Volume pot acting as a tone control?

[candyman]

Ok so yesterday i finally wired up my strat the way i wanted it! Or did i?...
The thing is that it only has one volume pot, without any caps or splitting or anything.
So today i finally tried it out, and s**t, i could not turn down the volume, it only works as a tone pot...why would this happen, and hoe can i fix it, could it be a grounding issue?
The pot is a brand new cts volume 500k pot

Here is the wiring:



I wired it up just as the dimarzip tech told me, and the neck pu has 1 conductor so this one was easy:


I have also looked around on the internet but did not find much...thanks!
And yes the third lug on the volume pot has been bent and soldered to itself

 

[Artie]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

That symptom generally comes from not having the volume pot grounded properly. I'm talking about the ground lug. Not the back of the pot. That terminal is hidden in your pic, so I can't see from the pic.

 

[candyman]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

Ahh i see! I can take a picture of that too, i just soldered it straight to the back of the pot, do i need to take either the cavity or bridge ground amd solder it directly to the lug?
Here is the situation from the side(hopefully you can see it) :

 

[Artie]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

That looks good. The only other thing I can think of is possible internal damage to the pot by overheating the case. But just to be safe, double-check all grounds. That's the #1 cause of this symptom.

 

[candyman]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

Yeah...just checked, all looks good despite my not-so-great soldering, but could it only take so much heat before it breaks? The thing is i didnt really heat it up much at all, and never touched the pot directly with the soldering iron... The old import pots could handle it atleast. But could the effect be a "tone pot" instead of volume? Cause it works just like a normal tone control...

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

The selector switch connections look all wrong to me.

The OP appears to have mistranslated between the CRL-style switch contact layout in the schematic and the eight-in-line Asian switch.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

The lug doesn't look soldered well enough to the back of the pot. It looks like it was just tinned but not soldered to the pot casing. Did you check continuity with a meter to confirm all your grounds are good?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

Ive had those pots before.......the best place I found for them was the bin. Its almost impossible to get a solder connection on the casing. Best thing to do is buy some CTS and start over. That or do a star ground.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

I've had those pots before.......the best place I found for them was the bin. Its almost impossible to get a solder connection on the casing. Best thing to do is buy some CTS and start over. That or do a star ground.

Somebody obviously did not read the opening post. :smack:

 

[candyman]

Re: Volume pot acting as a tone control?

Ehm...I AM using a CTS pot tho...but yeah i tried to enlarge the soldering joint on the lug, and resoldered the ground cables next to it to make it more solid, and actually it worked!