Les Paul supreme wiring problem

[jukeman]

Hello, This is my first post here. I have been playing guitar for forty eight years and have been working on them for over twenty. I bought a fake les paul supreme on a whim and really like the ax. I've had dimarzio dp100's in it since I first got it. I decided to put some EMG's in it so I bought an 81 and a 60. I put them in and had no control over volume. I've tried several different pots with the same result. I finally completely rewired it from the toggle to the jack and still I have no control over the volume. I'm really at my wits end here. I hope someone has a clue as to what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.
Thx a mil in advance,
jukeman

[The Dude]

Can you provide us with a diagram of how you currently have it wired?

The pickup signal should go to the outside of the volume pot and the center of the pot should be your output. And, of course the other outside lug will be ground.

[jukeman]

It would be extremely hard for me to do a diagram of it. The only thing unusual about the way I have it wired is the ground from the toggle runs straight to the jack, since the EMG's don't need a ground to the pots. I have one lug soldiered to the pot case and I have the treble pickup lead running from the toggle to the center lug on the volume and the pickup lead running to the other outer lug. The same for the rhythm pickup. I have the positive from the toggle running to the stereo jack and the hots to the pickups run to the jack.

[The Dude]

So you have one lug of the volume pot soldered to the pot case. But, is the pot case grounded to the rest of the circuit? All of your grounds must be tied together.

BTW, your EMG's are grounded when you plug in a cable. The ring and sleeve are shorted together by the plug completing the circuit.

[jukeman]

I have the volume case grounded with the tone case on treble and same with the rhythm but I don't have the treble and rhythm grounded to each other at this time. I did wire it that way to see if it would make a difference but that didn't work either.

[jukeman]

I also tried wiring the ground to all the pots and then to the jack with no luck there either.

[The Dude]

I suspect you don't have all of your grounds tied together. Check with a meter. EVERY ground must be connected- pots to pots to jack, etc. If your volume pot is not grounded to everything else, when you turn the pot/move the wiper it is not taking the signal to ground because there is no electrical ground. The volume pot will do nothing as you say it does.

[Enzo]

I am not a luthier, but I am a circuit guy. It sure sounds like you are missing the grounds to your volume controls. I may be wrong, but i think we are meaning different things when we say "ground". To me ground means a connection to the shield of your cord, the sleeve part of your jack. I THINK you use the term to mean connecting the pot lug to its case. That is only a ground if the case is connected to the system ground. You mention they are "grounded together" which further makes me think you mean something different from me. Ground is ground, and something is connected to it or not.

Try this, tack a wire from the case of a volume pot to the sleeve/barrel connection of your jack. Does that make the volume control start working?

[Enzo]

Oh, already got there, never mind...

[jukeman]

I know that passive pickups have to have a ground from the toggle to all the pot cases and from the tailpiece to the jack.

[jukeman]

I've tried so many pots now that I'm not sure which pots I wired like passive. They could have been bad and didn't think to check with a meter. Maybe I should try that with these. I'll try anything at this point.

[jukeman]

I really appreciate your posts and your quick response to my query. I will post the results of this trial sunday. Its been a long day and too frustrated to mess with it right now and I have a gig tomorrow night. Thx a mil man!

[The Dude]

Good luck! I'm off to "gig land" myself.

[tedmich]

I'd order 20ft of nice colored teflon wire from ApexJr, pull everything and start from scratch:

a slow afternoon
solder wafts over silver
an axe is reborn

[gbono]

a slow afternoon
solder wafts over silver
an axe is reborn

Haiku on the forum......