Re: Help with electric guitar pots problems?

From: Jeff Wiseman (wisemanja_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 10/17/04 

Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 19:03:44 GMT

mark wrote:
>
> The guitar has two volumes, two tone dials and one toggle switch.
> The toggle switch and dials look like the ones on this guitar:
> http://www.albinhagstrom.se/hagstrom_h_ii_n.htm
>
> The volume on my guitar cuts off after I go below 5 on the bottom volume
> dial.
>
> When I turn both volume dials on maximum: both pickups play when the toggle
> is either in the middle or pushed up position; when the toggle is pushed
> down only one of the pickups works.
>
> When I turn off the bottom volume dial neither pickup works regardless of
> the toggle position.
>
> When I have the bottom volume dial on max and the top volume dial off: it
> only plays one of the pickups and only when I push the toggle switch down ;
> when the
> toggle is in the middle or top position there's no sound.
>
> I was told from the guy I bought the guitar from that the problem was with
> the 500k pots; he recommended that I replace them with 250k pots.
>
> Anyone have any suggestions and advice on how to fix the problem?

Although I'm not a user of electric guitars, I do know that they
have modes for selecting single or combined pickup use. The lower
volume dial on your unit is likely either a master and/or in the
common circuit when using both pickups (i.e., when the switch is
in the middle or up position). In any event, what the guy told
you, at least in part, is true. The bottom pot is worn out/dirty
in the "below 5" region of its slider. Likely because that was
the usual range it was always used in and it is used more
frequently than the upper one.

Before replacing anything though, try removing the rear cover
panel and using a can of electrical contact cleaner (e.g Caig's
pro-Gold), spray some cleaner into any openings of the lower
volume pot (do the others too just for good measure). work the
pot dial slowly back and forth a bit while the cleaner works.
This may resolve the problem.

Although the cleaner is almost guaranteed to improve the
situation, it may not eliminate the problem completely if the
potentiometer is significantly damaged. In this case you'll need
to replace the pot.

Note: I have no idea of why the guy would have told you to
replace a bunch of 500k pots with 250k pots. The only thing that
I can think of is that the ones in the guitar now are not the
orignals. For example, the guy might have already replaced the
original 250k pots with the existing 500k because he couldn't
find 250k ones or something. If something like this did happen
and a cleaning job isn't totally adaquate, it might be useful to
find out what really happened and which pots were really changed, etc.

Otherwise, I can't think of any reason that you should replace
the ones in there with something of a different value.

- Jeff

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