Tone knob grounding

[Gdntoneguitars]

I was wiring a '59, and have a 500k pot for volume, 250k for tone, with a ceramic disc capacitor rated at .047MFD.

I was following the diagram posted for 1 humbucker, 1 volume, and 1 tone. I grounded the right-most tab on the tone pot, and I am not noticing that the tone pot does much at all.

Should that not be grounded, per the diagram, to have the full range of what I am looking for?

Any help is appreciated.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Tone knob grounding

One thing to consider: when you say you "grounded" it, do you mean that you connected it to the back of the pot? If so, did you ground the back of the pot? The back of a pot isn't ground until you make it so. One exception would be a Tele, which uses a metal control plate, but even that must be grounded somewhere.

By "ground", I mean a connection that ultimately makes it back to the "sleeve" of the output jack.

Artie

[Gdntoneguitars]

Re: Tone knob grounding

When I 'grounded' it, I just connected that tab on the right to back of the pot. Also where I soldered the ground for the capacitor.

Should I have another 'ground' coming from that tab, to the back of the volume pot, and then to the output jack?

[Funky P]

Re: Tone knob grounding

You should have a ground wire from the bridge to some other pot. connect a wire from that pot to your tone pot then it is properly grounded.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Tone knob grounding

But its important to understand that the bridge is not ground. The bridge is just another guitar part that needs to be grounded. The only ground on a guitar is the outside ring of the output jack. Every "ground" must terminate there eventually.

Artie

[Gdntoneguitars]

Re: Tone knob grounding

So should I not have 'grounded' the tab on the right side of the tone pot to the back of the pot?

[ArtieToo]

Re: Tone knob grounding

So should I not have 'grounded' the tab on the right side of the tone pot to the back of the pot?

There's nothing wrong with that as long as you have a wire that connects that point back to the output jack. And, I'm assuming that you have the cap going between the tone pot and volume pot. You wouldn't want to ground both the cap and one lug of the tone pot. Its either/or.

[Gdntoneguitars]

Re: Tone knob grounding

That's another place that I screwed it up then. I had the cap going from the center of the tone pot to ground, and the right lug (is that what I call it!?) also going to ground. Does that pretty much render the cutting of the treble on the tone pot useless? 'Cause I really can't hear the difference.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Tone knob grounding

That would do it. Its one or the other.

Just to review, a tone control is just a variable resistor, (the pot), in series with a cap, that creates a "filter". Doesn't matter which comes first, but one end of that filter goes to ground, and the other end goes to whatever point you want to attenuate highs. Could be either of two lugs on the volume control, (if you want the 50's mod), or to a lug on the switch, ala Strat.

[Matchlessaz]

I got a killer deal on a set of 3 1966 CTS 250 K pots for my fender Stratocaster. Wired it all up and the tone capacitor isn’t working correctly. It’s not grounding. I used my output jack for the trem claw ground. Moreover to test my tone capacitor I desoldered the ground that I grounded to my number one tone pot(next to the volume). In the past with this way worked. Do I need to have a ground wire to each pot? For it to work or am I totally out of it? Also, I wanted to show you the picture of the wiring but for some reason it’s saying that the photo is too large? If you guys someone can help me and let me know how to upload photos as well I’d be grateful. Much appreciated.
Sincerely,

Allen
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9oolj76xax...%20PM.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6c7sib5e1d6h0jo/Photo%20May%2009%2C%203%2005%2030%20PM%20%281%29.j

pg?dl=0

[Matchlessaz]

I hope y’all can view the pictures

[hamerfan]

Don‘t make it too complicated: Every grounded part need a resistorless way to the output jack sleeve.

@Matchlessaz: Do we see a Volume and tone pot? Where is the third pot? In every case the leg of the cap has to go to the middle lug.

What do expect from 1966 pots? I don‘t see any benefits other than restoring a hacked up 1966 guitar to former glory.

[beaubrummels]

Looks like the tone pots have no route to ground. If you are using the casing for ground, you'll need wires to connect the two tone pots to something that actually goes to your output jack ground.

[ArtieToo]

In the 2nd pic, just add the two missing pot ground wires. Like this: