The Hub

I've done the Fender Grease Bucket Circuit mod on a lot of Strats and it always works. A customer recently brought in a 335 kit for wiring. It got 3-TV Jones humbuckers, each wired to a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot Mounting Ring, 3 separate volume controls and a master tone with the Grease Bucket circuit. My client wanted to see a clear diagram of the wiring, so I got GuitarElectronics.com to generate one. I've used them several times in the past, they're a great resource. All pots are CTS 500k, the switch is a short Switchcraft toggle and the jack is a PureTone. I normally use 2 part braided wire on hollow bodies because of the lack of shielding issues, but my client wanted cloth push back wire. I built the harness per the diagram EXACTLY, but I've got no tone control. I've kicked it back to Guitarelectronics.com and they said the diagram is accurate and works as shown. I'm by no means an electronics guru, but I've wired hundreds of guitars, some with very complicated wiring schemes. The only differences in this harness than normal are the CTS mini pots I had to use because the F-holes on this guitar are smaller than normal. Full-size pots were way too big to use. And, my client supplied Tropical Fish caps for the two caps in the Grease Bucket circuit. I tested those caps prior to building the harness and they worked. They're very fragile though and I fear I may have damaged them while soldering. I've never seen them in a guitar before, only in wah pedals and amps. I went back over the harness with a multi-meter, point to point, several times and everything checks out except the tone control is a no go. I checked the funtionality of that particular pot, thinking I may have toasted it, and it's good. The Triple Hot rings have little switches that allow you to make the humbuckers series or parallel or split coil. The Grease Bucket doesn't work on any of those switching options on any pickup.

I plan to remove the Tropical Fish caps and replace them with some Orange Drops just in case I toasted them . If that doesn't work, I'll remove the Grease Bucket mod and wire the tone control like a typical tone control. If that works, the Grease Bucket for some unknown reason just doesn't work with this particular harness. If it doesn't work, I'm out of ideas. Any thoughts or advice are much appreciated. Thanks!