Tone pot troubles

[Herby]

I searched for some relevant posts but I couldn't find anything specific.

I have a Ibanez 2 pickup guitar that I've been struggling with for a while now. I can't seem to get it lined out. I've gone through all the parts, tone, vol, caps, etc. It's wired using 1 tone, 1 vol. 1 (SC) neck 1 (HB) bridge. I've used the diagram from this site and others. The (HB) is routed to a coil on/off switch and then to the selector. The other pickup is a bridge strat pickup. The tone knob keeps acting like a volume. I've tried everything I can think of to fix it. It's running up quite a tab. One of my other rewired guitars is set up almost identically (Peavy Tracer) but with 2 tone knobs, doesn't have this issue. I'd be tempted to just put a second tone circuit in but there's no room. There's got to be a ground issue somewhere but I can't find it. Could I be overlooking something obvious? Is there a common mistake when wiring up 1 tone? I'm stumped.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Tone pot troubles

Think of a passive tone control as a volume control that only operates on the high frequencies of your pickup signal. The frequency above which it filters signals to ground is governed by a capacitor. Hence, your wiring problem is either a defective capacitor, a poor solder joint or the capacitor is not properly in circuit.

Photographs of your wiring will help.

 

[Herby]

Re: Tone pot troubles

I thought about a pic but I have already gutted the wiring... again. Starting over. This will be the 3rd time. I have a feeling it's gonna be a repeat with the same issue. There's something obvious I'm missing. Wish I knew.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Tone pot troubles

I thought about a pic but I have already gutted the wiring... again. Starting over. This will be the 3rd time. I have a feeling it's gonna be a repeat with the same issue. There's something obvious I'm missing. Wish I knew.

Really not trying to be a jerk but if you've wired it 3 times and it keeps coming out wrong that says something your doing is incorrect. Something your taking for granted or something your assuming is wrong. Its tough when you run into this but what you probably need is a fresh approach to the issue.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Tone pot troubles

It would help to have all of the necessary information. The opening post does not state what type of selector switch is being used. It would help to know what schematic diagram is being followed. This will narrow down the number of ways in which things could be going wrong.

For example, there are several ways of directing a guitar signal to a tone control and, then, to ground. Some methods involve bending back one terminal on the tone pot and soldering it to the chassis. Other methods do not. Combining these different approaches can create problems.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Tone pot troubles

most commonly, folks forget to connect the ground between the back of the tone and volume pots

 

[Herby]

Re: Tone pot troubles

This is the schematic I've been using.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y11/Charvell/1_Vol_1_Tone.jpg

 

[Herby]

Re: Tone pot troubles

Can someone tell me if this schematic is correct or if there's something wrong with it, please.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Tone pot troubles

look at the ground symbol on your tone pot
just connect that back to the back of the volume pot

connect the backs of the pots

oh and it looks right

 

[Herby]

Re: Tone pot troubles

Thanks

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Tone pot troubles

this happened to me a while back but i cannot for the life of me remember what I had done wrong. Study the schematic and MAKE SURE every ground wire and other connections are done properly. while you're at it, it's worth it to make sure you don't have any bare wires touching metal parts that arent the pots.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Tone pot troubles

A cap value that is significantly too high – or a cap that is internally shorted – could make a tone pot act like a volume pot. Are you sure you read the cap's number code correctly?

Can you post a sharp pic of your control cavity, and tell us the capacitor code?

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Tone pot troubles

A cap value that is significantly too high – or a cap that is internally shorted – could make a tone pot act like a volume pot. Are you sure you read the cap's number code correctly?

Can you post a sharp pic of your control cavity, and tell us the capacitor code?

oh yeah

I had a cap leg extend through the terminal on the pot and short to the body of the tone control

that was a booger to find

 

[Herby]

Re: Tone pot troubles

I found an odd thing. The tone pot works normally when the lever switch is in the neck and middle positions. When I flip it to the bridge humbucker it starts acting like a volume pot but when I split the coil it acts like a tone pot.
Not a full blown volume pot. Kind of half and half. The tone pot reduces the over all volume by about 1/2 but only when the bridge pickup is wired series. Tone pot is a 500K and the cap is a 0.22
I think I might have a defective pickup...

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Tone pot troubles

If your circuit is exactly like the schematic diagram, as soon as you turn the tone pot down about twenty percent, the capacitor is isolated from circuit.

Swap the capacitor and signal cable over. (Capacitor to centre lug. Cable from the volume control to the tone control over to the outer lug.)




NOTE - The position of the lever selector switch should make no difference whatsoever to the behaviour of the tone control.

 

[Herby]

Re: Tone pot troubles

That's a funny coincidence. This is what I did before my last post. The tone pot works now except when using the bridge pickup split to 1 coil. In this config the tone pot tries to act as a volume pot. What's up with that?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Tone pot troubles

Must be the way that you have connected things to ground.

I am not willing to speculate any further without seeing photographs of your actual wiring.