Les Paul vol/tone not gradual

[apwittlich]

Hi everybody. I'm new to this music forum. Here's whats up. A couple of years back I had the original pickups put back in my early 70s Les Paul Custom. Since then, the volume and tone pots seem to go from low to full blast with nothing in between. Could it be that the tech wired it wrong, or put in some different pots altogether? How can I fix this? I have a soldering iron and solder and am comfortable with using them. I do worry about not having enough wire since the guitar has been rewired a few times. Can shielded wire be bought and spliced on to what is already there if needed? Additionally what would happen if I switched positions of my neck and bridge pickup? My neck p/up gives a fat bassy sound, but my bridge sound is thin which I always thought was kind of strange for a Les Paul. I've played and owned other Les Pauls and they did not seem to have these problems. Any ideas? Ok, I'll stop rambling. Thank you.

[spud1950]

Given the volume and tone issue and the thin sounding bridge pickup,my guess would be that there is a miswiring issue. Here's a link to Les Paul wiring diagrams. I don't know which one applies to your year guitar,but it will be one of first two at the top of the list. Check your wiring against the diagram.

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=K...ckup_diagrams/

[apwittlich]

Les paul wiring issue

Thank you for the advice and diagrams. I looked around the net and found a few different wiring methods that I may try. I think the "50's" wiring scheme seems like the one I would like the most.

[Gtr_tech]

They could be linear taper pots instead of audio taper. Audio tapers have a more gradual increase.

[apwittlich]

Thanks for the tip. I did some more interneting and came to the same conclusion. Purchased some new audio tapered 500k pots (the other ones were also getting very scratchy). I'll be putting them in soon. As to the wiring...I opened up the back panel and wow did the guy do a cruddy job. As soon as I popped off the cover, a couple of big blobs of solder fell out and every solder joint looked like it was done with an arc welder. Just a huge sloppy burned up mess. I'm going to completely rewire it. I'm no expert, but I have done a fair amount of soldering and I know I can do better than that.