Post by bowyn on Oct 1, 2012 15:15:39 GMT -5
Alrighty, so I recently bought a Xavier XV-599 from Guitarfetish.com.
It was a B-stock on clearance and since I've had a nagging desire to check them out, being a big fan of GFS pickups, I figured it was cheap enough that whatever the outcome was, I wasn't out much moolah.
Well, the damn thing is awesome. For most part. Nice heavy thick mahogany body with a surprisingly thick maple cap. Beautiful inlays. Smooth tuning. Good comfortable neck and plays nicely. Pickups (Crunchy PATs) give me no complaints, though since discovering P-90s a while back, I've been somewhat apathetic towards humbuckers.
The problem I noticed is that one (now two) of the knobs were crooked looking. You know, when you turn the knob and there's a gap off of the body on one side and it's flush on the other. At first I thought it was just cheap knobs. After pulling a couple of them off, I found that they are fairly standard quality knobs, but what seems to have happened is that when the nut was being tightened down, it must have been a bit crooked and so it fastened cross-threaded causing the pot shaft to be mounted with a bit of an angle to it, hence the crooked knob.
I tried unscrewing it and refastening it, but the threads at the point where it went crooked are sheared down to where it just turns and turns at the point without tightening.
FYI, it's the Bridge Tone pot. This guitar has Les Paul type wiring, 2 vol, 2 tone, 3 way toggle.
Well, I've got several spare pots, so I dug out a 500k CTS pot.. it appears they don't label theirs with an A or B, so I assumed it was a Linear since they seem to be more common. Since the Tone Pot coming out says A500k on it, I thought I was good to go.
I snipped it out, soldered in the CTS pot exactly as the other pot was wired. Same Cap value (though the original had a green chicklet cap and I had a orange drop, still both 22s).
I plugged my guitar up and now when I roll back the Tone, I get NO change from about 10 to 3, then I get some treble cut from about 3 to 2, and then after 2 it actually cuts all sound.
I'm pretty decent at wiring this crap up, but I tend to get myself confused as I'm Super ADD Man and it was about 3am, so I figured before I get anymore goofed up, I'd ask in the forum here. I realize this is a fairly elementary question, but sometimes those are the ones that get me turned around backwards. :/
For the record, I believe what is happening is that I've used a Log Taper pot where a Linear taper pot should be used... but the reason it's confusing me is that I was under the impression that the taper didn't matter so significantly on Tone as it does on Volume, but this is pretty darn significant.
Lug 1 -> .022u cap -> pot casing
Lug 2 -> Vol Pot Lug 3
Lug 3 -> Nothing
Pot Case -> Bridge ground
Pot Case -> Vol Pot Case (Vol Pot is a B500k)
P.S. The reason I didn't just yank the CTS out and try a A500k is because I am fresh out of them :/
Hows that for a long post about a short question? Yeesh!
[ Edited because I was typing like a baboon on ketamine ]
It was a B-stock on clearance and since I've had a nagging desire to check them out, being a big fan of GFS pickups, I figured it was cheap enough that whatever the outcome was, I wasn't out much moolah.
Well, the damn thing is awesome. For most part. Nice heavy thick mahogany body with a surprisingly thick maple cap. Beautiful inlays. Smooth tuning. Good comfortable neck and plays nicely. Pickups (Crunchy PATs) give me no complaints, though since discovering P-90s a while back, I've been somewhat apathetic towards humbuckers.
The problem I noticed is that one (now two) of the knobs were crooked looking. You know, when you turn the knob and there's a gap off of the body on one side and it's flush on the other. At first I thought it was just cheap knobs. After pulling a couple of them off, I found that they are fairly standard quality knobs, but what seems to have happened is that when the nut was being tightened down, it must have been a bit crooked and so it fastened cross-threaded causing the pot shaft to be mounted with a bit of an angle to it, hence the crooked knob.
I tried unscrewing it and refastening it, but the threads at the point where it went crooked are sheared down to where it just turns and turns at the point without tightening.
FYI, it's the Bridge Tone pot. This guitar has Les Paul type wiring, 2 vol, 2 tone, 3 way toggle.
Well, I've got several spare pots, so I dug out a 500k CTS pot.. it appears they don't label theirs with an A or B, so I assumed it was a Linear since they seem to be more common. Since the Tone Pot coming out says A500k on it, I thought I was good to go.
I snipped it out, soldered in the CTS pot exactly as the other pot was wired. Same Cap value (though the original had a green chicklet cap and I had a orange drop, still both 22s).
I plugged my guitar up and now when I roll back the Tone, I get NO change from about 10 to 3, then I get some treble cut from about 3 to 2, and then after 2 it actually cuts all sound.
I'm pretty decent at wiring this crap up, but I tend to get myself confused as I'm Super ADD Man and it was about 3am, so I figured before I get anymore goofed up, I'd ask in the forum here. I realize this is a fairly elementary question, but sometimes those are the ones that get me turned around backwards. :/
For the record, I believe what is happening is that I've used a Log Taper pot where a Linear taper pot should be used... but the reason it's confusing me is that I was under the impression that the taper didn't matter so significantly on Tone as it does on Volume, but this is pretty darn significant.
Lug 1 -> .022u cap -> pot casing
Lug 2 -> Vol Pot Lug 3
Lug 3 -> Nothing
Pot Case -> Bridge ground
Pot Case -> Vol Pot Case (Vol Pot is a B500k)
P.S. The reason I didn't just yank the CTS out and try a A500k is because I am fresh out of them :/
Hows that for a long post about a short question? Yeesh!
[ Edited because I was typing like a baboon on ketamine ]
