Wiring Woes.

I'm nearing completion on my partscaster and I am having wiring issues. I got the pickups installed and followed the wiring diagram dang near perfect. I closed up the control panel and plugged in the Tele for the moment of truth and...

the volume doesn't work. Argh! I'm not saying there's no sound, but heres the deal: The pickup switch and the tone knob work perfect. I AM getting sound, but when I go to lower the volume, I only get about a 20% volume drop between "10" and "0". Did I fry the volume pot and need to replace it or is this a deeper issue? Please help, being so close to completion and still not being able to play is driving me nuts!

If you can't turn it totally off with the volume pot then it sounds like you don't have a good connection with the ground lug side of the volume pot... and ground. If you just made this connection by bending the tab and flowing solder sometimes the joint can be "cold".

Easy to check for. Use a meter set to ohms/resistance. Turn the control knob fully counter clockwise. Put one probe on the middle lug. Now put the other on the ground lug - which should be the lug to the right. You should get a zero ohms reading. Now put the probe that's on the ground lug on the back of the pot - if you have a bad connection you will read something much higher than zero.

You might just have to heat it up again.

By the way... you did make this connection... right?

Ah! That was it! The wirogram was a bit ambiguous and I missed that connection completely. Works beautifully now. Thanks a ton JoeA! Stay tuned, first photo shoot is coming up...

Cool!! :D