Tone Probelm

[Tyler Durden]

Hello everyone,

I got myself a SG about 2 years ago, used from ebay. When i first got it, it was wired normal (two vol, two tones, and a 3 way) but in a way i've never seen it before. It was like ass-backwards. the only thing i remember from the way it was wired was that the cpacitors didnt go from tone knob - volume knob, it came off tone knob and then grounded on bottom of the pot (like the way master tones are wired) After a month or two it started crackling and getting noises when you use the volumes (common from a BAD wiring job) but the tone always sounded good.

I eventually gutted it and used just two of the pots with both pickups to wire it 2 master volumes w/ 3-way switch, no tones. It sounded the same, maybe a little richer since it didnt have any tones.

I finally got around to rewire it the "factory" way a few weeks ago. I got all new parts (500k pots and a 3-way switch). At first, i wired it with .050uf ceramic capacitors this way:

http://static.zoovy.com/img/guitarelectron...-/wdu_hh3t22_01

and i had massive tone problems. everything worked but it wasnt "rich" at all. Very dull, very dry sounding. as if i turned the tone knob down a little, or the gain on my amp. it wasnt as distortiony. i figured it might be the value capacitor i used (since i never used that one before) so i switched them with .022uf caps. I got a little more high end, but same dull and dry sound. So, i decided to wire it this way:

http://static.zoovy.com/img/guitarelectron...-/wdu_hh3t22_02

and see what would happen. No difference in tone.

I dont understand what the problem is. The only thing i can think of is that i got some shitty pots (from stew mac, they look a little wimpy compared to other pots) but could they really **** up the sound that bad? Is there a mod that any one knows of? or maybe something simple thats staring me in the face? any help would be very much appreciated. thanks.

Edited February 27, 2006 by Tyler Durden

[JoeAArthur]

This probably won't be of much help...

But I never wire my tone controls that way - using the tone cap as jumper from volume control pot to the tone control pot. I wire them the way you consider backasswards - wire jumper from volume control pot to tone control pot - with tone control closest to ground.

Back in the days when I didn't shield guitars, caps could pick up extra noise. Wiring them far away from ground would just increase the noise level. So, even with shielding, I still wire them as close to ground potential as possible.

[Tyler Durden]

Now that i'm thinking about it, i think he also had a strange capacitor value. But anway, i would wire it like this: ? I'll give that a try and see what happens.

Thanks to PicTiger for providing Free Image Hosting.

[lovekraft]

Sorry, Tyler, but that's a volume pot with a cap in parallel - it'll just turn down the volume. Try wiring as shown, but place the cap between the rightmost pot lug and ground. There are several equally valid ways to wire a tone pot, since components in series are equivalent, regardless of their physical order. See if this helps:

All three of these tone setups are electronically identical, even though the physical setups are quite different.

[Tyler Durden]

lovecraft, could you please give me a diagram like the ones that i posted? i dont know how to read these schematics. thanks.

[lovekraft]

Here's two different configurations that are electronically equivalent:

Standard Tone Wiring

Alternate Tone Wiring

If you plan on doing very much of this, learning to read schematics will get you out of the kiddie pool, so to speak - it's not absolutely necessary, but I strongly recommend it!

[Tyler Durden]

...yeah, i got the swimmies off... one step at a time. thanks for the pic, i'll wire it up and see how it goes.

[Tyler Durden]

ok, i wired it according to "standard tone wiring." even w/ the dead strings on it, i noticed the difference. i slapt a new set of strings on, and it sounds amazing (or the way that its should anyway). i'm gonna wire my tone knobs like this for now on.

Thanks for the help.