250K Tone pot, but no sound. unreg?

[unreg]

Hi.


My new 250K Tone pot has been installed for a couple of days. Note: no sound other than a few crackles has come from my amp.

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The 250K Tone pot has been wired normal:

a.) The new 250VDC 0.047uF 5% MP Panasonic Film Capacitor from Mouser has been soldered between my Tone’s lug2 and ground.

b.) The wire end, removed from my old 500K Tone’s lug1, has been soldered to my new 250K Tone’s lug1.

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So, testing shows continuity:
1.) between the solder spot on top of my new pot and the jack’s sleeve. (That’s a pot case grounding wire.)

2.) between the Capacitor’s ground leg and the jack’s sleeve.

3.) between my 250K Tone’s lug1 and my 500K Volume’s lug3.

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The crackling has been eliminated by disconnecting my Dimarzio Bluesbucker’s red wire [edit]I’m honestly not sure about the wire, other than that it’s red. So many wires in a small place.[/edit] from its soldered spot on my star ground paperclip; trimmed and reconnected & soldered it. The paperclip is not a true star ground since the Capacitor is grounded to Volume’s lug1.

(I had previously wrapped that red wire’s exposed end with electrical tape. That’s NOT a good idea; the tape’s glue destroyed part of the wire. Used a wire cover this time.)

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I have fully rotated the Volume pot’s knob, and then the Tone pot’s knob; just receive silence. The silence gets louder, but no noise||music is created.

The Tone pot provides appropriate resistance values when measured underneath the Capacitor on Tone’s lug2 and lug1 as my Tone’s knob is rotated.


I don’t know how to solve this silence problem. Could you please help me?

[newey]

Apr 20, 2022 1:12:40 GMT -5 unreg said:

the tape’s glue destroyed part of the wire.

I don't know what kind of tape you used, or what wire, but I've never heard of any such thing happening. In any event, it sounds like you fixed that issue but that was only the "crackling", you're still getting no signal at all in any switch/pot configuration, correct?

If the problem was with the tone pot/capacitor part of the circuit, you should still have some signal with the pot at "10". My suspicion would be that you knocked some other connection loose when you went inside to replace the pot. Start rechecking things with the jack + and - connections and work your way back to the switches.

[jhng]

Apr 20, 2022 1:12:40 GMT -5 unreg said:

The silence gets louder, but no noise||music is created.

This is an wonderfully poetic line, although I'm not sure how it relates to reality.

[unreg]

Apr 20, 2022 6:27:40 GMT -5 jhng said:

Apr 20, 2022 1:12:40 GMT -5 unreg said:

The silence gets louder, but no noise||music is created.

This is an wonderfully poetic line, although I'm not sure how it relates to reality.

😅 Please disregard that quoted part of my post. I was remembering how it sounded when I turned up my amp’s volume knob.

[unreg]

Apr 20, 2022 5:21:10 GMT -5 newey said:

Apr 20, 2022 1:12:40 GMT -5 unreg said:

the tape’s glue destroyed part of the wire.

I don't know what kind of tape you used, or what wire, but I've never heard of any such thing happening.

Ok. Maybe some of the wires broke bc I had stupidly soldered that red wire down onto the paperclip. So, that end was bent while I taped that long red wire to the floor; so it would be out of the way.

Happily, the wire is a bit shorter and I soldered it up to the paperclip this time.

Apr 20, 2022 5:21:10 GMT -5 newey said:

In any event, it sounds like you fixed that issue but that was only the "crackling", you're still getting no signal at all in any switch/pot configuration, correct?

Yes sir.

Apr 20, 2022 5:21:10 GMT -5 newey said:

If the problem was with the tone pot/capacitor part of the circuit, you should still have some signal with the pot at "10". My suspicion would be that you knocked some other connection loose when you went inside to replace the pot. Start rechecking things with the jack + and - connections and work your way back to the switches.

Will work on that when I have time today; thank you newey!

[unreg]

Apr 20, 2022 5:21:10 GMT -5 newey said:

Start rechecking things with the jack + and - connections and work your way back to the switches.

After checking a lot of things for continuity, most everything gives a beep.

I used most bc checking continuity between my Vol lug3 and the jack’s tip is silent. (It beeps when checking between Vol lug2 and jack’s tip.)

It also beeps when checking between Vol lug3 and my jack’s sleeve.

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I’m aware that Vol lug1 should be grounded; but, Vol lug3? Maybe this has something to do with the lack of parallel resistors between Tone lug1 and Tone lug3?

[newey]

Only one lug of the volume pot should be grounded. I take "lack of parallel resistors" to mean that the tone control is wired like any standard tone pot, so hard to see how that could be any sort of explanantion.

[unreg]

Apr 24, 2022 21:17:22 GMT -5 newey said:

Only one lug of the volume pot should be grounded.

Thank you newey! I’ll look into how Vol lug3 is now grounded.

Apr 24, 2022 21:17:22 GMT -5 newey said:

I take "lack of parallel resistors" to mean that the tone control is wired like any standard tone pot, so hard to see how that could be any sort of explanantion.

Totally agree with you. I questioned about that lack of parallel resistors bc I thought maybe I had taken advantage of Tone lug1 being connected to Tone lug3, and so somehow missed adding an important wire.

But, soon after posting that silly question I wanted to remove it. But, you’ve read and responded to it already.

[unreg]

My new Tone’s lug1 was grounded bc I stripped the blue wire, connected to my old Tone’s lug1, wrong. I had forgotten that it is an unbalanced cable. I had just stripped the blue wire covering off, and soldered the bare ground wire around the internal white signal wire, soldered ALL of that to my new Tone’s lug1. The unbalanced cable’s ground wire is star grounded.


So, the fix involved cutting away the blue cable’s surrounding ground wire. And reattaching only its white signal wire to my Tone’s lug1.

I’ve learned that the unbalanced blue cable should be replaced with a wire; instead I wrote myself a note on the unbalanced blue cable between Tone’s lug1 and Volume’s lug3.

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The problem has been solved!

250K Tone pot is lovely and amazing on my humbucker guitar!
That’s only bc my bridge humb is a DiMarzio Bluesbucker