need wiring help

[bluesboy]

installed a set of duncan distortion in fat strat1 volume no tone pots. used gibson 500k short shaft pot, hooked up as per duncan schematics ( 1 tab grouned to pot, center tab hot to jack , other tab hot from 3 way tele stlyle switch) everything works except volume pot is acting as a tone pot and not volume, do i have the 2 side tabs wired wrong or is this a bad pot?
thanks,

 

[octavedoctor]

Re: need wiring help

Yoour volume pot can't act as a tone control if there is no capacitor in the circuit to shunt high frequencies to earth.

My guess is that you have a dry joint on the end tab which is going to the pot casing or that you have missed an earth connection to the pot casing somewhere. This would cause you to have only a variable resistor in series with the signal line instead of a potential divider. There would be a slight drop in gain which you may be perceiving as a "tone" control.

 

[Artie]

Re: need wiring help

+1 to what OD said. You almost certainly have a bad ground. A common mistake to make is to "ground" to the back of a pot, but not ground the back of the pot. The sleeve of the output jack is a guitars only true ground.

 

[bluesboy]

Re: need wiring help

there is just a slight drop in volume, which does make the tone darker, so it would be the tab ground to the pot is cold, or could it be the ground to the jack

thanks

 

[bluesboy]

Re: need wiring help

i have ground from jack grounded to the back of the pot, should i combine it with the tab ground to the pot

 

[Artie]

Re: need wiring help

The most important thing is to make sure the lug on the volume control goes to the output jack lug. If you reheat the back of the pot, be extra careful not to over do it. You can melt the plastic ring inside that holds the wiper.

 

[bluesboy]

Re: need wiring help

i guess i will reheat the grounded tab and the jack ground to the back of the pot again, the tab broke off the pot so i ground to the back of the pot with a wire soldered to the base of the tab, is that a bad thing

 

[Artie]

Re: need wiring help

Its not a good thing. You just need to make sure you have a good connection to the pot. If you continue to have this problem . . . you probably don't. Might be new pot time.