Active pickups/preamp overdrive? help!

[tomfrankly]

I just noticed that the signal coming from my bass is overdriven if i play too hard (too hard in this case being the normal pressure I use). I know it's the bass' signal because I turned down the volume on the bass and it still happened, and I also tried 2 different speakers.

I don't think this used to happen or I would have noticed it sooner. Anyone know why this may or may not have suddenly started, and why it happens at all? I recently repaired a broken solder in the wiring, but I don't know how that could have caused this, so I really have no idea.

I've just fooled around a little more and found that when I pluck extremely hard my amp shuts off. I am assuming this is an automatic thing to protect against damage. Is my bass putting out an abnormally powerful signal?


EDIT: never mind, i just swapped the batteries and it is normal now.. very strange.