Treble roll off after mod

[CrazyDrew6]

Howdy y’all,
I just rewired my guitar. The controls all work like they’re supposed to, except for a capacitor which suddenly died, but there’s a treble and output roll off on my guitar I don’t understand. I yanked off that tone cap and the problem got better, but I’m still confused. Here’s my points of confusion:

1.) with the capacitor attached there was a massive roll off of treble and output, and the tone control didn’t work. If the pot works, shouldn’t the treble only roll off significantly with the tone control down, and shouldn’t the tone control still work? Or the capacitance was extra high, so did I just end up having an extra low cutoff frequency that got rid of my treble?
2.) why on earth is there a treble roll off after the mod? No cap or resistors changed, so my guitar should sound the same. What could I have screwed up that would cause a treble and volume roll off?

I’m new to wiring and this is just me learning soldering and such, so any advice on what could return the lost signal would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

Here’s the wiring diagram:

 

[jtougas]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

Why do you have the controls wired differently?

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

If I understand your diagram correctly, you have whatever pickup(s) selected running through two volume pots and two tone pots?

Each pickup should run to its own volume & tone pot, THEN to the switch, then to the output jack.

 

[CrazyDrew6]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

That defeats the point. The point of this is to have a rhythm volume (with tone) on one side of the switch and lead side with treble bleed (controlled by a pot) so that I can select 2 volumes independently of the pickup, instead of neck pickup only one volume and bridge pickup another volume. I wanted to be able to choose the pickup then a master volume, so pickup to switch has to be first. Any other clarification I can offer?

 

[CrazyDrew6]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

https://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-0072/free-wayultradiagrams.pdf

This explains the switch if there’s any confusion

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

Ah, i get what you are trying to accomplish!
I see how the switch works but in your diagram I still think both tone controls will be working at all times because they are wired to the output jack? Or, at the very least, that .01 cap?
What happens if you turn the volume that is NOT selected all the way up & down? Does it impact the sound?

I have never used that switch. Perhaps one of the true experts will pipe in soon.

I think your pickups are seeing all four pots, hence the volume and treble loss. Or I am totally wrong and you have a bad solder joint somewhere.

 

[CrazyDrew6]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

Yeah, I realized in hindsight I could’ve wired it differently to only have the tone on for the rhythm only and I might do that later, but I’d need some more shielded wire. The .01 cap doesn’t really affect anything if the other side is selected, as far as I can tell, because in the end the switch makes the circuit open so the cap is essentially hooked to nothing. And if you roll down the volume pots it doesn’t do anything because the pots are wired like a jazz bass, the pickup is run to ground (or in this case one side of the switch) instead of the output.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

For mine, its the fact that you have all 4 pots loading the pickup selection down. You have 2 * 500k volume pots in parallel effectively.......making it a 250k volume pot straight away without factoring in the tone circuits.
If you are wanting to have a separate rhythm and lead volume, then you need to have them separate, the way the Fender Jaguar does. So its either going through one or the other, not seeing both. So you'll need a switch either as a pushpull or a mini toggle.

 

[audiocheck]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

https://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-0072/free-wayultradiagrams.pdf

This explains the switch if there’s any confusion

What are the pickup options you are trying to accomplish? The 2nd wiring schematic in your link seems like a lot of good options. Maybe follow that one, partially? Use 2 volumes and maybe a master tone and a master treble bleed?

 

[devastone]

Re: Treble roll off after mod

Just to be clear, you do have the ring of the output jack grounded, right?

You are connecting all the controls together at the output jack so everything is interacting but not in the way you want. You have the output from each volume pot wired directly to the "other" volume pot. I kinda understand what you are going for, but each control loop needs to be isolated, you can't just tie them together. So, you should wire the switch to select the pickup coils the way you want them, what the switch is intended for, and you'll need to use a push pull pot on one of the controls as a selector for control set 1 or control set 2. You might be able to figure out a way to put the controls in isolated loops with the switch, but I don't have time to try to figure that out right now.

FWIW, that switch would drive me nuts trying to find a specific setting on the fly, it's hard enough to hit in between settings on a 5-way.