Notchy tone pot?

bandmaster188

Hi  folks, just fitted some new pickups into my tele. The tone pot has now become notchy kinda like a tbx pot. Just wondering if the heat from soldering to it has caused this although I don’t believe I over cooked it. When I lift the tone knob, there is some give and the pot operates smoothly. There’s no noise or crackle when turning the pot in it’s notchy state.

Anyone encountered this and is it repairable? Or shall I just replace it.

ICBM

It's probably the underside of the knob rubbing on the top of the bushing. Loosen the grub screw, raise the knob very slightly, then re-tighten it.

Question though... if you were just fitting new pickups, why were you soldering to the tone pot?

bandmaster188

ICBM said:

It's probably the underside of the knob rubbing on the top of the bushing. Loosen the grub screw, raise the knob very slightly, then re-tighten it.

Question though... if you were just fitting new pickups, why were you soldering to the tone pot?

It’s the same with the knob removed. Really hard to turn  the shaft without the knob on there but frees up when the shaft is pulled out. Given it a blast out with servisol to no avail.

ICBM

bandmaster188 said:

It’s the same with the knob removed. Really hard to turn  the shaft without the knob on there but frees up when the shaft is pulled out. Given it a blast out with servisol to no avail.

Ah well... knackered then. Sounds like the back of the pot has melted the rotor a bit.

If you're replacing it anyway and you had soldered the pickup grounds to it, move them (and the jack ground if it's not already) to the volume pot.

Sporky

Why do people solder to the backs of pots at all? It's difficult and it risks knackering them.

Put a loop of solid wire under a screw into the cavity wall, and solder all the grounds to that. Faster, easier, and safer. 

Funkfingers

Sporky said:

Why do people solder to the backs of pots at all?

Cheepnis.

ICBM

Sporky said:

Why do people solder to the backs of pots at all? It's difficult and it risks knackering them. 

Because it's traditional, hence right . (At least in the guitar world.)

If you use a powerful enough iron it's not difficult and there isn't much risk - you just have to get the metal hot enough, quickly.

bandmaster188

New pots it is then. Wanted to get rid of the S1 anyway. Cheers for the input!

Sporky said:

Why do people solder to the backs of pots at all? It's difficult and it risks knackering them.

Put a loop of solid wire under a screw into the cavity wall, and solder all the grounds to that. Faster, easier, and safer. 

this sounds highly illegal but intriguing!
there are already two screw ground points in the cavity so could I make a common ground to these points?

ICBM

bandmaster188 said:

New pots it is then. Wanted to get rid of the S1 anyway.

Aha! Makes sense as to why the grounds were connected to the tone pot now.