New tone pot shorts to ground when turned to 10 - defect?

[BadgerDave]

I just installed a new CTS audio taper pot as the master tone control in a 3 pickup guitar. It's basically a Strat circuit with a 5 way pickup selector, master volume, master tone and a blend control.

Everything works as it should, except when the tone is all the way up. It works between 1 and 9, but when maxxed, it shuts off everything - like a killswitch.

Anyone have a similar experience? It's a very high quality pot from a reputable source. Is it likely a defective part?

Thanks for any insights or suggestions.

[anotherfreak]

Dr, when I hold my arm like this,,,,, it hurts...........................

merry christmas

:wub:

[HAMERMAN]

Almost definitely a defective pot.

I say almost definitely because there is a very tiny chance that there could be a (ground) wire sticking through the hole in the body of the pot that is in just the right place to make contact with the wiper when the pot is at 10.

[murkat]

switch caps. you may get a surprise.

[BadgerDave]

Got it!

The blender mod diagram I was working from tweaks the connections to the tone pot. The hot wire from the volume goes to the center lug, moving the tone cap connections to the "input" lug, with the cap grounded to the pot casing, but not connected to the "output" lug.

Once I removed the ground lug connection to the pot case it worked perfectly.