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Volume Is On When Knob Is Turned Off

Working on my 19th cbg build. However, this is just my second build using two pick-ups, 3-way switch w/tone & volume. My first two pick-up build was a humbucker and a piezo. Using a wiring diagram supplied to me by Del Puckett, a well-known and expert cbg builder, I was able to wire this guitar with no problems.

This second build however, has been a son of a beech tree. I used two matching chrome mini-humbuckers from cbgitty for this build and the wiring diagram from the first build. After finishing the wiring, I found everything worked except the volume is on whether the tone knob is turned on or all the way off.

When I click the 3-way switch, I do get sound just from the desired pick-up and no sound from the pick-up not selected. So the volume is not just hard-wired somehow to be on all the time.

At any rate, I double-checked my solder joints, double-checked my wiring diagram to make sure I had everything wired correctly. Couldn't really find anything wrong, and since everything else seemed to be working as expected, I assumed I had a problem with a cold joint somewhere and pulled and re-soldered about half of the wiring, especially all the connections having anything to do with the Volume pot.

After many hours of re-soldering and re-checking every bit of my wiring, I still have volume when the Volume pot is turned all the way down. Nothing I've done has changed the situation. I'm sure this is an issue at least a few other builders have been confronted with, but I haven't been able to find much on this.

Anybody here know what I've done wrong, or what I'm missing when I'm troubleshooting this? Any help would be much appreciated. Getting to the point where I'm about ready to turn this build from potential sales merchandise into firewood!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Blind Lemon Cello on January 12, 2019 at 6:14am

You need to check the volume pot with an ohm meter, by connecting to the correct 2 leads and turn the control knob back & forth. i.e. 10K pot if it doesn't change pot NG.

Permalink Reply by Steve Allen on January 12, 2019 at 8:09am

Thanks for the tip! Sounds foolproof. All I need to do is buy an ohm meter. Will do that ASAP.

Permalink Reply by David Clewell on January 12, 2019 at 7:07am

Could you post a copy of the wiring diagram, please?

Permalink Reply by Steve Allen on January 12, 2019 at 8:10am

Trying but the site doesn't seem to want to download the file.

Permalink Reply by David Clewell on January 12, 2019 at 8:22am

That's OK, I'll wait.

Permalink Reply by Steve Allen on January 12, 2019 at 8:22am

Hey, the diagram gpeg wouldn't download, so here's the link to the video where the wiring diagram I used is shown. The video shows the actual wiring, the diagram is at the end, starting at 4:20.

https://youtu.be/eBP-4shteCo

Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 12, 2019 at 9:05am

You say the volume is on when you turn the tone knob... The tone knob isn't supposed to affect the volume... Just making sure....

Permalink Reply by Steve Allen on January 12, 2019 at 9:28am

No didn't mean to give the impression I was talking about the tone knob. Strictly talking about having volume even with the volume knob turned all the way off. Tone control seems to be working fine, as is everything else.

Just read my original post and saw I said tone knob. DUH. Don't know how that popped out of my brain. Too long ago to edit, but anyway just the volume pot.

Permalink Reply by Steve Allen on January 13, 2019 at 5:01am

To the two or three folks who offered any kind of response to my post for help, I replaced the volume pot with a new one and still had the same issue ~ volume is on at same level no matter what you do with the volume knob.

I was sure somebody here would know what was wrong and have the solution. Pretty disappointed to find this place is basically an empty forum. No worries. I'll figure it out on my own.

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