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Les paul middle position problem

nikhilsanju

New member
Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Messages
24
Dear friends, I'm facing a Slight problem with my Les paul.
As far as I understand, at the middle position, when either one of the pickups volume knobs are turned down to zero, no signal flows. But today, when I turned down the volume of the neck pickup completely keeping the switch at the middle position, I could still see that the amp is received the signal and there's output.
Is this a problem? How do I fix this? This has never happened before.
 

PaulD

Active member
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
673
You are correct, in the middle position there should be no output when either volume control is on zero. A couple of things to check, first with the switch in the middle position make sure that both pickups are actually active, the easiest way to do this is to lightly touch a pole piece with something metallic like a screwdriver and you should hear a click through the amp. If only one of the pickups is active then the problem is likely to be the selector switch. If both pickups are active then it could be a faulty volume control pot, it might be that it just needs cleaning and a spray with some contact cleaner might solve the problem.
 

nikhilsanju

New member
Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Messages
24
You are correct, in the middle position there should be no output when either volume control is on zero. A couple of things to check, first with the switch in the middle position make sure that both pickups are actually active, the easiest way to do this is to lightly touch a pole piece with something metallic like a screwdriver and you should hear a click through the amp. If only one of the pickups is active then the problem is likely to be the selector switch. If both pickups are active then it could be a faulty volume control pot, it might be that it just needs cleaning and a spray with some contact cleaner might solve the problem.


Thanks for the reply. Much appreciate it
 

megatrends

New member
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
27
As stated probably a pot making poor contact inside where the contacts touch when turned all the way. Basically not turning all the way so it’s barely still on and never truly all the way off even though it feels like it when you use the knob.

Corroded contacts in the pot too as stated. I use Deoxit on the bench to clean that.

I have repaired bad pots before but it’s easier just replace it. Some customers want the original pot left in the guitar if it is a vintage guitar.

If you look behind where the leads are soldered you’ll physically see the contacts on the rotary. I’ve fixed this issue you describe in the past by gently rebending the metal contacts with a small precision flat head screw driver so they mate better which fixed the issue.

It’s signal bleed basically.
 
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