smoke buttons'll help. maybe we have someone here who is capable of making metal buttons?

Maybe this is true for the plastic molded fascia, but the translucent lens won't come off unless you take the knob off. This is critical to doing some kinds of jobs on the player, so you have to make sure the knob can be removed without damaging the encoder.

this is true. however, once the molded fascia is off there's way more room to grip it and slide it off.