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problem with tone control on stratocaster

I've modified my guitar like so:

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I also replace the stock pickups with mighty mite pickups which are 5.2k ohms and have an inductance of 3.8H. Anyway it all works great except for the tone control, when it is turned down the volume fades out at about 3. Here was the original wiring, I did not have this problem with it. It had a separate tone control for the neck and middle pickups. The new wiring has only one tone control. I moved the tone control before the volume in the circuit since thats how it was in the stock wiring and it improved it a little(the volume starts to fade out at a lower setting). I'm thinking a might also need to put a lower value capacitor too or something, any ideas?

Reply to
shadow151
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This looks pretty straight forward. Have you traced everything to be sure it is all wired correctly. Yes, it's an annoying little question, but oftentimes a wire is going to the wrong place.

Also, what about your grounding from the pots. Where is it going? And the cap; where are you grounding that?

Got a picture to share of your wiring job that shows the details? That would help.

--Fletch

Reply to
Fletch

What are the specs on the orginals? What value cap do you have?

greg

Reply to
GregS

I measured the old squire pups they are 3.7k ohms each. I'm using star grounding, all grounds is connected to a common point. The cap is

0.033uf which is stock. The tone and volume control use 500k ohm pots. Would the Xc/R ratio come into play with the tone circuit? I played with it some and the ratios where rather big which would indicate that the circuit is mosty resistive. So that would mean when the pots have a low resistance the signal would get pulled to ground. Do i just need to use a smaller cap to increase Xc? Around what ratio should i be looking for? Other guitars seem to use around the same values( 0.033 or 0.047uf caps with 500k pots).
Reply to
shadow151

Older strats and teles used 250Kohm pots and the 0.047uf caps (or values there abouts on the cap). The higher the value on the cap, the less high frequencies get through. The 250Kohm pots are pretty typical for single coil pickups. The lower the value the more highs that get through.

So you can balance your pots and caps to obtain the sound you're looking for as far as frequency range.

--Fletch

Reply to
Fletch

Frequency range isn't really my problem, the problem is that the tone control acts like a volume when its turned down below 4. I can take it apart and take a photo of the wiring if i must. I did check the wiring over several times it just like on that web site except i moved the tone control before the volume.

Reply to
shadow151

The action of the tone control depends very much on the note you are playing.

You cant expect to turn down the tone tone and still get high notes ! and vice versa.

Reply to
Marra

On 10 Jun 2007, Marra wrote in rec.music.makers.guitar:

You you can, and should. The guitar's tone control only affect the note's higher overtones - it hardly affects the fundamental at all. If you can't clearly hear every note on the instrument even with the tone turned all the way down, something is very wrong.

Reply to
Nil

I hear nothing when its turned all the way down the volume starts to fade out at around 4(of 10)

Reply to
shadow151

I'm at a loss here without seeing the actual wiring configuration you've done. I'm wondering if you may not have inadvertantly wired the switch wrong and it is causing some cross 'contamination'.

--Fletch

Reply to
Fletch

The tone control on my Peavey turns down the volume of high notes. You can barely hear the high notes with it turned right down. But hang on, thats what a tone controls supposed to do !

Reply to
Marra

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