Bass makes weird noise, now no sound at all..

kydnav · #1 03-30-2007, 11:03 AM

A friend of mine has an Ibanez BTB5, but a while ago it started making weird sounds at random moments.
She could be playing for half an hour and there would be 1 weird sound or just for 5 minutes and she'd get one every minute..
After a while the bass just stopped making any sounds at all. Nothing, complete silence.

So we opened it up, took out the battery (that was just replaced) and got the sound she got while playing. Put it back in, nothing happened (not that much of a surprise there), got it out, same sound.

Since it's an active bass and it makes the sound as if the battery is being taken out, my guess would be that her pre-amp couldn't see the battery at some points (and now it's completely gone). So my logic would say 'check the wire from the battery to the pre-amp'
But I don't have it here, so I can't...

But could this actually be an answer or is it just my wishfull thinking?
If not, what could be wrong with it and is it repairable without taking it to a shop?

ogrossman · #2 03-30-2007, 11:08 AM

If you don't have experience with troubleshooting electronics I would check for a dead battery (you've done that already), make sure the battery snaps are going on tight and if all that doesn't work, take it into the shop. The loose battery snap problem just happened to me recently.

ldervish · #3 03-30-2007, 11:12 AM

Don't know if this is it or not, but some battery clips are very cheaply made and the wire connections loosen/break easily. You can maybe find out by fiddling with the wires when it is hooked up to a good battery.

You can buy replacements at Radio Shack and other stores that carry electronic parts for a couple bucks, then either solder (preferred) or wire-nut the new one to the old wires.

kydnav · #4 03-30-2007, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ogrossman

If you don't have experience with troubleshooting electronics I would check for a dead battery (you've done that already), make sure the battery snaps are going on tight and if all that doesn't work, take it into the shop. The loose battery snap problem just happened to me recently.

The battery is brand new. But the battery snaps makes sense. Considering it makes the sound as if the battery is taken out and if those are loose it won't make correct contact with the battery..
I'll check it out..

kydnav · #5 03-30-2007, 11:22 AM

Hmm, nevermind..
I just called her and she'd already taken it to a shop yesterday but didn't tell me.
It had something to do with the wood, the paint and the pre-amp being against it causing an electical breakdown..
The moved the pre-amp a little and it was fixed..

I wanted to be the hero