loose wire goes where?

fundamentalb · #1 12-01-2012, 06:25 PM

I have a spector NS 95 bass. After I took it in to a store to have the pickups checked for noise (almost like a bad fuzz bass effect) they said it was just dirty pots and took the back off to put some contact cleaner in, fine and dandy but they must have accidentally knocked a white wire loose off of of the pickup nearest the bridge. Of course I didn't notice at the time, that would have been easier. Its not quite clear where this wire is supposed to be soldered back. Its not the white wire that runs from the back of the pot to the side of the pot. Anyone out there know this one? I was also wondering if it had been this connection (if loose to begin with) that might have been the culprit with the distortion? I don't seem to be getting distortion off of the one working pickup.

danomite64 · #2 12-01-2012, 09:10 PM

Looks like possibly the middle lug on the pot at the bottom of the picture.

fundamentalb · #3 12-02-2012, 04:51 PM

I might be wrong but I'm thinking that it may have to go to the other pickup volume not the tone. The middle of that bottom one (which would be treble tone adjust) does already have a purple one coming off of it already. I wish there was a clear break in the solder showing a missing connection that had been made, but I cant make out anything distinctly. I've shot a note off to spector's help email as well, have to see if anything comes back on that on Mon. Thankfully I still get decent tone off the other one for now.

Primakurtz · #4 12-03-2012, 10:00 AM

There is an easy way to tell - plug the bass into an amp set to a moderate volume, and touch the wire to some potential pot lugs while plucking a string. You will find out pretty quickly. As long as your amp isn't turned up too loud, you won't hurt anything.

fundamentalb · #5 12-04-2012, 05:55 PM

Ok, so good advice with the testing different connections thanks for the hint. Made sense once I hit the right one on the other gain pot. So from what I could tell from EMG-HZ passive pickups the loose wire was the output. There being only one spot on the chip it makes sense that the two individual pickup outputs would join at the final solder point and then share a send to the tone chip.

I also want to thank PJ from Spector for getting back to me promptly via email. He helped me identify the type of pickups (which are unmarked) and the type of circuit used (EMG BT circuit) which helped understanding what was going on. All in all pretty good support considering the NS 95 was their lower budget Korean model from 16 years ago.