my tone knob is a volume knob...

[Homebake]

so i replaced the pots on my rg2550z from solid shaft to split/knurled shaft pots. was my first wiring job and it was pretty dodgy, stuff had to be soldered multiple times.

it works, but in a weird way:

if the tone knob is on 0, no matter what the volume knob is on, no sound comes out on any pickups. sound comes out of ALL pickups if BOTH knobs are on. so if the TONE knob (which is acting like a volume knob too) is on 10, no sound comes out unless you turn the volume up (and then the volume knob acts like a normal volume knob). however, if the tone knob is on 10, and the volume knob is on 0, a very very small amount of sound comes out of the bridge pickup. the tone knob is kind of acting as a killswitch in a way; if the volume is say on 7 on the volume knob, if you turn the tone knob up from anything from 0, the volume at 7 kicks in etc etc.

i don't know much about wiring and soldering but i'm assuming i've misplaced a wire? i'm not getting any buzz or crackling or anything which is good.

http://www.ibanez.com/support/wiring/W97019.gif

this is a 2002 rg550 wiring diagram, it looks pretty similar but i can't remember if it's exactly like my 2550z.

i cant open up the guitar right now to look, but from my description can anyone tells me what's going on? i don't wanna take it to a tech and have to pay $100 for a crappy job...

[Homebake]

ok, right now, my tone knob is working fine, but my volume knob does nothing at all? what the hell?

[Homebake]

ok, update, i can get the tone pot to work fine, but it's still like the volume is constantly on 10 or something and the volume pot isn't affecting anything. all pickups are responding.

but now, for some retarded reason, i can't even get a lead into the input jack. it gets like 80% of the way in and then something blocks it. the black wire at the input jack on the guitar moves slightly when you try and force the lead in.

goddamit...all of these wiring diagrams are slightly different: the jem ones, the jem555's and dimarzio's HSH diagrams all differ slightly.

[Vim Fuego]

If I try and explain what should be going on, maybe that will help!
I'll ignore the connections *to* the switch as I think you didn't touch that.
*From* the switch there should only be two wires, one is the ground or earth wire, one is the signal wire.

Volume Wiring:

1) The ground should be connected to the bottom of the volume pot track, If you look at the pot in the same orientation as in your diagram then this is the left most tab. The ground should also be connected to the ring connection of the output jack.

2) Usually this tab is also connected to the pot casing as this is the ground connection.

3) The signal wire is connected to the top of the volume pot track, this is the right most tab.

4) On the diagram and possibly in your guitar there is a bypass cap connected between the signal (right tab) and the wiper (middle tab) this stops you loosing treble as you turn the volume down.

5) The output of the pot is the wiper connected to the centre tab. This should be connected to the tip connection of the output jack

Volume pot done!

Tone Wiring:

1) The signal connection on the volume pot (right tab) is connected to the wiper on the tone pot (centre tab).

2) The bottom of the tone pot track (left tab) is connected to the tone cap.

3) The other end of the tone cap is connected to ground, usually via the tone pot casing and a connection to the volume pot casing.

Tone Pot Done

Sometimes the cap is used to make the connection between the volume and tone pots and the tone pot left tab is soldered to ground. It doesn't matter as the circuit is equivalent, but it does look different!

I hope this make sense, I would advise you try the wiring in this order and you can check the volume on its own before wiring the tone in.

If you have a barrel jack as in the diagram, then maybe there's a spare bit of wire stuck in it?

Jim

[Homebake]

Originally Posted by Vim Fuego

If I try and explain what should be going on, maybe that will help!
I'll ignore the connections *to* the switch as I think you didn't touch that.
*From* the switch there should only be two wires, one is the ground or earth wire, one is the signal wire.

Volume Wiring:

1) The ground should be connected to the bottom of the volume pot track, If you look at the pot in the same orientation as in your diagram then this is the left most tab. The ground should also be connected to the ring connection of the output jack.

2) Usually this tab is also connected to the pot casing as this is the ground connection.

3) The signal wire is connected to the top of the volume pot track, this is the right most tab.

4) On the diagram and possibly in your guitar there is a bypass cap connected between the signal (right tab) and the wiper (middle tab) this stops you loosing treble as you turn the volume down.

5) The output of the pot is the wiper connected to the centre tab. This should be connected to the tip connection of the output jack

Volume pot done!

Tone Wiring:

1) The signal connection on the volume pot (right tab) is connected to the wiper on the tone pot (centre tab).

2) The bottom of the tone pot track (left tab) is connected to the tone cap.

3) The other end of the tone cap is connected to ground, usually via the tone pot casing and a connection to the volume pot casing.

