I apologize if this is a lame qustion, but I was troubleshooting a bass last night where the tone pot (on a V/V/T passive P/J) was acting like the master volume.
I had a feeling that the Cap may have been shorting against another lug on the pot when pressed into it's cavity.
Anyway, I was trying to isolate the problem and was getting frustrated. A new Cap didn't change anything - neither did a new Tone Pot w/ a new Cap. I ended up eliminating the pots altogether to start from scratch. Now, I have all the Hot (white) wires wire-nutted together and all the Grounds (black) wired together. I wanted to check and see that both pickups and Output Jack worked properly before I went on to troubleshoot further.
Belive it or not, it doesn't sound bad - I have a little bit of hum that goes away when I touch the bridge with my hand, so I suspect I have a Bridge Ground issue. The pickups are on full and it sounds like they would if I have the Tone rolled all the way on. Depending on where my fingers are (at the neck joint , over the P, over the J), I can really get quite distinct tones. It's kinda neat to not have any knobs on a bass.
I intend to get new Pots (I'm guessing that 250k is the way to go for V/V/T) and a new Cap (.47 uF?) and replace the Bridge Ground wire, but I was curious to know if I could possible be doing any damage to the pickups by straight wiring for the time being?
Any useful advice would be welcomed.
Steve