Ground wire from bridge

[ctmullins]

What about the volume and tone controls they still don't work.

I stared at your photo for a while. I'm not really sure where the wires connect to your jack though. If your volume and tone pots aren't working, the first thing I would check is a good solid ground to them.

 

[Reedt2000]

What about the volume and tone controls they still don't work.

They don't work because you have to connect pickup ground to the top of the vol pot, right lug on the volume pot to the top of the volume pot, and left tone pot lug to the top of the tone pot. Take a look at your diagram again.

 

[Reedt2000]

 

[Level5wizard]

Oh. Ok I'll try and do that. I'm more of a woodworking person. This is my homemade 33" fretless. This emg is from a bass I had in the 90s. I found them digging around for parts

 

[dwizum]

Also, check this spot. It looks like the signal wire from the pickup is stripped back too far, and it may be touching the middle terminal on the pot. If it is, it would bypass the controls.

It could well be the control ground though as @Reedt2000 pointed out - hard to tell without seeing where all the wires go when they leave the cavity. The pot cases themselves don't actually need to be grounded but the ground terminals on the pots need to be grounded - i.e. connected to the ground terminal on the jack.

 

[dwizum]

Check around all the pot terminals, actually. Make sure nothing is touching something it's not supposed to be. A pot terminal bent down a little such that it touches the copper foil, or a lead bent a little so it touches something else, can cause issues like this.

 

[Level5wizard]

Ok I'll get on it.

 

[Level5wizard]

Here is the update. Wiring is something is still new me. Like I said I'm more of a woodworker.

 

[Level5wizard]

AND..... Sadness. Still sound, No control.
I'll see if I can look for the correct pots.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I could be wrong but it appears you have a solder bridge between what should be a signal lead and the potentiometer case. Also, it might not hurt to put some electrical tape between those potentiometer solder points and the shielding unless you're absolutely sure they're not touching the shielding.

 

[Level5wizard]

Thank you guys for all of your help fyi. I think I'll just see if I can get simple p-bass pickup for this. A) frustrating and B) My lack of knowledge that is leading me back to point A. Nothing is touching, It is grounded and I made sure the sodered points are correct. The state of working not working is annoying.
L5W

 

[dwizum]

You could always just get modern solderless EMG pots for it, and patch a pickup extension onto your pickup, then be done with it. The only difference between the EMG and any other P pickup is the battery - the actual wiring on the controls is the same, though with different value components.

And I'll second what Matt said - I think you've inadvertently shorted the controls to ground - whichever pot is on the top in your last photo is at ground on both ends.