Odd tone pot problem

[RainbowPunk]

So I rescued a Peavey Raptor from a pawn shop for the low low price of 20 bucks.

Pictured here with the Roland JC77 and a Danelectro distortion pedal that I rescued for similarly low

After attacking it with simple green, soldering in new electronics, stringing it up and giving it a few strums, I was actually rather surprised by the sound of this guy.

But here's the problem: I notice almost no change in tone when I turn the knob until it's turned all the way down. 0-1 gives me this great muddiness that sounds like it's going to freaking kill you when run through distortion, and everything after that sounds like full-on treble.

Did I use the wrong kind of tone cap perhaps? I put in a .047 orange drop, should I have done a .022 because of the humbucker? Or is it perhaps the pot being a piece of garbage?

 

[rockinlespaul]

.047 is more used for Fender applications. Try the .022 and go from there.

 

[RainbowPunk]

Figures, I have a million and one .047s lying around, but the only .022s I have are some russian OiP caps I got from jonesy years ago and have been saving for a special project.

So I really wanna know, is the cap THE most likely culprit?

 

[chasenblues]

What brand/value(500/250?) pot did you use as a replacement and was it brand new or "New" from your parts box?

 

[RainbowPunk]

Alpha, B500K, and I've had it sitting in my parts box for a while but it was unused.

 

[chasenblues]

Have you tried to clean it?
Maybe the wiper surface got some oxidation/dust-gunk build up sitting in the box.

 

[dodger916]

Alpha, B500K, and I've had it sitting in my parts box for a while but it was unused.

I believe a "B500K" pot is a linear taper pot, which will have little to no effect until it's down near "0". To get more result with less "sweep" from "10" you'll want an audio or "logarithmic" taper pot.

A lower value cap will give you more treble/less mud as you roll closer to "0".

Or, it could be a bad pot.

 

[hamerfan]

If you wire 2 of your .047 in series, you get .024

 

[dodger916]

Figures, I have a million and one .047s lying around, but the only .022s I have are some russian OiP caps I got from jonesy years ago and have been saving for a special project.

So I really wanna know, is the cap THE most likely culprit?

IMO, the tone pot taper is causing the late change in tone, while the .047 cap is robbing highs when the pot is near or at "0". Russian PIO caps are available and affordable, for instance: http://www.ebay.com/itm/022uf-400v-...203?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337f856713


p.s. Nice score!

 

[RainbowPunk]

Okay it's affordable in the sense that I can acquire them easily and they're not rarities, but it's a little more "high quality" than I want to sink into this because I'm likely going to flip it.

(P.S. Can't believe I flipped PiO around x_x )

 

[dodger916]

Okay it's affordable in the sense that I can acquire them easily and they're not rarities, but it's a little more "high quality" than I want to sink into this because I'm likely going to flip it.

(P.S. Can't believe I flipped PiO around x_x )

Yea, I noticed. You can always do what hamerfan suggested, i.e, wire two .047 in series, resulting in ~.024. You could go further and wire the 0.022 and a .047 in series to get ~.015, for the sake of experimentation.

 

[RainbowPunk]

Well I managed to find a cheapo mini a500k in my parts bin. It's a little grindy between 0-1 but it smooths out after a few twists.

I might rewire my Stagg single-cut and put the PiOs in that and harvest the .022 orange drops from that and see what happens but for now it sounds okay with the .047

 

[dodger916]

Well I managed to find a cheapo mini a500k in my parts bin. It's a little grindy between 0-1 but it smooths out after a few twists.

If you spray some Deoxit in that pot it might loosen it.

 

[J-E-M]

I had the same problem with my strat. I was using a 500k linear taper pot with a .047 cap; after switching to a 300k audio taper pot the quality of control improved substantially, giving me usable tonal range from 0 - 10.