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Am I Crazy??

JakeyBran

JakeyBran

Sep 17, 2014
427
943
Lakeland, Florida
#1
Not sure if this is the correct forum to post this, but this is about electronics. Potentiometers to be more specific.

A few weeks ago my midrange pot on my american deluxe precision locked up. If you tried to turn it an extremely loud pop would occur. I replaced it with an identical potentiometer except this one had a center detent. I preferred this type over the previous so I can set my EQ perfectly "flat" if I wanted without guesstimating. Anyways, ever since I've replaced the pot something just sounds off with my bass. It's extremely "trebly" I have to dial my treble and midrange control way back. Never had to do that before. And it seems like there's some sort of volume loss. Before I switched pots, i kept my volume on my amp (SVT-3 Pro) all the way up and adjusted my gain accordingly. My gain NEVER went past 12:00 and I never had to turn the volume on my bass past maybe 3/4 of the way up. Now I have to turn my bass all the way up, full blast, to be the same level as before. Nothing else has changed. I'm still playing with the same two guys as before.. I'm just totally at a loss. Am I crazy?? Or does stuff like this happen? My solder connections looked fine. But I could open her back up and double check.
 
#5
JakeyBran said:
...ever since I've replaced the pot something just sounds off with my bass. It's extremely "trebly" I have to dial my treble and midrange control way back. Never had to do that before. And it seems like there's some sort of volume loss. ...
Click to expand...
Is there a conductive foil under the pickguard, where the pots are mounted? In that case maybe you have a problem like this one:
Volume issue | TalkBass.com
 
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#9
Usually, a lower value lets less treble thru, and most pots (but, not sure about that Fender setup) used in or after preamps are no more than 50k.
I'm not familiar with CTS serial # designations, so it'll have to be looked up.
Click to expand...

The pot should be a 100k linear pot. It's listed on that wiring diagram.

I notice the earth connection is made to the mid pot casing. Soldering four wires twisted together to a pot casing is something that many people less experienced in soldering will make a mess of. If you've tried the other suggestions listed here, I'd test the pot with a meter. You'll have to remove a couple of its wires to do this. Even though it's brand new, excessive heat when soldering those earth wires to the casing may have damaged it.
 
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#10
RobbieK said:
The pot should be a 100k linear pot. It's listed on that wiring diagram.

I notice the earth connection is made to the mid pot casing. Soldering four wires twisted together to a pot casing is something that many people less experienced in soldering will make a mess of. If you've tried the other suggestions listed here, I'd test the pot with a meter. You'll have to remove a couple of its wires to do this. Even though it's brand new, excessive heat when soldering those earth wires to the casing may have damaged it.
Click to expand...

I replaced the pot that's numbered as 16 in that wiring diagram. It's listed as "Control, 100KB, CTS" and the part number is 0049443000.

I ordered this potentiometer New Fender P Bass 100KB cts Control Pot Center Detent | eBay

Did I order the wrong part??

Also I got the bass used. The previous owner did mention he replaced one pot I just didn't know what I was looking for/at when I bought it (I was a "know it all" 15 year old kid, what can I say?) everything looked right as far as I knew and it sounded good. So I never paid much attention to the wiring.. But when I got it, there was no wires, or evidence of wires, soldered to the previous midrange pot except the three Wires soldered to the three lugs.

Whatever this: is/was Was non existent. I just soldered it back together as it was
 

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#11
RobbieK said:
The pot should be a 100k linear pot. It's listed on that wiring diagram.
Click to expand...

Whoops- scrolled right past the values in the parts list.

'RobbieK' may have it right about the heat req'd to solder all those ground leads to the pot housing, unless you are practiced in getting the heat in, then back off fast. It may be better to solder all the ground leads together, then run only one wire to that pot.
 

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