added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

M

mike-o

New member
So I had 2 hums in my strat and just a 500k pot so the bridge pickup was really harsh, I added a 500k tone pot and .047 cap and it sounds much better but I went from having a LOT of sustain to practically NO sustain on higher gain stuff. I know it's not affecting the actual vibration of the string, but for some reason single notes don't sustain well at all. What gives?

They are brand new pots, but I mixed up the linear taper and audio taper so I'll have to switch that back.

And I'm a real sustain freak - I love when the notes leap into feedback and sustain forever, which I would pull off pretty frequently up until a few days ago - not happenin anymore.
 
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Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

is your pickguard flat against the body
sounds like your pickups have gotten closer to the strings
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

Could be magnet pull, but you won't get that strong of a pull with humbuckers to completely knock the guitar's sustain out of whack. Is the wiring ok?

I mean, I guess what you're noticing could be the lack of high end from the new tone pot...but unless you're quite the Eric Johnson I don't think you'd tell so much difference on sustain based on a bit of lost high end.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

It's definitely the sustain, not the high end. I'm STOKED that some of the high end died down. I have not screwed in all of the pickguard screws and it is floating a little in the places I haven't screwed down, but I didn't think it could cause such a dramatic difference in sustain. It really is a HUGE, easily noticeable difference. There wasn't a striking difference in the unplugged sound or sustain... but as soon as I plugged it into my amp at practice and went to town, I noticed immediately.

Also, it's a HSS pickguard, but I only have a bridge HB and a single-sized neck HB. I had copper film going over the middle cavity but I took that off cause it looked ridiculous and I figured it didn't affect anything.

Don't know if this matters, but apparently I missed a ground wire or something as the bridge HB is humming like a mother.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

How about just going with a 250k vol pot. That is said to reduce some treble....and with only 1 pot you have less components for tone loss.

Almost no sustain does sound like something else than just the addition of an extra pot though.

Try electrically removing the tone pot from the circuit again and see whether the guitar magically gets better. Also double and triple check the wiring diagram vs what you did. Check all soldering and reflow if necessary. Do you have a decent iron??? This can cause issues due to overheating components if its poor quality.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

I'd keep the 500k pots. You'll lose too much treble going to 250k pots. Also, I'd change the cap to .022. I find that the .047 takes out too much of the upper mids.

Like AlexR said, the loss of sustain is probably something other than just adding the other pot.

+1 to his suggestion to unsolder the lead to the tone pot and see if that makes any difference at all. I doubt if it will, but you need to try it just to make sure. Then I'd check all the solder joints. Use at least a 40 watt iron. You want to use a lot of heat for a very short duration of time to do the best solder jobs with the least chance of damaging components.

Screw down the pickguard and anything else that may be loose. Loose, vibrating hardware can absorb some of the string vibration and reduce sustain dramatically.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

At the risk of stating the obvious, the OP has assumed that the latest alteration to the guitar is responsible for the change in its sound.

What amplification is being used? You could have a sick valve. If the valves are fine, I'd take a look at the guitar's output jack socket.

As ever, photographs of the guitar's wiring would help enormously.

EDIT: Does this guitar have a rear control cavity and cover plate or are the controls mounted on a frontal scratchplate like a regular Fender Stratocaster? I am just wondering whether you slackened off the strings to perform the wiring mods then retensioned the same, old strings rather than putting on new ones?
 
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Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

Funkfingers said:
At the risk of stating the obvious, the OP has assumed that the latest alteration to the guitar is responsible for the change in its sound.
Click to expand...

Right. He said that he didn't screw down his pickguard. That and the soldering and a missed ground wire are the only changes.

Funkfingers said:
What amplification is being used? You could have a sick valve. If the valves are fine, I'd take a look at the guitar's output jack socket.
Click to expand...


Chances are he won't develope a bad tube while his amp is just sitting there turned off (at least, I assume he turned it off while he was doing the work on his guitar).
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

I'd assume, that the pickups are closer to the strings than they were before making the magnet pull prevent the string from ringing.

(I know this has already been stated, but didn't know if the OP had checked it yet)
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

mike-o said:
Don't know if this matters, but apparently I missed a ground wire or something as the bridge HB is humming like a mother.
Click to expand...

You split coils by accident? That will add hum and knock out sustain.
Adding overall values will make you lose power. But not that much..
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

Bump. Wiring is perfect now. Pickguard screwed down, all that stuff. Sustain is still out the window though. Pickups are further from the strings now than they were before. Let me say again that the difference is DRASTIC compared to what it was before this. Anyone else have some ideas?
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

Did you take the tone pot out of the circuit again as suggested? If that brings the sustain back you know there is an issue with the pot/cap/wiring/stuff. If the sustain is still gone, you know that it was something else that you did.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

mike-o said:
So I had 2 hums in my strat and just a 500k pot so the bridge pickup was really harsh, I added a 500k tone pot and .047 cap and it sounds much better but I went from having a LOT of sustain to practically NO sustain on higher gain stuff. I know it's not affecting the actual vibration of the string, but for some reason single notes don't sustain well at all. What gives?

They are brand new pots, but I mixed up the linear taper and audio taper so I'll have to switch that back.

And I'm a real sustain freak - I love when the notes leap into feedback and sustain forever, which I would pull off pretty frequently up until a few days ago - not happenin anymore.
Click to expand...

The only thing it can kill sustain is the changing of SOMETHING in the mechanical coupling of the parts that support the strings.

A pot has nothing to do with it whatsoever, so you have to look elsewhere.

HTH,
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

If the tone is the same and only sustain is affected, and "drastic" difference:

Pup height;
Strings;
Nut;
Bridge/saddles.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

when the tone pot is on zero, it will kill sustain and volume. wouldn't think it would so much on 10 though.
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

wait a min

the tone knob adds and subtracts sustain?

do you have a ground wire from the volume pot to the back of the tone pot?
do you have the tone pot housing wired directly to bridge ground?
do you think your capacitor is sending high frequency thru your strings to ground?

please answer the above queries
thank you
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

ehdwuld said:
wait a min

the tone knob adds and subtracts sustain?

do you have a ground wire from the volume pot to the back of the tone pot?
do you have the tone pot housing wired directly to bridge ground?
do you think your capacitor is sending high frequency thru your strings to ground?

please answer the above queries
thank you
Click to expand...

Yes
Yes
how the hell would i know that?
 
Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

I thought of something earlier today that might be a total dumbass mistake. When I went to put the knob on, I noticed the input jack was on its way out so I threw it in the trash and got a new one. But the new one didn't have wires on it, and I didn't have braided wire, only copper wire so I used that. Bad idea?

EDIT: Another thing. I have the knobs closer towards the jack rather than towards the strings so they don't get in the way of my hands. It's a really tight squeeze right around the tone knob, and I think the tone potentiometer might be touching the copper shielding I have in the cavity. Could that be bad? (pickguarded strat)
 
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Re: added tone knob > sustain dies dramatically?

a piece of electrical tape over the back of the pots
to prevent terminals from contacting braid
 
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