Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

[Stratguy21]

Hi guys, i recently installed new pickups pots and output in my strat. I also copper shielded it all off. I hooked the pots up with 99.9 silver wire in teflon tubing to see how it sounds.
It all works but the volume does not roll off evenly and at around 1 its zerod but at zero it has sort of full volume but with less mids and slightly less treble but a usable sound.

There is no groundloop hum in my novice opinion. But the vintage singlecoils or the amp picks up my phone when on charge near the guitar with wi fi on the phone.

The pots are all new and are allparts cts 250k. Output is switchcraft. I am not sure if it is some sort of ground loop causing it or a cold solder joint on 1 or several grounds. I ordered some sort of fancy cts volume pot i am not sure if its that. The tone controls have a bypass at 10.

Any body familiar with this and can advise me would be appretiated greatly.

The silver wire was super fiddly to install and solder compared to standard cloth push back wire so would rather not rip it all out. Although I am close to de solderinf it all and putting cloth push back instead as it is just way too unreliable and possibly unsafe. Its on the bench waiting a remedy or surgery route.

Thanks

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

Sound like you have a left handed pot. Just a guess.

[Stratguy21]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

It works at 10 normally though. 3 to 7 are a non gradual steep taper. 1 is zero volume. 0 is like full volume but less mid and treble

[Demanic]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

It works at 10 normally though. 3 to 7 are a non gradual steep taper. 1 is zero volume. 0 is like full volume but less mid and treble

Odd, I have a tone pot that works similar to that. I always thought that it was some weird "greasebucket" pot or something like that.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

[Mincer]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

I'd swap it with a known-working pot to see if it behaves the same.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

When one of mine worked like that, a ground solder blob/wire wasn’t completely connected. I just reflowed all the connections with some heat and while pressing the wire against the lug while the solder was liquid and holding it until it cooled then it started working fine.

[Stratguy21]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

I'd swap it with a known-working pot to see if it behaves the same.

Yeah thanks I will try after I try to make any cold solder joints on the grounds hot with the heating in the fashion a member graciously sugested above.

If that does not fix it I will try a new pot thats tested with multi meter first.

I twisted the 3 black pickup wires together then one of the cloth was a bit pulled back and i soldered the trem ground wire to the 3 pickups wire before itngotnto the volume pots main ground solder terminal.

I am wondering if this is making the volume control behave differently?

I am also thinking i may have damaged the pot with way too high temperature soldering iron as the 4% silver solder I used needed alot of heating energy to get it to flow..

Thanks guys and girls for your help thus far so much and speed of reply

[ehdwuld]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

The wafer inside the pot has spun
Probably got too hot
New pot , try again

[Stratguy21]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

The wafer inside the pot has spun
Probably got too hot
New pot , try again

Ahh thanls for that answer and sharing your knowledge.

Is the wafer the resistor material that the contact arm turns and sits on to make connection and lower signal volume?

Want to really try understand the electrics more of guitars.

I will desolder it and take it apart carefully to try see what you mean by this wafer and being spun.

Is this the general cooking damage from poor solder technique or is thsisreally bad solder technique? I was trying to go for 'brighter more responsive' tone with silver teflon wire and 4% silver solder which takes loads of time and heat to flow? Maybe my solder tips too skinny and it flows slow because of this? I really want to learn to solder with it without burning and wasting expensive pots...

The pot still 'functions' and the new ssl1s i put in sound pretty good but i cant roll it off with a gradual taper like most good pots do. And its on at zero and off at one thing is a little tricky to use.

I suppose i can test if the ground connections are good by taking my fluke multi meter and putting one end on the solder blob of the volume potnor the pot it self and moving it to the end of each neutral wire terminal poi t to check that i can send a small test current thru the solder joints? Can some one please be so teaching if they have a good way to test i dividual solder joints and trouble shoot.

Some of the tones i got with the tokai at 10 and i between positions and clean channel were super bright and note separation and clarity of the ssl1s was really good.

Thanks for your guidance and teachings guys

[Stratguy21]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

Ahh thanls for that answer and sharing your knowledge.

Is the wafer the resistor material that the contact arm turns and sits on to make connection and lower signal volume?

Want to really try understand the electrics more of guitars.

I will desolder it and take it apart carefully to try see what you mean by this wafer and being spun.

Is this the general cooking damage from poor solder technique or is thsisreally bad solder technique? I was trying to go for 'brighter more responsive' tone with silver teflon wire and 4% silver solder which takes loads of time and heat to flow? Maybe my solder tips too skinny and it flows slow because of this? I really want to learn to solder with it without burning and wasting expensive pots...

The pot still 'functions' and the new ssl1s i put in sound pretty good but i cant roll it off with a gradual taper like most good pots do. And its on at zero and off at one thing is a little tricky to use.

I suppose i can test if the ground connections are good by taking my fluke multi meter and putting one end on the solder blob of the volume potnor the pot it self and moving it to the end of each neutral wire terminal poi t to check that i can send a small test current thru the solder joints? Can some one please be so teaching if they have a good way to test i dividual solder joints and trouble shoot.

Some of the tones i got with the tokai at 10 and i between positions and clean channel were super bright and note separation and clarity of the ssl1s was really good.

Thanks for your guidance and teachings guys

Oh and one more things what is a good desolder tool to use other than the plastic spring loaded chinese made solder sucker thing as it does not seem to solder so quick and shouldni look for more solder tips to practice with and how do i match them with the soldering iron is it standardised by wattage of the iron or brand?

Thanks so much am eagar to learn and tackle my poor soldering ability in time..

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

Oh and one more things what is a good desolder tool to use other than the plastic spring loaded chinese made solder sucker thing as it does not seem to solder so quick and shouldni look for more solder tips to practice with and how do i match them with the soldering iron is it standardised by wattage of the iron or brand?

Thanks so much am eagar to learn and tackle my poor soldering ability in time..

This is what I use.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352731014204

I keep the heat setting at about 3 1/2 and it’s perfect.
The plastic desoldering thingy works pretty good. I’ve got one of those too. I’m sure there is a better product out there but it gets the job done. You just need a steady hand.

And get one of these too. Much better than a wet sponge.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282819884225

[Mincer]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

Yeah the wafer thing is what has the resistance band on it. It might be worth taking it apart if you are curious, but I'd just go on to replacing it- the part is pretty cheap.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

Oh and one more things what is a good desolder tool to use other than the plastic spring loaded chinese made solder sucker thing as it does not seem to solder so quick and shouldni look for more solder tips to practice with and how do i match them with the soldering iron is it standardised by wattage of the iron or brand?

Thanks so much am eagar to learn and tackle my poor soldering ability in time..

I find desoldering easier using copper braid wire meant for desoldering.

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Volume pot is faulty. Troubleshooting. Help please

I find desoldering easier using copper braid wire meant for desoldering.

I knew there was another desoldering product but I couldn’t remember what it was...