P bass tone pot issue

[Zenitram]

When the tone pot is all the way down, the bass plays fine. Increase the tone, to make it treblier, and it's fine, and works, until it reaches the very end, when it's most "on", or most open, or most trebly, and the sound cuts out. Roll it back a bit, and it works again.

Any ideas?

I have the bass in bits and the wiring seems okay. Can post a pic if it helps.

Thanks.

[JapanAxe]

The wiper is losing contact with the carbon track inside the pot at the end of its turn. Sounds like time for a new pot!

[Zenitram]

Really? Balls.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1395686266' post='2405122']
Really? Balls.
[/quote]

Well it is possible to prise a pot apart and do some mechanical tweaking, but it would not bode well for reliability!

[gary mac]

Sometimes it is possible to rectify this fault by carefully bending the wiper. there are a number of vids on You Tube that will show you how.

But if you are not worried about preserving the original pot you may as well just splash on a decent quality replacement.

[HowieBass]

Is it possible there's an accumulation of 'crud' at the end of the track causing the bad connection? Have you tried spraying switch cleaner into the pot to see if that helps at all?

[icastle]

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1395688939' post='2405168']
Is it possible there's an accumulation of 'crud' at the end of the track causing the bad connection? Have you tried spraying switch cleaner into the pot to see if that helps at all?
[/quote]

That's OK up to a point, but to have accumulated that much crud then it's likely that a lot of it is going to be the carbon track of the pot anyway.

It might buy a few months grace though, so no harm in trying.

[Zenitram]

Well, I solved the problem. This is what I did to solve it, in case it helps others who read this:

I took the bass to bits, looked at the wiring, saw that it all seemed good, wondered about de-soldering it all and rewiring it up again and replacing the pot at the same time, decided against doing any of that, put everything back together again having basically done nothing, and the problem has now gone and it sounds great and works perfectly.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

[icastle]

You wanna come round my house and fix my washing machine?

[gary mac]

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1395771628' post='2406111']
Well, I solved the problem. This is what I did to solve it, in case it helps others who read this:

I took the bass to bits, looked at the wiring, saw that it all seemed good, wondered about de-soldering it all and rewiring it up again and replacing the pot at the same time, decided against doing any of that, put everything back together again having basically done nothing, and the problem has now gone and it sounds great and works perfectly.

Thanks for all your help everyone.
[/quote]

Wouldn't it be splendid if all repairs could be carried out using this method?

[dannybuoy]

The opposite usually happens to me whenever I take a pedal apart!

[HowieBass]

You probably scared the bass into thinking it was going to be parted out so it decided to stop pissing about and behave itself.

Edited March 25, 2014 by HowieBass