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Post by ninworks on Oct 29, 2021 15:57:28 GMT -5
My 72 Strat has a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom humbucker at the bridge position and Fender Texas Specials in the middle and neck positions. I don't have the conventional pot setup. There are only two pots. I have a master volume and master tone pot. The hole in the pickguard where the other pot is supposed to go has a 3 way toggle switch that controls the humbucker. It flips the polarity or splits the coils.
I had my guitar tech change out the tone cap when he put the new neck on. First of all the pot works backwards. Next the tone roll-off is almost like a switch. It's either engaged or not. There is no in between. It engages somewhere around 9 on the knob. At 8.9999 it is bypassed, completely. After 9 it doesn't change the sound any. When it's engaged it sounds like it's supposed to with the tone turned all the way off. I need a range in between full off and bypassed. Don't have that at present.
I have no idea what value cap he put in there. This guy has been working on guitars for a living since the early 80's and I've never had any issue with his work. He may not have put the cap in there that he thought he did. I'll call him just to let him know.
I don't want to have to take it back to him because it's a 45 minute drive, one way and I would probably have to leave it with him. That means 2 trips. It can't be that complicated and I'm certain I can fix it if I knew what to do.
Any ideas?
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leftrightout
Wholenote
Sometimes I pretend to be normal and then it becomes boring..............
Posts: 206
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Post by leftrightout on Oct 29, 2021 16:35:55 GMT -5
Welcome to the world of a Lefty guitarist,........................
sounds like he's wired it backwards ,
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Post by Leftee on Oct 29, 2021 16:51:38 GMT -5
Do the numbers correspond correctly or is 1 all the way dark?
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Post by ninworks on Oct 29, 2021 17:11:07 GMT -5
Do the numbers correspond correctly or is 1 all the way dark? 10 is all the way dark. |
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Post by Leftee on Oct 29, 2021 17:15:33 GMT -5
Trying to picture this in my head, but it does sound like he wired it backwards.
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pdf64
Wholenote
Posts: 558
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Post by pdf64 on Oct 29, 2021 17:40:15 GMT -5
It’s got an audio taper tone pot, which is good, but it’s wired backwards, not so good.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 29, 2021 17:46:48 GMT -5
When you get under the hood switch the outer legs.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 29, 2021 17:53:32 GMT -5
And yes…
Welcome to lefty-land.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 29, 2021 18:16:31 GMT -5
Yes. Wired backwards. The switch phenomenon will likely go away when it works in the correct direction, since pots aren't actually symmetrical (for lack of a better word) which is what the lefties are saying.
The fix is this: flip it open, you'll have something soldered to one outside lug and the other one open. Swap 'em. It might be a cap leg and it might be a wire (there are a few ways to physically wire it up that do the same thing), but whatever it is now, reverse it. Done.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 29, 2021 18:24:19 GMT -5
If I buy a sub $1k guitar I can go blind-nil on a bet that the tone pot(s) will work as yours do now.
Gibson gets it right though. They wire everything righty.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 29, 2021 18:32:59 GMT -5
If I buy a sub $1k guitar I can go blind-nil on a bet that the tone pot(s) will work as yours do now. Gibson gets it right though. They wire everything righty. I barely understood why they needed to be wired backwards in the first place, unless you're obsessed with pinky swells. As one lefty co-worker says "its a circle... there is no left or right...". If you moved your car stereo to the other side of the steering wheel, you wouldn't reverse the operation of the volume so clockwise turned it down just because you're using the other hand... right?
Maybe it is just not something righty players are going to understand.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 29, 2021 18:36:07 GMT -5
It’s really just about the tone pots actually working.
Back in the ‘80s I always assumed guitar tone controls worked like this. I didn’t understand that they were regular audio taper pots wired backwards.
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Post by ninworks on Oct 29, 2021 20:05:02 GMT -5
Thanks guys. I thought that's the way it worked for the wiring of the pot. Just wasn't sure.
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Post by ninworks on Oct 30, 2021 11:11:06 GMT -5
I reversed the outside terminals on the tone pot and now it works just as it should. Thanks guys.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 30, 2021 14:15:00 GMT -5
It does make me wonder why your tech let it go like that.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 30, 2021 14:42:49 GMT -5
It does make me wonder why your tech let it go like that. I've done it before, but caught it long before sending the instrument out. |
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Post by ninworks on Oct 30, 2021 14:43:21 GMT -5
The only thing I can think of is that he didn't test it. There's no way he would have let it out the door if he would have. Distractions happen. I have been the victim of them before as well when working and something got past me that shouldn't have. He has always done stellar work for me at a reasonable price so I'll let this one slide. I will let him know about it though.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 30, 2021 15:25:19 GMT -5
Yeah, the other thing that can happen is sometimes test amps used on benches are so crummy that you can't always tell the difference.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 30, 2021 15:36:18 GMT -5
Yeah, the other thing that can happen is sometimes test amps used on benches are so crummy that you can't always tell the difference. That’s a good topic for a thread. |
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 30, 2021 16:10:15 GMT -5
Yeah, the other thing that can happen is sometimes test amps used on benches are so crummy that you can't always tell the difference. That’s a good topic for a thread. Maybe, it has come up a couple times. I know Wrnch has a story of using a cable with such high capacitance it actually had more roll off than any tone cap and thus tone controls sounded like they didn't work.
Back when I was working on pickup winding/designs I was hanging around some pickup making forums, and a lot of the guys there insisted you needed super dry digital samples to be able to hear anything. They'd post digital clips that were clipping and all sounded the same because they just all sounded like wimpy, thin guitar tones. I always had the best luck with an old blackface twin, it was big, clean and sensitive to lots of tonal changes, and it is an amp I've played through for decades and know very well.
My current bench amp sounds awful, but we have communal shop amps that sound much better, so I can just walk across the room to check anything critical. I do mostly acoustics, refrets, restorations and stuff, so I can't really justify spending any time thinking about it. I bet the new Tone Master series would be great for a bench, though.
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Post by ninworks on Oct 30, 2021 16:59:01 GMT -5
He would have known that the direction of the pot operation was backwards at the least.
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Post by Leftee on Oct 30, 2021 17:19:57 GMT -5
Sounds like he let one get away.
It happens.
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