Guitar tone pot wiring help anyone?

[siaoguitar]

Hi, recently changed a pair of humbuckers for my guitar, solder up everything, but the tone pot don't seems to have any effect when i turn it, why? I have soldered wire connecting the volume pot and tone pot, and my capacitor for the tone pot is soldered to the middle lug of the tone pot and ground.Can some one help me?

[phillip]

Is there continuity between all the grounds for the pots?  If the pots are installed into a guitar like a Les Paul, which has a control cavity that has wood on the inside, then there won't be a solid path for the ground to follow unless there are wires connecting the backs (cases) of all the pots.  If the capacitor isn't grounded properly, then the tone control won't work.

Also, another cause might be that the tone capacitor is too small.  Capacitors with values that are too small will have very little impact on the sound when you turn the tone pot.  I had this problem once when I rewired a guy's Strat.  I installed the 0.022uF capacitor that came with the control pots, but once I got it all wired up and put back together, the tone controls didn't do anything.  The next day (after I had gotten a 0.047uF capacitor from home) I put the new larger value cap in and the problem was fixed

First make sure all the pot cases are connected together and that the capacitor is solidly grounded.  If so, then increase the value of the tone capacitor.  If you're using 0.022uF, then I would go for either a 0.033uF or 0.047uF (which is a more common value in guitars).

Hope this helps some!
Phillip

[waldo041]

You might want to change the Potentiometer to a 500k vs a 250k which are used for single coils. also if you are using 250k pots you might want to change the volume pot to a 25k pot for better volume control. i use a .02 capacitors for tone. hope this helps. peace waldo