volume pot only goes half way

jhmpcat

I rewired my

Rick

do you mean it physically won't turn back?

jhmpcat

No. The knob turns all the way. The actual volume level is only half.

Either from 0 to 5 on one guitar, and 5 to 10 on the other. I followed Fender's Mustang wiring diagram.

The '66 Mustang's volume goes from 0 to 5 and doesn't get louder than 5 as I keep turning.

The '65 Mustang's volume goes down from 10 to 5 but doesn't go to 0 as I turn the knob to zero - sound keeps coming out.

Dana

One question:How long did you hold the soldering iron on the pot?

Because this will do it.

*EDIT* oh you "tinkered" with it,id wire it 100% to the schematics,also make sure you using the right side of the 3 lugs on the pot because it DOES make a differance.

If you wired on the left instead of the right it will mess it all up,as goes for the other way too.

Rick

incidently, i noticed my 1meg volume pot seems to lose 90% volume after only turning it 10% down. and i can't say if it was like this from new or not...

jhmpcat

Here is a photo of the '66 Mustang's wiring. I followed Fender's wiring diagram.

Rick

that volume pot is not one used in the 60's. or at least, not one i'm familiar with. these were the ones on my '65 mustang:

http://www.fenderjaguar.net/images/65pots.JPG

not that i'm saying it wouldn't be suitable. but maybe it's the specifiation of the pot itself? i dunno...

Dana

The wirings right and that vol pot is a CTS brand pot,code137,i have them in my 66 although mine are alot cleaner.

Buy the looks of the vol,it seems like its been heat damaged by the soldering iron at the ground connection,so id replace it with a exact copy off of ebay or just a regular CTS250k from:

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/

Or you can try cleaning it buy going here to learn how:

http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5

Buy the way,Ricks pots are Stackpole brand-Pre CBS etc.

Dana

Rick said: incidently, i noticed my 1meg volume pot seems to lose 90% volume after only turning it 10% down. and i can't say if it was like this from new or not...

Pots are rarely a smooth equal decline in volume,most of the effect happens early in the turn and very little happens in the last bit of the turn.

If you want to counter this you can do so by using a resistor,i forget what type and the wiring for it ect.

try:

http://www.jimshine.com/

But i think i saw it somewear else.

Rick

yeah, it's prolly just normal. just seemed unbalanced when i was turning the volume down with an amp on loud, the other day.

cheers for pots info. i never knew they were changed or the brand name

Dana

cool,Jimshine.com is a wealth of info,i spend alot of time reading there!

Aug

I recently resurrected a 66 Mustang from the dead...here's my Wiki page on all the wiring. Hope it helps.

LINK

jhmpcat

Thanks for the links Dana an Augustus! Really cool info on cleaning pots. In the '80s, I replaced two pots from my '68 P-bass, with DiMarzios. I kept the old pots for a while, but eventually threw them away - OUCH!

I would add burn ointment to "tools needed". I grabbed the soldering iron without looking! And add more beer!

I was glad I was able to save the original dead Mustang pickup and bring it back to life! (I had it rewound, the coil was broken and corroded).

Cheers!

Dana

Thats Aug cleaning the pots incedently also.