Tone pot malfunction...help!!

[sonny wolf]

I own a 2011 AVRI 52 Tele that has been gigged a lot over the years.It still has the original 1952 spec wiring from the factory...1-bridge pickup,2-neck pickup,3-neck pickup with treble rolled off for that muffled tone.Recently the tone knob doesn't function properly when at the bridge pickup...instead of rolling off treble and darkening,it just gets lower volume and very phasey.It sounds normal (or close to it)when the tone knob is on full but as soon as I roll it back it starts to get that thin phasey sound.This only affects the bridge pickup position...the neck pickup in position 2 and 3 seems fine.Anyone know what is going on here?A bad connection to the tone pot from the bridge pickup or is my bridge pickup going bad?

 

[dsutton24]

This is usually a symptom of a bad bridge pickup. Easy to verify if you have an ohmmeter.

 

[sonny wolf]

This is usually a symptom of a bad bridge pickup. Easy to verify if you have an ohmmeter.

The output of my bridge pickup seems ok...it sounds normal I think when the tone pot is on full.It's just when the tone knob starts being turned down that the volume decreases and the tone gets thin and phasey.

 

[Solaris moon]

That sounds like a capacitor problem - not a pickup. The tone is coming from the capacitor and although your capacitor is not wired to the bridge it can leak slowly over time or drift in value affecting the overall tone of the neck pick up. Sometimes this can also be the pot itself is wearing out. If you're turning down the tone knob and you haven't changed anything since the factory then it's your potentiometer. If both of your pickups are original and untouched the sound won't weaken and fade. It's the pot most likely dying a slow death. As the wiper inside the cover of the pot itself wears it makes less contact with the contact terminals of the wired components. This makes for weird sounds and phasing effects, etc. I too had the same problem. I de-soldered the tone pot and installed a new one. Problem solved. I would suggest taking some tuner cleaner to it first and if that doesn't work then it's time to replace it.

 

[Tele_Tom64]

That sounds like a capacitor problem - not a pickup. The tone is coming from the capacitor and although your capacitor is not wired to the bridge it can leak slowly over time or drift in value affecting the overall tone of the neck pick up. Sometimes this can also be the pot itself is wearing out. If you're turning down the tone knob and you haven't changed anything since the factory then it's your potentiometer. If both of your pickups are original and untouched the sound won't weaken and fade. It's the pot most likely dying a slow death. As the wiper inside the cover of the pot itself wears it makes less contact with the contact terminals of the wired components. This makes for weird sounds and phasing effects, etc. I too had the same problem. I de-soldered the tone pot and installed a new one. Problem solved. I would suggest taking some tuner cleaner to it first and if that doesn't work then it's time to replace it.

Your guitar signal that you hear from the amp doesn't go through the tone cap. Anything that does gets sent to ground. It's not an active part of the audio signal chain like a pickup is. They don't act like a cap in an amplifier, which does let the audio signal through the actual cap. On a tone pot, they send specific frequencies to ground. Like a filter.

 

[Solaris moon]

ALL the current is going through your instrument. Unless your guitar pickups are wired as this Telecaster above as described. The only time that the tone knob is affected is when it goes into the circuit while activated. Otherwise it wouldn't work when flipped on by the switch. This is how the tone is able to be turned down by that knob.

 

[sonny wolf]

That sounds like a capacitor problem - not a pickup. The tone is coming from the capacitor and although your capacitor is not wired to the bridge it can leak slowly over time or drift in value affecting the overall tone of the neck pick up. Sometimes this can also be the pot itself is wearing out. If you're turning down the tone knob and you haven't changed anything since the factory then it's your potentiometer. If both of your pickups are original and untouched the sound won't weaken and fade. It's the pot most likely dying a slow death. As the wiper inside the cover of the pot itself wears it makes less contact with the contact terminals of the wired components. This makes for weird sounds and phasing effects, etc. I too had the same problem. I de-soldered the tone pot and installed a new one. Problem solved. I would suggest taking some tuner cleaner to it first and if that doesn't work then it's time to replace it.

Thanks...I'll buy a new tone pot and install it to see if it solves the issue.

 

[Billy3]

Thanks...I'll buy a new tone pot and install it to see if it solves the issue.

Do you own a multimeter? If not, buy one. It will help you solve many a problem

 

[hepular]

Do you own a multimeter? If not, buy one. It will help you solve many a problem

that & do a visual inspect for soldering connections, etc. through the signal path to make sure everything's connected (&/or not contacting something it shouldn't.