Gibson ES-175 - Recurring Volume Loss

[Dirk]

I'm experiencing recurring volume loss on my 1973 Gibson ES-175, as if someone is turning the volume pod up and down.

When I'm playing at a certain volume, the guitar suddenly goes louder after a while and then goes down again.

What could be the cause of this issue?

[Stringswinger]

First thing I would do is try a different cable (and a different amp). If those are not the cause, my next move would be to see if it does it in all three pickup selector switch positions (assuming it is a two pickup model). If it only happens on one pickup, that could help identify the culprit. It could be a bad pickup, a bad pot (volume or tone) or a problem with the wiring.

It is not too tough to pull the wiring harness to have all components checked out. Good luck.

[Franz 1997]

Gibson wiring from this era tends to be very robust, so the wiring is less likely to be the cause ( though not impossible). Dirty contacts usually cause this kind of problem, either the output jack, the pots ( usually the volume pot), or the selector switch. Spraying a contact cleaner like Deoxit often solves the issue. When spraying pots, if it's too difficult to reach the aperture on the pots with a contact cleaner " straw" ( tube) , or the pots have sheilding cans around them, then trickling the cleaner carefully down the pot shaft from above can work. Caution; very little cleaner fluid is needed. It won;t damage a nitro finish. Afyter using cleaner, just rotate the pot a few times. If it's the output jack, just spray cleaner into the jack socket. With the selector switch, again, click the switch several times after cleaning.

It's possible a pickup is damaged, but this is unlikely. Pickups usually just cut out suddenly if faulty, rather than go up and down in volume.

Cleaning pots is often periodically required in guitars of this vintage. It doesn't sound too serious; I hope not...

[John A.]

I'm experiencing recurring volume loss on my 1973 Gibson ES-175, as if someone is turning the volume pod up and down.

When I'm playing at a certain volume, the guitar suddenly goes louder after a while and then goes down again.

What could be the cause of this issue?

A dirty pot could cause this. Have you tried cleaning the volume control? If not, get some DeOxit D5 and dribble some down the pot shaft and turn the control back and forth a few times. I had something similar happen with a tone control (it would work intermittanly, and the tone would sometimes seem to change without turning the knob. It turned out be a bad solder connection. re-soldering the connections to the pot solved the problem.

[vinnyv1k]

I had that problem with a L-5. I used Deoxit with a 3 foot flexible straw that I got from Amazon. I was able to manipulate the flexible long straw through the F-hole to get into the open slot of the pot.

[sgosnell]

Could be a bad cable, could be the amp, could be dirty contacts in the jack, could be dirty pots. The first thing I would try is rotating the volume and tone pots briskly a number of times. This can sometimes fix a dirty pot, and it's easy to do. Changing the cable is also easy enough. My usual method is to try the easiest things first, then continue as necessary with the more difficult ones.

[StoneWaller]

I had a Les Paul that would do that in the neck position. One of the contact blades on the selector switch was the culprit, and was resolved by slighty bending the blade in the appropriate direction as to get better contact. Switching pickup positions occasionally would reintroduce the issue

[sgosnell]

Yes, I had forgotten about the extra point of failure in guitars with multiple pickups. That is another place to look.