Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The neck tone pot on my '76 4001 doesn't do anything. It appears to be wide open, which is better that totally cut. For awhile it would work intermittently, not scratchy, it would either work or not. Is it possible that it's just a cold solder? If so, which wires should I look at? Or.. is it more likely that the pot is bad?

Put a piece of wire from the cap lead that is attached to the lug on the pot to ground, this way you will bypass the pot and check that the cap is good and bleeding off the highs.

If the cap is good, the pot will probably be open - the wiper is no longer touching the resistive element in the potentiometer. You can check the pot by putting an ohmmeter from the grounded outside lug (it is either bent and soldered to the body of the pot or a wire goes from the lug to the body of the pot) to the center lug and turning the pot and seeing if the resistance reading changes.

I'm having a similar problem with my 4001 - the cap is working but bringing the volume down as well, not all the way to zero.

It Works! I checked the solder joints and all looked good but I heated them up and added a bit more. I love when a fix is that easy. Thanks all.

Good to hear; so it sounds like it was just a cold solder joint. Try the same thing, Kenny. If that doesn't work, we will help get it sorted.

Mine: Someone had wired the open lug on the tone pot to ground. Doy.

I moved the ground wire back to the center lug and now it's fine.

Easy fix, once you saw that!