Tone Pot Done

Sometimes the cap is used to make the connection between the volume and tone pots and the tone pot left tab is soldered to ground. It doesn't matter as the circuit is equivalent, but it does look different!

I hope this make sense, I would advise you try the wiring in this order and you can check the volume on its own before wiring the tone in.

If you have a barrel jack as in the diagram, then maybe there's a spare bit of wire stuck in it?

Jim

thanks a bunch!

i'll try this all out tomorrow when i'm not as tired.

i've been wondering, for the guitar to be wired up properly (eg. as it comes from the factory) is there only one combination of wirings that can achieve this? i mean, EVERYTHING has to be in a certain place right?

also, is it worth taking out the barrel jack to check stuff out? looks kinda tricky to take out.

[Vim Fuego]

Originally Posted by Homebake

i've been wondering, for the guitar to be wired up properly (eg. as it comes from the factory) is there only one combination of wirings that can achieve this? i mean, EVERYTHING has to be in a certain place right?

also, is it worth taking out the barrel jack to check stuff out? looks kinda tricky to take out.

This is why so many people have wiring problems, there are many ways of wiring a guitar to achieve exactly the same result.
For example it doesn't matter which order the pots are wired in the above example, the switch *could* be wired directly to the tone pot, but as long as the other connections are correct you couldn't tell...
Also it doesn't matter if the signal goes through the pot then cap in the tone circuit or cap then pot!
Even with pickups, it doesn't matter which coil in a humbucker is wired to ground (if you have 4 conductor pickups) as long as the direction of the windings is kept the same!
Finally, there is still some room for debate in wiring where there really is a difference, but some prefer it one way and others another way.

Removing the jack is a bit of a pain as you have to un-solder it and then loosen the nut which is a long way down the shaft and hard to get to, but it can be done.
Jim

[Homebake]

sorry, what is a wiper?

i don't understand how the ground (attached to the spring claw) can also be attached to the output jack. what is the "tip" of the output jack?

[Homebake]

yes! i just wired the ground to the bottom tab on the vol knob and everything seems to be working well now!

except, i was fiddling around with the jack and a little piece of metal just fell right out of it...? it had obviously snapped off something. i had to do some wiggling and squeezing the prongs at the end (the things that the ground wires connect to) to fit a lead inside. it was working up a bit before so i think it needs replacing?

[Homebake]

ok wtf...

so i bought a new barrel jack today. i rang the music store to make sure they had ibanez barrel jacks but i got there and they obviously didn't, they only had similar ones for really cheap.

so i got one, came home, soldered the two wires onto the prongs and checked it. seemed to work fine. put the guitar down for a few hours. picked up the guitar just then to play, EPIC amounts of buzzing, volume control suddenly doesn't work, it's like it's stuck on 10 (but the tone knob is working).

i've just tried swapping the wires at the inputs around to different prongs, but no luck. the white wire goes to the bigger prong and the black one to the smaller prong right? that's how it is according to that diagram.

anyway, i get massive amounts of buzzing on clean and distortion channels, it reduces slightly if you touch something metal on the guitar.

wtf? is it just the wrong type of barrel or something? what's going on, has a wire gone loose somewhere? is it possible to have too much solder on a connection? anything i might have done wrong will help.

[Vim Fuego]

OK, from your description, you probably haven't connected the ground correctly, sorry I didn't answer your previous post, but...
From the switch there are 2 wires, one signal and one ground.
You can look at it as if the voltage on the signal wire is with respect to the ground wire.
The guitar has quite a lot of metal in it, and strings that can act as an aerial for picking up noise.
You need to make sure that all the metal in the guitar is connected to the ground wire from the pickups and switch. This means the signal will be on top of the noise and the noise will be shorted out via the amplifier.
Make sure the ground wire from the switch is connected to the volume pot case. Make sure the wire from the tremolo claw is connected to the volume pot case. Make sure the case of the tone pot is also connected to the volume pot case. finally use the connection at the volume pot case as one of the connections to the jack. That way all the noise will be shorted out.
Jim

[Homebake]

ok, thanks, i'm assuming if all those connections you just described are correct the volume control would be working?

i had it working yesterday, i didn't string it up, but i made sure the volume was working by tapping on all the pickups and adjusting the vol knob, same with tone.

i'm guessing maybe something came loose? doesn't seem very likely, i checked all the connections beforehand.

[Homebake]

finally! i fixed it for good. turns out the grounding wire from the jack to the volume pot came loose.

epic thanks to vim!

[Vim Fuego]

Great!, Vim fixes guitars half a world away!! If you want me to speak your weight or tell your fortune however, you're out of luck! (I do have next weeks lottery numbers though )
Best
Jim (Vim)