Stacked knob jazz help

[rabidwolverine]

I’ve recently built a stacked knob jazz parts bass. The body I bought was pre loaded with Fralin split jazz pickups, wired in vt vt stacked layout. After getting my neck installed I’m having issues with the neck pickup tone control. Even when soloing the neck pickup, the tone portion of the stack has no effect on the sound. The bridge pickup’s knob is working as expected. I’ve checked to see if it was the way the knobs themselves were screwed on the pot and they seem to turn the separate portions of the pot independently. Is this a problem with the pot itself or could it be something else in the wiring? Pictures attached. Thanks

 

[sissy kathy]

You may to be working under a misconception. All of the tone pots on a bass affect all of the pickups. To really check the pots to see if they are working properly, back off one tone pot completely and then adjust tone of the other. then switch it around. You can do the same with the volume pots and you'll hear that both tone pots will affect either pickup. Now to be fair at low levels of filtering the pots MAY actually only affect the pickups they are mated with, but as you increase the amount of filtering it will start affecting the other pickup.

 

[rabidwolverine]

Thanks for the reply. I have tried several different combinations. If I have the neck volume all the way turned up, then neither the tone knobs offer any real treble bite. It’s just a dominate neck p/u sound with no real treble. It seems like in any combination, the only way I get much bite to the tone is with the bridge pickup volume raised higher and the tone all the way up. In any of the combinations I’ve tried, when turning the tone portion of the neck pot, I do not hear any discernible change. I will admit I’m not particularly knowledgeable with wiring

 

[walking_line]

I’m definitely not an expert in these matters, but some years ago I picked up a stack knob control plate for my jbass. After doing some reading, I decided not to install it because, IIRC, the stack knob configuration can cause phase issues. Maybe related to your problem?

 

[sissy kathy]

Thanks for the reply. I have tried several different combinations. If I have the neck volume all the way turned up, then neither the tone knobs offer any real treble bite. It’s just a dominate neck p/u sound with no real treble. It seems like in any combination, the only way I get much bite to the tone is with the bridge pickup volume raised higher and the tone all the way up. In any of the combinations I’ve tried, when turning the tone portion of the neck pot, I do not hear any discernible change. I will admit I’m not particularly knowledgeable with wiring

The neck pickup doesn't produce as much treble as the bridge to begin with. I guess its possible that your cap values are too low to affect the neck pickup.

 

[Lownote38]

To me, it looks like there is WAY too much solder used on those pots. I think you may have a cold solder joint that's causing your neck pickup tone pot not to work properly.

 

[rabidwolverine]

So I’ve spent some time this week working on this, and I’ve tried several different orange drop capacitors on both pots to see if anything would change, but no dice. Would the consensus be that it’s more than likely the pot?

 

[rabidwolverine]

Alright, so I put in new stacked pot and rewired everything and it’s working as it should now. Don’t know if it was a cold solder joint or the old pot itself, but everything is working perfectly now. Thanks for all the advice