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Topic: Do some volume pots turn backwards? |
Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 11 Jul 2016 5:50 pm |
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I bought (used) a loaded MIM Fender Strat pickguard that I thought was standard issue. (To be fitted to an Asian body and Xaviere neck.) This and another Stratkenstein project (the latter a more high-stakes affair, as it involved a set of rare and fabulous Red Rhodes/Velvet Hammer pickups) drove me nuts, mostly because of my utter lack of space-relations perception. I have a hard time keeping diagram directions straight with an upside-down pickguard suffice it to say.
Not without more that one citizen's quota of slapstick I got the VH Strat working right. MIM Strat was at one time fully wired but had all the pickup wires de-solderedby the time I got it. I tried to apply my hard-won experience to the MIM Strat, but the few occasions that I didn't have a completely dead doorstop, the volume pot turned backwards--counterclockwise.
I finally got frustrated and installed a complete new wiring kit (keeping the MIM pickups) and no problems.
I can only assume the MIM pickguard wasn't completely stock--the volume pot must have been designed to turn the wrong way. There was too much solder to read pot codes but the cases of the tone pots were indented, whereas the volume was not, suggesting there was some kind of difference.
So is there such a thing as a reverse pot or did some wiring get bamfoozled before or during my involvement?
(And where does one buy bassackward pots--Stew-Mac or Archie McPhee?)
_________________
"Gopher, Everett?" |
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Georg Sørtun
From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
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Posted 11 Jul 2016 7:43 pm
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For pots it is all about the wiring... 
Any 3-terminal pot can be wired every which way you like and still sort of work, but there is only one way to wire them that will make them work the way you want.
(Yes, there are pot-variants known as "anti-log" pots, tapped pots, and a whole range of other special pots for particular purposes made. I cannot see how any of those special - and usually very costly because so few are made - pots should have ended up in your project though.) |
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David Nugent
From:
Gum Spring, Va.
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Posted 12 Jul 2016 3:15 am
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| I agree, most likely wired incorrectly. On one occasion while replacing the pot in a Goodrich volume pedal I mistakenly wired the pot in reverse; on was now in the up position, down fully off. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 12 Jul 2016 8:26 am
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| Isn't that the way Jerry Byrd had his wired? |
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Lefty
From:
Grayson, Ga.
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Posted 14 Jul 2016 7:39 am
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This is a real common problem for left handed guitars. Out of five G&L guitars I have bought only one was wired correctly. This is true for the tone pots as well. Mine are all the USA made in Fullerton models also. Fender is a little better, but I have gotten incorrect ones from them and Guild also.
Lefty |
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