Passive wiring, volume will not go to zero

I thought I was almost finished with my warmoth project, but it turns out that I have something wrong with the wiring. I'm using the following wiring diagram

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/schematics/p-j_bass.html

However, I'm using sadowsky p/j pickups and a dual 500k concentric pot for the volumes. This is my first electronics project (basically), so I'm not wise on how to trouble shoot with a multimeter (although I do have one). I did a pretty messy job, but it doesn't look like anything is cross connected, and it is wired as show in the diagram. I've been soldering all of the ground connections to the back of the concentric pot.

Anybody have any ideas of what to check or what would cause this? The volume does turn down correctly, it just never goes completely off. The bass is not strung yet, I'm testing by tapping on the pole pieces with a hex key. You help is much appreciated! thanks.

 

I have the connect to the ground, but it may be a cold solder joint. I did have a very hard time soldering the wires to the back of the volume pot. Any tricks for this?

Could it be doing this because it is not yet strung, and it needs the strings for a proper ground?

 

I think that I am using rosin core. Is that ok to use?

I'd rather leech off of the talkbass community for knowledge than go to the local shop. They charge way too much for this type of stuff.

I was able to pull the ground connection off of the pot with my hands, so the connection was not good. I'll have to get some more solder today and try again. I'll make sure to file all of the crap off the back of the pot before I try and solder to it again. There are just so many connections I need to make to the pot that it is a major pain. When I get one connected, the heat pops off another. I have 2 pickups, 1 volume (the other volume is daisy chained to the other), 1 tone, 1 control cavity, and 1 bridge connection to solder to the pot.

 

thanks for your help!

Actually I have 5 connections to make to the bottom of the pot, that's what is making it difficult. I'll try again tonight. So, the strings shouldn't make a difference w/ the volume problem, right? The bridge is a good enough ground by itself?

 

Now I'm confused. Yeah, actually it is 7, I must have miscounted before, connections that need to somehow get to ground (it is actually six, but I merged the two volumes to one ground connection). So, the connections are as follows: P, J, Tone, Volumes, Output, Shielding, and Bridge.

I figured I should be soldering all of these to the common ground point, which in my case was supposed to be the back of the volume pot. What should I do with all of these connections?

I was assuming before that the volume not going off problem was due to back grounding of the output jack. That ground connection is run from the output jack to the back of the volume pot at the moment. I'm guessing that the connection was bad because I was able to pull the ground connection for the volumes off the back of the pot with my fingers and not much effort. Am I making any sense?

 

Sure, I'll do the picture tonight (hopefully). It's pretty messy in there, so I'll have to clean some stuff up so it is apparent what is actually connected to what.

Well, where should I connect all the grounds to?

 

That would be awesome! thanks.

Regards,
Sean

 

I think I fixed it. Thanks for the help! It was the ground connections to the back of the pot. I moved alot of the connections, filed the back of the pots, and tinned everything before I soldered. I think it is working just fine now.

 

Thanks guys, that's great advice!!

 

Doh. Troubles return. Now I get some buzzing unless I touch a knob. I'm not sure that the tone knob is working 100% either. Ideas?