needed here, before you push them all down your pots: make sure you have a wooden wedge at hand if you want to remove them again, as they fit the pot's shaft so snugly, they're almost impossible to lift up by hand alone!

if at all the tip can be of any use to any other buyer here, the best tool i've found around my drawers is a ruler, one of those primary-schools wooden rulers that have marks etched in both metric and imperial scale: its edges are sloped, and slide nicely between knob's edge and guitar top, but being made of soft wood they won't marr the finish, nor leave a dent where it connects when you pry it upward for lifting.

i know there exist specialized tools for pulling Gibson-style knobs out of their pots' shaft, i just never found one that i liked enough to swallow the hefty lump sum some of them were offered at, hence the wooden ruler i had sitting around here... either way, make sure you have one before you buy these, if removing them is an option you don't want to rule out completely!