tone pots won't work

[OOF!]

anyone ever had this problem:
i switched the pots in my strat from the 500 ohms that were in it to 250 ohm CTS audio tapers. Should be a 30 min. job, right? well, 6 hrs. later i still can't get either tone control to work. it's as if they're not there. I've checked the wiring a million times and had others check it as well. Still no go. volume works fine. Checked ground continuity all over and it all seems good. who cast a voodoo hex on me?
thanks for any insight,
David

[Erock_Germany]

What kind of Strat? Does it have an S1 or a Deltatone circuit?

[Porto Leone]

Erock is right, you should check the wiring type. Sometimes i had trouble with cold joints on the switch (especially the import closed-box style), to the contacts of the pots wires. resoldering those clean and carefully might resolve your problem.

[TommyJ]

Bunk pots,sometimes that happens..
are you sure there not volume pots?

[OOF!]

thanks for the responses. it's a '70 Japanese strat. I fell in love with the feel of this guitar, but the tone was too "honky. when I finally opened it up, to change the cap, i saw it had mini 500K pots. switched in the 250K cts pots and the 103 cap. now the tones don't function. i don't think I've cold cold solder joints- i've redone the thing 47 times.....
So it's neither an S-1 or Delta tone. Just standard strat wiring. So few connections that I can't figure out where the problem is. should be very simple.
thanks again for the responses.
David

[curtisstetka]

Perhaps the pickup selector switch isn't making good contact on that side of the blade?

I dunno. I empathize, though. I think we've all been there. It's maddening.

[Don]

It's not likely to be two bad pots. Check your wiring. The cap is probably installed improperly.

Post a good pic of it here if you can.

[Mesotech]

I can't really be of any help here, but is it possible that you have the wrong value cap? A decimal place off on the value could have huge differences in operation (or make it appear it isn't working).

[OOF!]

problem solved! the tone pot side of the switch was not making contact. really strange since i hadn't messed with it and it's pretty new. chalk it up to voodoo. thanks for the responses everyone. much appreciated.
david

[curtisstetka]

Perhaps the pickup selector switch isn't making good contact on that side of the blade?

I win!!!

[curtisstetka]

Seriously, man, it's good to hear your problem was solved. See? Your guitar isn't haunted

[boobtube21]

As soon as I read Curtis's comment, I knew he had to be right.

I had this same issue with a brand new guitar a couple years back that I never did figure out. Did continuity checks from point to point, checked all the components for functionality, and found nothing. I sold it without ever knowing what the problem was, but the one side of the switch is one thing I never thought of.

Glad you got it worked out.