First of all, I would like to thank everyone who helped me pick out an Antex soldering iron. The one recommended by
@Gagaryn is so much better than the Aldi middle aisle special iron I've used in the past, plus he sought out a site that what selling them really cheap. The only way he could have been more help would be to personally put it in my hand.
For my first project, I thought I would pull out the guts of a cheap guitar and replace them with full sized pots and, if it went back together and worked, I'd invest in some good pickups and install them myself. It is back together, it works, but going from 10-9 on the volume pot is a very big change. This might be to do with the pot I chose, but I fucked up the wiring a couple of times and had to move wires round a fair bit, including soldering/desoldering to the back of the volume pot.
It's a CTS "modern audio" taper. Have I borked it?
Comments
If almost all of the volume change happens in the very last fraction of pot rotation, either you have chosen an unsuitable resistance value or you have connected something wrongly.
Further remote diagnosis will require photographs of your actual wiring and a link to the schematic diagram that you were following.
EDIT: One other consideration. Are either you or the modified guitar left-handed?
But just for one pickup, it's an SG and I just junior'd it for now.
(But then it should work back to front...hmmmm)
Have you performed any soldering on the output jack socket?
Going to need photographs.
If the new pot works smoothly throughout its range from full down to zero, and it sounds 'normal' when it's up full, it's unlikely it's damaged.
Another possibility is a partly shorted tone cap - with the 50s wiring, that produces a much steeper volume cut as you roll down, because the tone control is connected to the output not the input. Does turning the tone control all the way off sound normal (ie same volume, but dull), or unusually/extremely muffled or quiet?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I'd wager that you've got one of the following issues.
1. A bad ground (solder joint) on the back of one of the pots
2. You've connected all three pins of the tone pot together (as the diagram is confusing)
3. You've connected the wrong side of the capacitor to the output jack (i.e. gone from the tone pot rather than the volume)
4. You've got an earth connection going to the wrong place
These components are pretty difficult to destroy or fry - you don't have anything like enough voltage in a passive guitar circuit to fry a volume pot. Good luck.
I'm thinking it's just the taper of the pot, the wilkinson p90 actually sounds fuller and clearer with the improved pots (I kept the original output socket). Plan is to ditch the p90 for a firebird pickup when funds allow.
Also check nothing is touching the shielding paint - again this tends to cause a partial short and heavy tone suck/volume loss rather than a dead short. I can't see anything obvious, but check the leg of the cap that goes to the volume pot is not touching where it's bent down.
Another rare but known possibility is a partially shorted jack - this can happen with cheap far-east ones - like that one. Best to replace it with a proper US Switchcraft really.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
CTS pots are really solid, no way you fried it.
Why are you going off a 2 pickup diagram? (the lugs are all wired together too!?).
How many wires coming of that pickup?
Looking at them top to bottom;
The capacitor connection is correct.
The middle contact is where everything goes wrong.
The lowest contact is correctly unused.
All of the cables currently connected to the central terminal on the tone pot should be relocated to the chassis of the tone pot.
You then need to make a new connection between the central terminal of the tone pot and its own chassis. It maybe advantageous to use insulated cable for this.
@streethawk that was the first diagram I found that didn't seem to leave out something that I (as a novice) needed to see clearly explained. I think it was easy enough to just ignore half of it? I think it's a 4 wire stacked coil p90 (w9skb) with only two wires actually used from the factory. All I know is I don't like it very much.
@Funkfingers so nothing connected to the mid lug tone, a single wire from the jack sleeve to the back of the vol pot?
Gotcha, what's that black wire coming off the centre lug (not the one going to the jack)?
And the blob of solder is bridging to the tone pot body?
Looks like a mystery to me.
Edit: ignore me I can't keep up.
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