Stingray 5 volume drop

[Boombass76]

I have an SR5 with an odd problem. It sounds normal (and therefore great) when I put the pickup switch in the position closest to the neck (serial, I think). But when I put it in the middle position, the volume drops rather dramtically??? The last position near the bridge aslo has less output volume than the 1st position, but it doesn't drop quite as much as the mid position.

Does anyone have an idea what's wrong?

I am no good with a soldering iron, but I did open the bass, and as far as I could see, all wires and soldering points looked fine.

[TheMutt]

IIRC, my SR5 had that as well (I've since upgraded the pickup to a Nordstrand MM5.4 and the preamp to a Glockenklang). It's just the nature of the beast. Neck position is Series, Middle Position is single coil, and bridge position is parallel. Single coil is going to sound a LOT quieter than series, and parallel fits somewhere in the middle. Unless your bass has recently developed this issue, there should be nothing to worry about.
The preamp in your bass is actually in some ways evening out this problem as I had issues with the original pickup and the Glockenklang preamp originally. The series position was normal output, the single coil mode was silent, and the parallel mode was half of the volume of series.

[NicJimBass]

Originally Posted by TheMutt

IIRC, my SR5 had that as well (I've since upgraded the pickup to a Nordstrand MM5.4 and the preamp to a Glockenklang). It's just the nature of the beast.

Having played an SR5 for the past decade, I have to take issue with this. Yes, the positions you described are correct, but I believe there is some sort of buffer in the preamp that pretty much equals out the volume for all 3 positions. There may be a slight difference, but that's about it.

It sounds to me as though it happened to the OP all of a sudden. If that's the case, the best thing to do is contact an Ernie Ball dealer, or contact Ernie Ball directly.