HELP: Neck pup is off when rolled back a little

[justinellison3]

I have a MIM Fender Jazz Bass and I just put new Lollar pickups in it and I was playing around on it and noticed that if the neck pickup is rolled back any (not fully on) then it will be completely off (more like an on/off switch)

I don't think I changed anything in the wiring... does anyone know what the problem could be and how I could fix it?

[justinellison3]

No one??

[Hopkins]

If I had to guess, I would say your pot is bad.

[justinellison3]

Originally Posted by Hopkins

If I had to guess, I would say your pot is bad.

Do pots go bad? Would upgrading to a 500k pot be a good idea?

[FrednBass]

I think it's a logarithmic pot. You should get a linear one.

[justinellison3]

What's the advantage of having linear over logarithmic? I mean I know the difference but it seems like it would be harder to dial in the right tones with that.

I keep my volumes at: neck 100% and bridge 50ish% and with linear it seems if I did that then it would sound the same as: neck 100% bridge 100%

And I don't like that tone (both on full)

[gurensan]

Volume pots should always be log. Tone pots can be linear but log seems to be more common. Unsure why.

Might be a bad pot. The CTS pot I put into my bass recently is doing the same thing. I'll be replacing it fairly soon but for now it's working when full up, which is the only place I leave it.

[Hopkins]

Originally Posted by justinellison3

Do pots go bad? Would upgrading to a 500k pot be a good idea?

500k or 250k pots aren't really an upgrade, they are just different. If you feel your bass isn't bright sounding enough switch to all 500. If you like it the way it is, stick with 250k.

Its possible you got it to hot with your soldering iron when you installed the new pots. I have done that before. Or a piece of hard solder or wire could have gotten into the pot and damaged it.

[petrus61]

I noticed crappy pots have a tendency to do this on Jazz basses for some reason. I would stick with the 250k, but just get a better quality pot. CTS is good, but make sure it is one of the better ones as they make 'cheaper' models too.

[Tom_RCJ]

2 things.

1. Check your solder points just in case. You never know.

2. Clean your pot. DW40 or any similar lube will do. Spin that pot till it's super clean. I won't pretend to understand exactly how a dirty pot can act so weirdly, but I have observed it myself recently. My volume pot was acting about how you described. Cleaned it and it's fine now.

Hope you get it working the way you want. I've also noticed this sort of problem when a tone cap starts to die (I use old vintage caps, so it happens sometimes). It does something weird to the circuit. Doesn't sound like this would be your problem though.

[bassgod0dmw]

Originally Posted by Tom_RCJ

2. Clean your pot. DW40 or any similar lube will do. Spin that pot till it's super clean. I won't pretend to understand exactly how a dirty pot can act so weirdly, but I have observed it myself recently. My volume pot was acting about how you described. Cleaned it and it's fine now.

Don't use WD40 or any similar lube to "clean" a pot. It's just going to muck it up with more crap.

Use an electronics cleaner, like Detoxit.

[justinellison3]

Thanks guys. Also I noticed what seems to sound like a light underlying "fuzz" coming from the pickups. I hope this is the pot not the pickup itself