Bad volume pot solder? Sound coming out when zeroed

[sixgunsovertombstone]

I recently got my BKPs installed in a new guitar, and I noticed that even when my volume pot is at zero, there is still a bit of noise coming through my amp (i.e. there is still some output from the guitar). this didn't happen to the old pickups in there. There is one volume pot and one tone pot, and a 3 way switch for controls.

This happened to another guitar of mine, with EMGs, but the problem was much more pronounced (much more sound coming through when the pot was at zero), and for whatever reason that guitar sounded terrible all the time, completely lifeless and weak, even worse than normal EMGs... ha...

Anyways, I was wondering if this was a symptom of something that was affecting my tone. FWIW, Ive noticed that my nailbombs (the pickups that are in the guitar that Im referring to) are slightly lower output than my holy divers. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be the case or if it this same problem of malfunctioning volume pot destroying my tone.

Thank you!

[FELINEGUITARS]

It could be a couple of things

It sounds like the earthing has been disturbed when the pickup was swapped -or the pot damaged....

In either case it may be worth swapping out the vol pot for one of the BKP ones - they are really super!

Maybe an earth wire has ben left off the back of the volume pot and it is struggling to short the signal to earth - that seems like a possibility.

[dave_mc]

how much output, and how do you have it wired?

i could be wrong, but i think one of the ways of wiring a twin-humbucker guitar means that a teeny bit of output still comes through even when the pot is on zero.

don't quote me, though, that might be bs :lol:

[sixgunsovertombstone]

well, I have it wired to a push/pull tone pot for coil tapping... other than that... I dont know how they are wired... I get them installed by a tech. At any rate all my guitars are wired the same, dual hum, 1vol, 1 push/pull tone wired for coil split, and a 3 way switch, all with bare knuckles.

On my other guitars with the same set up I get no noise, so im thinking that there is indeed a malfunction somewhere.

Ill get the tech to replace the volume pot when I get my new pickups installed and investigate the ground.

when its zeroed there is only a tiny bit of sound coming through. its only noticeable on distortion channels though, but turned up to jam volume you can definitely hear it coming through. I would estimate it to be roughly 10% of the volume level of the full output (volume zeroed vs opened all the way up).

[dave_mc]

yeah, but there are a couple of different ways you can wire a twin humbucker guitar

this is kinda getting past my pay grade (i know very, very little about electronics :lol: ), but yeah. just because all your guitars are HH doesn't mean they're necessarily wired exactly the same.

[darkbluemurder]

First of all, the Nailbomb and Holydiver should have roughly the same output. If one is louder than the other and it is not the guitar which is acoustically louder, there is a wiring defect or malfunctioning part.

Second, when the volume pot is at zero there should not be any signal coming to the amp. If there is signal this means that there is some resistance between the pot wiper and the CCW terminal. This can easily be detected with a digital multimeter (DMM), and this is something your tech could check for you. It is not even necessary to desolder any wire to measure this. If there is resistance between the wiper and CCW terminal the only cure is to replace the pot.

This symptom would not necessarily affect the tone with the pots full up or anywhere between 0 and full up. Do the pots make a scratchy sound when turned?

Since you did not mention that the guitar makes any unwanted noise with the pots turned up I doubt that it is a grounding issue but there is no harm in having that checked, too.   

Good luck,
Stephan