Tone controls doing nothing much

[MartinBarre]

I wired up my Marlin strat with new Fender USA pickups and they sound great. Everything seems to be in order, each pickup works fine in regards to the five way switch and they sound really good.
However, the tone controls seem to do pretty much nothing. In fact, all they seem to do is turn the volume down a bit.

I used a .047 cap (the one that came with my Seymour Duncan Blackouts). As I say, everything (other than the tone controls) seems to be working fine.
I set it up so one tone control does the neck and the other does both bridge/middle.


What could cause such a problem?

[Newc]

Is the cap wired tot he center prong or the outer prong? Also is the other end of it going to the pot casing (ground) or to a prong on the volume pot?

I've seen them wired both ways - never understood the difference. I put one end on the casing and haven't had trouble.

[MartinBarre]

Is the cap wired tot he center prong or the outer prong? Also is the other end of it going to the pot casing (ground) or to a prong on the volume pot?

I've seen them wired both ways - never understood the difference. I put one end on the casing and haven't had trouble.

From memory, I believe one end is on the outer prong and the other is on the pot casing, as per the diagrams.

[Newc]

Hmmmm.

[MartinBarre]

Thanks for replying mate, I wish someone would help me out here!

[Newc]

Well, you can try moving the cap around to the outer prong, or try moving it from the ground to the center of the volume pot.

Do both tones have a capacitor, or are they sharing the cap?

[Bengal65]

Are you using a 250K pot for the Tone? If it's a 500K pot it will have an effect on what cap you use.

[Newc]

Isn't a standard Strat diagram the same thing as what you're doing, only the 2nd tone controls the neck & middle?

[marcus]

From memory, I believe one end is on the outer prong and the other is on the pot casing, as per the diagrams.

The cap should be on the center prong. On the outer prong, it will act just like you say in your first post, it won't do much.

[MartinBarre]

The cap should be on the center prong. On the outer prong, it will act just like you say in your first post, it won't do much.

Ah, I'll have a look at that then. I did follow a diagram (a Fender one) so I thought I had it set up alright but I'll take a peek and see if your suggestion helps.

I'm using 250k pots and the tones are used for neck and middle/bridge.

[Newc]

I'm using 250k pots and the tones are used for neck and middle/bridge.

Right, I get that, but I'm asking of the standard Fender wiring is such that one tone controls the bridge only, and the other controls both the neck and middle.

If so, then wire it up like a standard Fender setup EXCEPT jump the middle pickup to the same tone the bridge is using.

[MartinBarre]

Right, I get that, but I'm asking of the standard Fender wiring is such that one tone controls the bridge only, and the other controls both the neck and middle.

If so, then wire it up like a standard Fender setup EXCEPT jump the middle pickup to the same tone the bridge is using.

The standard fender wiring is one tone for middle, one tone for neck, none for bridge. I decided to use the jumper so the bridge also had a tone control (same one as the middle).
But you got me thinking and I took it apart last night and just removed the jumper so it's standard now, bridge has no tone control.

It sounds much better! The tone controls are actually doing something now.

However, I'm still not convinced I've got it all wired properly - probably due to the rather odd switch that was in the guitar and I just wired up by guesswork. Everything seems to work as it should, I just think something is lacking and I don't believe it's down to the pickups.
But for now I'm happy, it'll do, until I decide to take a good look at it again, so thanks for mentioning the jumper. Presumably using two tone controls for three pickup was placing extra load on them and reducing their effectiveness or something.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_2t_5w

duncan's wiring diagrams are the best. try them. also, i would chg the .047 cap for a .022 if i were you.

[Newc]

The standard fender wiring is one tone for middle, one tone for neck, none for bridge. I decided to use the jumper so the bridge also had a tone control (same one as the middle).
But you got me thinking and I took it apart last night and just removed the jumper so it's standard now, bridge has no tone control.

It sounds much better! The tone controls are actually doing something now.

However, I'm still not convinced I've got it all wired properly - probably due to the rather odd switch that was in the guitar and I just wired up by guesswork. Everything seems to work as it should, I just think something is lacking and I don't believe it's down to the pickups.
But for now I'm happy, it'll do, until I decide to take a good look at it again, so thanks for mentioning the jumper. Presumably using two tone controls for three pickup was placing extra load on them and reducing their effectiveness or something.

That's possible, but then since the switch is cutting the bridge pickup off when you select the adjoining pickup, the bridge should not be stealing bandwidth.

Replace the jumper like it was and scratch the poles of those two pickups with a screwdriver when selected and when not selected to see if you get the same level of noise.

Sounds to me like the jumper is bypassing the switch so that one of those two pickups is always on, and the tone control is only affecting one of them.

For an alternate solution, you could run the switch to the tone, and replace the second tone with another volume.

[straycat]

I wire stats with no tone on the middle and use the second tone control for the bridge.It lets the the middle pickup open up so to speak you get a very clear woody tone being the middle pick up is reverse wound.
Having a tone control on the bridge pickup you can get a very fat warm sound and remove some of the bite.Think SRV.