New pickups but tone pot cuts sound at 0

A

AdamPEI

New member
Hey all,
I have an old Yamaha Pacifica tele style with 2 humbuckers 1 tone and 1 volume and changed to a 5 way fender style blade switch. I just picked up the Alnico II pro humbuckers and used the wiring diagram from Seymour Duncan. The volume pot is a shadow killpot and everything is working but the tone pot. I have the 1st lug open and have an Orange drop .047 cap from the second lug to the pots casing and the 3rd lug grounded to the casing as well. Anyone know why the volume would cut off when tone is at 0? Doesn't seem to change the tone when turning it either.

Thanks
 
The only other thing I did differently was reverse the 1st and 2nd lugs on the volume pot as per the shadow killpot instructions for using it as a volume pot
 
AdamPEI said:
Sorry for the bad quality screenshot. But as you can see the tone pots 3rd lug is grounded
Click to expand...

Nope, that's the volume pot! The tone pot is the lower one on the diagram and the 3rd pot is clearly NOT grounded. By the way in such cases it makes helping easier if you can attach a clean photo of your actual wiring! There are many real pros and "wizards" on here (me not being one of them :) ) who will spot the mistake and solve your problem in a NewYork minute
 
After re-reading the OP... Have you installed a new tone pot too? If not, did it work properly befre the pickup swap? Can you use a multimeter to confirm that it is working properly? If it doesn't seem to do anything , I'd say its either defective or somehow bypassed in the circuit ( eg by inappropriate grounding).
 
I will try to get a picture later but it was a new pot. If you look at the diagram link I posted instead of the screenshot you can see it...the bottom pot does have the 3rd lug grounded. There's a solder joint beside the cap on the lug to the casing
 
AdamPEI said:
I will try to get a picture later but it was a new pot. If you look at the diagram link I posted instead of the screenshot you can see it...the bottom pot does have the 3rd lug grounded. There's a solder joint beside the cap on the lug to the casing
Click to expand...

That's correct. I only saw the "I grounded the 3rd lug" part and thought you had 2 lugs grounded to casing in total. So my mistake there. :)

Until the more knowledgeable guys come around, I'd check the solder joints around the cap and the middle lug. The tone pot cutting out all signal - based on ym primitive knowledge - means that there is no shunt for the lower freqs to pass through, so everything is sent to ground. Just re-flow the solder until the joint are solid and shiny.

Also, check the taper of the pot! It could be liner taper, which we tend to percieve as not doing anything in around 80% of its range.

But since the whole signal is cutting out, I doubt that is the only problem.
 
Yeah, that diagram is incorrect. That lug should not be grounded on the tone pot. The whole thing is wrong. Follow the one Artie posted. That's correct.

Come on, Duncan, fix these incorrect diagrams. It causes problems for people and makes you look bad.
 
nexion218 said:
That's correct. I only saw the "I grounded the 3rd lug" part and thought you had 2 lugs grounded to casing in total. So my mistake there. :)

Until the more knowledgeable guys come around, I'd check the solder joints around the cap and the middle lug. The tone pot cutting out all signal - based on ym primitive knowledge - means that there is no shunt for the lower freqs to pass through, so everything is sent to ground. Just re-flow the solder until the joint are solid and shiny.

Also, check the taper of the pot! It could be liner taper, which we tend to percieve as not doing anything in around 80% of its range.

But since the whole signal is cutting out, I doubt that is the only problem.
Click to expand...

He does have 2 tone pot lugs grounded. The middle lug just has the cap between it and the case. That's still connected to ground.


OP, have you tried getting it working with a standard pot first, then swapping in the other one so you know the circuit is correct and working like the diagram shows?

Sorry about the crappy drawing.

Screenshot_20220225-084427_Chrome.jpg
 
Wound_Up said:
He does have 2 tone pot lugs grounded. The middle lug just has the cap between it and the case. That's still connected to ground.


OP, have you tried getting it working with a standard pot first, then swapping in the other one so you know the circuit is correct and working like the diagram shows?

Sorry about the crappy drawing.

Click to expand...

No, he doesn't need to bother doing that. Just redo the wiring as per the diagram posted by Artie.
 
But he posted the diagram as a 3 way switch setup. I have a 5 way switch
I will try this though. I would just undo the ground at the lug and move the signal wire from the 2nd lug to the 3rd
 
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