Help my incompetent hiney! (Wiring issues)

[Rollin Hand]

I have tried many, many times to get my old Spad to work properly, and have had no success in the entire time I have owned it.

I have been working to install a set of cheap Donlis Actives that I got from AliExpress. Today I put in the new pots and a new 9v connector. The result is that the volume pot does the sum total of sweet eff all, and the tone...if you turn it up it gets louder until about 50 percent of the way up, but then gets quieter again the more you turn it towards 100 percent.

Here are pics of my "wiring" job. What am I doing wrong aside from not going full Pete Townsend on this thing once and for all?.

Yes, I am still bad at wiring to the backs of pots. Perhaps this is my issue.

[Partscaster]

some solder joints could be cold soldered, in that a few solder spots dont look smooth. I wonder if they didnt get hot enough. Other than that I have no clue about active pickups.

[Tonray's Ghost]

some solder joints could be cold soldered, in that a few solder spots dont look smooth. I wonder if they didnt get hot enough. Other than that I have no clue about active pickups.

Likely the case. I am sh###t at soldering and have an LP clone which I modded with Wilkinson P90s and and Epiphone wiring harness and POTS etc...and I have to reflow all the joints too as my neck pickup stopped working shortly after my brilliant 'upgrade'...I wish there was a solder guy I could call to the house in times like this

[bleys21]

Yeah, I'm certainly no expert on guitar wiring, but have done a lot of soldering in my day, and the solder on the ground connection on the upper pot looks questionable. I'd reflow that, and add some new solder. Also on that same pot, I can't quite see, but it looks like on two of the connectors, the solder might have gotten really close to each other, may even be touching. If so, that will cause all kinds of fun...

[Rollin Hand]

Yeah, I'm certainly no expert on guitar wiring, but have done a lot of soldering in my day, and the solder on the ground connection on the upper pot looks questionable. I'd reflow that, and add some new solder. Also on that same pot, I can't quite see, but it looks like on two of the connectors, the solder might have gotten really close to each other, may even be touching. If so, that will cause all kinds of fun...

I'll hit it again, first chance I get. Thanks.

[RockYoWorld]

When you say that the volume pot does "nothing" does that mean you have sound from the pickups but can't roll it back, or does it mean that you can't get any sound?

[Rollin Hand]

When you say that the volume pot does "nothing" does that mean you have sound from the pickups but can't roll it back, or does it mean that you can't get any sound?

I had sound, but the pot did not raise or lower it.

I reflowed the solder, double checked connections and tried again. Now the volume pot gives me a sweep of about 50 % all the way to full....as does the tone knob. With both knbs all the way down, I get a muted 50 percent, but with both knobs all the way up I get closer to full volume. Don't know where to take this next as I am quite sure that I have matched the diagrams that I have seen.

My next option is to rewire all of the other connections.

To quote my 5-year old's new swear, "chicken hell butt!"

[RockYoWorld]

When you say that the volume pot does "nothing" does that mean you have sound from the pickups but can't roll it back, or does it mean that you can't get any sound?

I had sound, but the pot did not raise or lower it.

I reflowed the solder, double checked connections and tried again. Now the volume pot gives me a sweep of about 50 % all the way to full....as does the tone knob. With both knbs all the way down, I get a muted 50 percent, but with both knobs all the way up I get closer to full volume. Don't know where to take this next as I am quite sure that I have matched the diagrams that I have seen.

My next option is to rewire all of the other connections.

To quote my 5-year old's new swear, "chicken hell butt!"

Hmmm... If you can't "turn off" the signal using the pots, that means that you aren't able to completely ground out the signal. To me, that sounds either like a poor connection to ground at the pots (but you did re-solder them) or a bad pot (but they're new). Are the pots 25K, as typical for active pickups? If you were having trouble soldering to the pots, I wonder if you damaged them all.

A tip for soldering... Do you have any flux paste or solution? This helps greatly as the flux facilitates heat transfer. It helps suck solder into all the strands of a wire and it helps solder stick to a specific area on a pot.

[Rollin Hand]

I used flux AND sanded the backs of the pots.

I redid everything I could re-do and....

...IT'S WORKING!!!!!!

OK the tone still acts like a second volume, but I don't use it anyway.

[RockYoWorld]

I used flux AND sanded the backs of the pots.

I redid everything I could re-do and....

20221021_153406.jpg

...IT'S WORKING!!!!!!

OK the tone still acts like a second volume, but I don't use it anyway.

Glad that it's working! If the tone sounds like a second volume knob, my guess is that you fried the capacitor so you're not filtering the signal, you're only grounding out the whole signal.

[Rollin Hand]

I used flux AND sanded the backs of the pots.

I redid everything I could re-do and....

20221021_153406.jpg

...IT'S WORKING!!!!!!

OK the tone still acts like a second volume, but I don't use it anyway.

Glad that it's working! If the tone sounds like a second volume knob, my guess is that you fried the capacitor so you're not filtering the signal, you're only grounding out the whole signal.

Thanks. I am staying away from this guitar for the moment. Don't want to get frustrated.

[mozz]

Unsolder the capacitor and see how it acts. If it still acts like a volume, you have it wired wrong. If it does nothing the cap was shorted.