Tone control doesn't do anything until I tap on it

Older guitar with old electronics, before they started adding circuit boards. Here is how the electronics looks on a guitar that's a couple of years newer:

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They have since changed from vertical circuit boards to horizontal ones with SMD components. Old on the left, current on the right:

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Same deal with the majority of thir models. There's only a few that don't have circuit boards nowadays (Steve Morse and Axis are 2 of them).

And just to show they also used Alpha on non push pots before they switched to circuit board mounted pots, here is the tone pot on a Luke III with Dimarzios:

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Oh dear, a general downgrade in overall quality and serviceability .Alpha push pull pots are total garbage compared to the new CTS ones.
 
Oh dear, a general downgrade in overall quality and serviceability .Alpha push pull pots are total garbage compared to the new CTS ones.
They're actually push/push. I dig them way more than push/pull. Much easier to handle in a live situation. Don't know about the durability (yet), but I've taken one apart and the construction seems solid.
 
The carbon track is very thin and wares fast, the contacts in the switch are much thinner and of all the brands of pot that I have to replace Alpha is number one. There are even worse but I don't think the customers are going to be happy with the bill to swap out one of those in that board.
Those wiring looms are all about manufacturing cost and speed of assembly . Service on them will be slow and costly, not to mention more frequent because of the severe downgrade in component quality.
 
Go on Stew Mac - buy a new CTS pot. Solder job will take all of 10 minutes. Not even worth thinking about. Simple task.
 
I did the lube/clean from outside thing, seemed great at first, but same disfunction as before when I took it out of its case the next day.

I'm off to Stew-Mac for a new CTS when I get a chance.
 
All I know for sure at this that all the CTS I've gotten the last couple of years have been crap, and I hope the OP has better luck than me with them :)
 
There are high quality PCB guitar wiring looms from Gibson of all people.
I yanked the PCB out of my SG Special. The jack had gone crackly. The PCB itself seemed decent quality, and had some sort of shielding ground plane designed into it, but a replacement jack was not easily findable, so I replaced the whole thing. Likely the jack got worn out from being plugged in and unplugged clumsily by people trying it out during its 10 or more months hanging on the wall at GC.

Replaced the pickups at the same time. Much better now. :)
 
For guitar electronics parts I prefer to buy from The Art of Tone https://theartoftone.com/potentiometers/ . I've never had any issues with any of their products and they're consistent in pot values. Great customer service as well. I have no affiliation with them, just discovered them when searching for better luck buying parts.
 
For guitar electronics parts I prefer to buy from The Art of Tone https://theartoftone.com/potentiometers/ . I've never had any issues with any of their products and they're consistent in pot values. Great customer service as well. I have no affiliation with them, just discovered them when searching for better luck buying parts.
Thanks, will investigate.

EJ strat tone pot should be 250k, right? Trying to only open this up once...
 
Thanks, will investigate.

EJ strat tone pot should be 250k, right? Trying to only open this up once...
Not sure about the value but single coils are typically 250k. I actually buy 500k pots and use a resistor soldered across the outside lugs to get different values: 500k resistor yields 250k, 1Meg resistor yields @ 330k.
 
So you've been doing Alps?
Alps is actually another electronics company (I think). Alpha Taiwan are the ones we refer to as just Alpha. I was about to switch to Alpha in my Suhrs before I bought my 2 new Music Mans, which already has Alpha. I've probably gone through 4-5 vol pots and 3-4 tone pots (CTS) on each Suhr during the last couple of years.

I'll probably sell the Suhrs though, as I don't need that many high end electrics.
 
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If alpha pots are rubbish, then how come they're okay in effect pedals? Cause they're pretty much the standard in pedals.
 
If alpha pots are rubbish, then how come they're okay in effect pedals? Cause they're pretty much the standard in pedals.
They don't get anything like the wear and abuse in a pedal so they are unlikely to crap out quickly. You need something more robust in a guitar.
 
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