500K pots and my single coil telecaster (Help)

[idvc]

hello, Volume pot A500K and Tone pot B500K are on my Single coil telecaster guitar.
There is no functional problem with the volume pot. It's ok.

I turn the tone knob to 90% and get no response, it doesn't work.

I keep turning the knob and only when the knob reaches the end does it react suddenly and the range is very short.

I tried 22, 33, 47 nF capacitors and the result is always the same.

I checked the schematic, as far as I understand there is no error in the my wiring.

I have wanted to try 500k pots because I need more birght sound.

 

[Boreas]

Sounds like it is incorrectly wired or damaged. Could you have roasted it when wiring?

Pix would help.

 

[mandoloony]

Yeah, changing the cap won't change the taper of the pot. Sounds like you'd do better with an audio-taper tone pot.

 

[NoTeleBob]

Do you have a DVM? Can you take the tone pot out of the circuit and measure the resistance values from 0 to 10 at each increment?

 

[idvc]

Do you have a DVM? Can you take the tone pot out of the circuit and measure the resistance values from 0 to 10 at each increment?

I measure that, there is no problem, It is linear.

 

[idvc]

Sounds like it is incorrectly wired or damaged. Could you have roasted it when wiring?

Pix would help.

I checked the wiring four or five times, There is no problem. All of circuit components is works well, They are not damaged.

 

[idvc]

Yeah, changing the cap won't change the taper of the pot. Sounds like you'd do better with an audio-taper tone pot.

Should I use volume=A500K and tone= A500K?

 

[NoTeleBob]

If the tone pot measures properly, then it's your wiring. Maybe a little strand of wire somewhere shorting two lugs. Something like that.

Can we see some photos of the wiring?

 

[Boreas]

Perhaps a bad ground or cold solder joint. Try reflowing the joints. Could be a defective pot. Try swapping in a different pot.

 

[teleplayr]

Use an audio pot for the tone control.

 

[mandoloony]

Should I use volume=A500K and tone= A500K?

That's my suggestion. It has nothing to do with your wiring.

 

[Peegoo]

@idvc

What wiring diagram are you using?

Even though it's considered standard practice to use 250K audio/log pots for volume and tone controls (and a .047/.050uf tone cap) with Fender-style single coils, the pickups themselves==how they're made--can make a control pot act strange.

If your volume pot is working fine, leave it in.

Swap in a 250K audio pot on the tone control and see if it smooths things out as you roll back on the tone control.

 

[pipthepilot]

hello, Volume pot A500K and Tone pot B500K are on my Single coil telecaster guitar.
There is no functional problem with the volume pot. It's ok.

I turn the tone knob to 90% and get no response, it doesn't work.

I keep turning the knob and only when the knob reaches the end does it react suddenly and the range is very short.

I tried 22, 33, 47 nF capacitors and the result is always the same.

I checked the schematic, as far as I understand there is no error in the my wiring.

I have wanted to try 500k pots because I need more birght sound.

If you want a brighter sound you are better off using a lower cap value than higher pot value.

The tone control in a guitar is a passive high pass filter. It works because capacitors have high resistance to low frequencies and low resistance to high frequencies. The potentiometer is the second part of the filter and controls how much of the high frequencies signal that the capacitor has filtered off are allowed to ground.

By adding a 500k pot you are increasing the resistance that the high frequency signal has to get travel through to ground, so it's no surprise that you need to turn the pot further before you hear a difference.

There are lots of discussions about which type of taper to use and ultimately it comes down to personal preference as they all work. But in this instance where you're using a 500k pot, you would find that an audio taper would allow you to hear the change in tone sooner as you roll off the tone knob.

My recommendation is swap the tone pot for a 250K (audio or linear doesn't matter) and then replace the capacitor with a .022uF to get the brighter tone you're looking for.

 

[Boreas]

IMO, it doesn't sound like a properly-functioning linear taper pot - regardless of resistance value. Testing the resistance with a meter over the pot's sweep should let you know if the pot is functioning correctly. If at "10" the meter reads around 500k ohms and the resistance changes smoothly across the sweep (linearly), the pot is OK. If it jumps around, cuts out, etc. it is either dirty or toast. It wouldn't be the first defective new pot ever shipped.

My money is still on a hook-up issue. If testing shows a good linear-taper T pot is in place, you have to consider the wiring, shorts, or poor connection quality.

 

[dougstrum]

You might like .01 with the 250k pot.

 

[Tenderfoot]

idvc, did you finally find out what the issue was? Knowing such information will help others when reading threads such as this one, but only if a solution was found and posted. Thanks!