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Weird relationship between my volume and blend

B

bassmanjla

Feb 16, 2010
225
0
Hollywood, CA
#1
I have an Epiphone Thunderbird that I've had for about 3 years now.
recently, i've noticed odd behavior with the volume pot.

If the blend is rocked back to the bridge and the volume pot is all the way down, then all is well, volume goes down.

if the blend is forward 50% or further towards the neck, and the volume pot is down, then the volume doesn't go away, but the tone changes.

I've never seen this happen before.

While investigating the wiring, i accidentally disconnected a black wire. Interestingly enough, nothing changed in regards to the sound. The same strange Pot Behavior continues.

I've experimented in trying to figure out where the mysterious black wire is supposed to connect to, but every contact provides either no difference in tone, or cuts the volume completely.

SO, if anyone understands wiring better than me, please educate me. this is a curious situation.
thanks!
 
#3
Had same sort of quirk with the gibson bicentenial issue thunderbird I had in the latter 70;s. And again with a early version of epiphones thunderbird which was rather like the gibson bicentenial issue thunderbird tone wise and vol disbalance wise between the two pups.
 
#6
I'm not the resident expert here but I do know the Thunderbirds are wired Volume, Volume, Tone...NOT Volume, Blend, Tone. One knob controls the neck pickup and the other the bridge pickup, which would explain the different tones you are hearing.
 
#7
this is a new occurance. it's always, always worked the same as a volume, blend, tone. always. had this bass for about 4 years. and that still doesn't explain why the oen volume would operate as a volume one way, and as a blend the other way.

this is an epiphone thunderbird BTW, not a gibson.. might be they are different. or this one is just strange for no reason.

so, for the sake of argument,

there are three pots. the closest to the neck, we shall label POT1, the middle POT2 and the closest to the bridge is POT3.

POT1 functions as a volume when POT2 is rocked all the way clockwise.
when POT2 is rocked all the way counter clockwise, then POT1 functions as a tone POT would.

and like i said, this is a new thing it did not do this a two months ago, or any time befroe.
 
#8
So how does POT2 function if POT1 is all the way off?

bassmanjla said:
there are three pots. the closest to the neck, we shall label POT1, the middle POT2 and the closest to the bridge is POT3.

POT1 functions as a volume when POT2 is rocked all the way clockwise.
when POT2 is rocked all the way counter clockwise, then POT1 functions as a tone POT would.
Click to expand...
 

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