Right now, I have a 6 string electric, 2 humbuckers that can split between single and dual coil, a set of switches to control them, 2 tone pots, one 'blender' pot and one volume pot.

 

The issue is with the tone pots: I get no change in tone until a certain point then the tone drops to mud. kinda like the tone just falls off a cliff. Here is the wiring:

 

Again, everything works except the tone simply cuts out at a certain point. The pots are 500K and the caps are .047uf. This is driving me NUTS. This diagram is based off Seymour Duncan: 2 Hums, 1 Vol, 2 tones, 3way switch diagram. The blender is taking the place of the 3 way and I included the SPDT O-F-O switches to control the single/dual tap. I have even grounded Lug 3 on the tone pots.

 

Any insights as to what might cause the tone pots not to work correctly? Would I want to put in a 100K resistor in with the tone cap like this (at the tone pots, not volume pots):

 

The above is a low-pass filter in essence.

 

-WY

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What kind of pots did you use for the tone controls?  A or B?

Wes,

 

It depends on the pot you are using for Tone. It may be bad, or just have a crappy roll-off setting. One of my commercially-built guitars does this, by design - I need to replace it with one that has a smooth, linear roll-off. Like Josh asks above, what kind of pot are you using?



Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:

Wes,

 

It depends on the pot you are using for Tone. It may be bad, or just have a crappy roll-off setting. One of my commercially-built guitars does this, by design - I need to replace it with one that has a smooth, linear roll-off. Like Josh asks above, what kind of pot are you using?

 

Dang it! I meant logarithmic (audio taper)

Eeeee, I think A. I can check.

 

Its is/isn't these:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=20037443...

 

Isn't in that this is a recent post on ebay but it should be the same type/seller. As I see, there are two A and two B pots and I think I used the A pots as what I suggested. Honestly, I would have to take the pots off the lid to see what they are.

 

-WY


Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) said:

What kind of pots did you use for the tone controls?  A or B?

yeah, the only thing I have lying around are audio taper. Hrmmmmm.

 

From what I understand about tone caps and how they filter is when a signal is passed through a cap, the cap blocks (or passes - eg low-pass or hi-pass) that frequency but at a specific point based on the signal amplitude and the capacitor rating. This should cause the tone (a frequency) to be more or less level until that point, then drop off significantly (see this). When used in conjunction with a variable resistor (pot) the amplitude/frequency is changed and thus the filter point.

 

That said, I thought that is what I had created as is the same across the board for tone pot construction. Obviously, I have something wired out of sequence. I just can't figure out what.

 

-WY


Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:



Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:

Wes,

 

It depends on the pot you are using for Tone. It may be bad, or just have a crappy roll-off setting. One of my commercially-built guitars does this, by design - I need to replace it with one that has a smooth, linear roll-off. Like Josh asks above, what kind of pot are you using?

 

Dang it! I meant logarithmic (audio taper)

One other note, the tone is more or less level from 10 until about 1.5 or 1, then cuts out (mind you, I think that's the way the thing is wired. It might be reverse).

 

-WY

Wes,

 

That's how my Strat tone pot is wired. This site decribes what you said in your text about how the cap works (yep, a pass filter, lo or hi depending upon the cap value):

 

http://www.diyguitarmods.com/tone-pot-wiring.php

 

 

A suggestion I saw on TDPRI: have you tried wiring the cap and resistor in series, instead of paralell?

 

 

 

I need to review which is which, but I think all of the schematics I refer to when wiring a guitar indicate using a B type pot for tone (I could be totally reversed here so bear with me).  The difference in function is that one pot is a straight linear taper whereas the other only really kicks in and starts modifying the signal about half way through the completion of its complete turn.  The reasons for doing it this way has to do with the human ear and how it detects frequency changes.  I'll look up the engineer's explanation for this when I get home from work and write it up if someone doesn't beat me to it.  The reason I bring it up is because the behavior you're describing sounds pretty close to this.

k. Thanks Josh!

 

-WY

Any thoughts on this working? Note where and how the tone pots are wired.

 

 

-WY

In the hand drawn diagram it looks like the tone pots will work more or less as variable bleed off resistors. I don't see that ending well, but it could work ..... I've seen something similar somewhere that changed tone by bleeding off the treble. ( or something like that)

 

I suggest playing with the pots themselves. It really sound like the differencr between using linear taper and audio taper pots.

Maybe also try changing values.

 

AFKAM

yeah matt, I'm not 100% sure about that either. Still searching

 

-WY


Artist Formerly Known as Matt said:

In the hand drawn diagram it looks like the tone pots will work more or less as variable bleed off resistors. I don't see that ending well, but it could work ..... I've seen something similar somewhere that changed tone by bleeding off the treble. ( or something like that)

 

I suggest playing with the pots themselves. It really sound like the differencr between using linear taper and audio taper pots.

Maybe also try changing values.

 

AFKAM

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