PJ Bass. Volume control issue

hallway9 · #1 10-31-2009, 11:57 PM

Hello everyone,

I've made a mess of my favorite bass and I'm hoping you can help. I tried to install an n'tune on my Fender Pbass special California series and realized there wouldn't be enough room in the cavity for it. I put the original pot (the front P pick-up) back on but now the output seems lower and the pickup is never silent, i.e. even if the pot is at "0" I can still hear the strings ringing. I thought it was a bad pot so I bought a new Fender 250k pot and the same thing happens. If I wire the pickup to the J bass pot the volume turns down to zero. I just can't figure out why both (the original and the new one) pots can't mute completely. Any thoughts?

Thanks

**line6man** · #2 11-01-2009, 07:48 AM

A properly wired volume control will short the pickup directly to ground when rolled all the way down, so it is impossible for any amount of signal to leak through.

If you are still able to hear the pickup with the volume all the way down, it probably isn't grounded or wired properly.

How did you wire the bass?
Perhaps a drawing or picture of your work?

hallway9 · #3 11-01-2009, 12:47 PM

Thanks for your reply. I will post pictures. I wired it back to how it was originally, I have the ground wire from the pickup going to the casing of the pot and the white wire soldered to the middle (#2) "prong" and have a wire from prong #3 to prong #3 of the second volume pot. My bass has two volume controls and 1 tone.

Could it just be a bad soldering job?

**line6man** · #4 11-01-2009, 01:47 PM

You didn't ground the remaining terminal?
That's the problem right there.

hallway9 · #5 11-02-2009, 01:37 AM

Aahhh. Since I put back the original pot I never even looked at it but it turns out it was no longer touching the casing. All is well again. Thank you so much for your help.