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Gremlins inside
Dont know if anyone else has experienced this problem, but I think I got gremlins in my box!
To cut a long story short, my twin neck project tone pot just will not work.
The guitar features 2 pups running through a les paul style 3 way switch and a tone and a vol pot.
The two pups measure 6.1k and 3k - in essence they are single coils I guess. The pots are 500k A and B. The cap is rated at .047.
Everything works fine, the pups, the vol, the jack, the ground - in short I can play it and it does its job...just cant change the tone!
Several guys have been most helpful in diagnosing the problem (mostly Ted of course - sorry mate!) but so far, its still playing up.
Iv had the pot out and wired it up to a test rig consisting of a p bass pup and a jack, and it works perfectly well. Popped it right back into the twin... and we are back to square one. Very very frustrating to say the least!!
So, Iv checked my wiring (iv even tried wiring it several different ways - thanks again Ted!), Iv swapped components - no change.
Which leads me to suspect this:
It IS working, just not at the level I want. I THINK i can hear a slight 'dip' in the tone at one extreme, but to be honest its only of use to dogs and cats - its not within our hearing capacity.
Has anyone experienced this before? Is it possible that its just the combination of parts (the 6k + 3k pups, with the switch and the 500k pots) requires a bigger or smaller capacitor?? Im inclined to try a .022 and a 1 meg just to see if anything changes - hell, I even wondered if I could link 2 .047s together in series! But I havnt got any, so thought Id ask here to save multiple journeys to my very-distant electrical suppliers!
Any thoughts greatly received!
To cut a long story short, my twin neck project tone pot just will not work.
The guitar features 2 pups running through a les paul style 3 way switch and a tone and a vol pot.
The two pups measure 6.1k and 3k - in essence they are single coils I guess. The pots are 500k A and B. The cap is rated at .047.
Everything works fine, the pups, the vol, the jack, the ground - in short I can play it and it does its job...just cant change the tone!
Several guys have been most helpful in diagnosing the problem (mostly Ted of course - sorry mate!) but so far, its still playing up.
Iv had the pot out and wired it up to a test rig consisting of a p bass pup and a jack, and it works perfectly well. Popped it right back into the twin... and we are back to square one. Very very frustrating to say the least!!
So, Iv checked my wiring (iv even tried wiring it several different ways - thanks again Ted!), Iv swapped components - no change.
Which leads me to suspect this:
It IS working, just not at the level I want. I THINK i can hear a slight 'dip' in the tone at one extreme, but to be honest its only of use to dogs and cats - its not within our hearing capacity.
Has anyone experienced this before? Is it possible that its just the combination of parts (the 6k + 3k pups, with the switch and the 500k pots) requires a bigger or smaller capacitor?? Im inclined to try a .022 and a 1 meg just to see if anything changes - hell, I even wondered if I could link 2 .047s together in series! But I havnt got any, so thought Id ask here to save multiple journeys to my very-distant electrical suppliers!
Any thoughts greatly received!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Wes Yates on -
I don't usually have gremlins. Most of mine are screeching cats. Also thought I had ghosts but it turned out that the preamp I built was picking up radio.
Can't help you other than that, but I can commiserate.
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Permalink Reply by Roosterman on -
Yep, thats the way I got it wired now (thanks Taxi!), but il certainly try your suggestion first thing in the morning.
It is a bit of a brain teaser aint it? I thought i had it cracked when i had it on the test rig, but it was short lived.
D'ya think I could have accidentally installed anit-mojo instead of mojo???
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Permalink Reply by bucky on -
I have read that 250k pots are recommended for single coil pickups and a .022 cap, and humbuckers need 500k pots and .04 cap. the value of the cap determines the amount of treble cut, the higher the cap the bassier it will sound. The resistence value of a pot is related to the output of the pickup, high output pickups need high ohm resistance pots. Your pickups are not high output so I would try some 250k pots and keep the cap at .04 for a more dramatic tone response or use a 500k for vol and a 250k for tone. There are many combinations that could change the sound of the cbg. guitarelectroncs.com has wiring diagrams that are easy to read and cover every combination of switches, number of pickups, pots, caps that you can think of.
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