Wiring at whits end

[Drewpalin1]

Hi I hope someone can help as I am at my whits end with the wiring in one of my basses. I bought a cheap bass to use as a practice guitar, I replaced the pickups and redid all the wiring. It is a P/J setup and when I had rewired it it ended up with 3 volume controls, the 2 volume pots work as they should but the tone control also worked as a volume control, I ripped everything out, re did the wiring again and replaced the pots but I am still getting the same issue.

 

I used a standard P/J wiring diagram, I don't know if it is related to the same issue but the volume output is pretty low, i have a Seymour Duncan quarter pounder as the J pickup which should have decent output.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am out of ideas.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Doctor J]

Follow this, (VVT is a standard setup whether you'r JJ or PJ) paying particular attention to the lugs you're connecting to on the tone pot. The output of the pickup goes to the middle lug of the pot, the ground gets soldered to the pot case.
 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Doctor J

[Bigguy2017]

Prepare a cable with a 1/4" mono jack on one end and two croc clips on the other.... connect to amp.

 

Unsolder pickup inputs at pots.

Unsolder input to tone pot.

Clip onto each pickup and check for signal  / volume.

Reconnect pickups to pots.

Clip onto out lug of each volume pot and check for signal / volume.

Reinstall tone pot, clip onto out lug and check it works.

Finally clip across output jack and test....

Check earth continuity from output  jack to pots and bridge.

If AOK close it all up and test agin.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Bigguy2017

[Lord Sausage]

Hit it a few times then scream at it. That usually works

[Downunderwonder]

Can't help but it looks like you are in good hands. Btw it's wits you have exhausted.

[Woodinblack]

Almost ccertainly if you are getting a tone control acting as a volume control, it means that your capacitor is broken / shorted and you need a new one. They are only a few pence. Take it off, try it, the pot should do nothing (if it does your wiring is duff). Put a new capacitor on there.

[Drewpalin1]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Almost ccertainly if you are getting a tone control acting as a volume control, it means that your capacitor is broken / shorted and you need a new one. They are only a few pence. Take it off, try it, the pot should do nothing (if it does your wiring is duff). Put a new capacitor on there.

This was my first thought, new caps have just been delivered so I will try this before ripping all the wiring out! Haha!

[Crusoe]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Almost ccertainly if you are getting a tone control acting as a volume control, it means that your capacitor is broken / shorted and you need a new one. They are only a few pence. Take it off, try it, the pot should do nothing (if it does your wiring is duff). Put a new capacitor on there.

This isn't something I'll be doing any time soon, but can I check with you, are there any safety issues with touching the capacitor? I have a vague memory of reading somewhere about it being dangerous to touch a capacitor that hasn't been discharged. (You can probably tell that I don't know much about electronics)

[Woodinblack]

4 minutes ago, Crusoe said:

This isn't something I'll be doing any time soon, but can I check with you, are there any safety issues with touching the capacitor? I have a vague memory of reading somewhere about it being dangerous to touch a capacitor that hasn't been discharged. (You can probably tell that I don't know much about electronics)

 

Absolutely no issues.

The danger you can get from a capacitor that hasn't been discharged is related to large electrolytic capacitors (the big ones that look like cylinders) on high voltage circuits, such as power supplies or valve amps (or old fashioned CRTs - they hurt like hell when you touched those).

A bass contains no voltages that can hurt you in any way, even an active one.

 

 

[Crusoe]

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Absolutely no issues.

The danger you can get from a capacitor that hasn't been discharged is related to large electrolytic capacitors on high voltage circuits, such as power supplies or valve amps (or old fashioned CRTs - they hurt like hell when you touched those).

A bass contains no voltages that can hurt you in any way, even an active one.

Glad to hear it, thank you. Now, about the light switches, cooker and fridge that I've wired up in my house... 😄

[Drewpalin1]

4 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Follow this, (VVT is a standard setup whether you'r JJ or PJ) paying particular attention to the lugs you're connecting to on the tone pot. The output of the pickup goes to the middle lug of the pot, the ground gets soldered to the pot case.
 

 

As it turns out I'm just a massive idiot, I wired the tone pot up backwards!!

 

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[PaulThePlug]

There ya go... you did it yourself... had an issue, reached out... then fixed it yourself.

Nice... no idiot just an engineer...

 

Try Vol Blend Tone (VBT)...

[Nail Soup]

Sometimes one figures out the issue oneself as a by-product of asking for help.

 

And BC is an idiot-friendly zone, so welcome 🙂 !