Very annoying problem!!

[DCOOPER]

Hi folks.I have a lovely custom bass which has served me flawlessly for 4 years but has recently developed a problem.With the pickup selector in mid position the B,E and A strings dont make any sound but the D and G strings do.If i pan to the front pickup again no sound but panning to the back brings all the strings back to life!!Anyone have any ideas what the problem is?Im hoping a loose connection somewhere and not faulty pickups.Any help greatly appreciated.

[Bass_masta16]

I don't know if you planned on trying to fix it yourself, but people are always set on "do-it-yourself" things. Where, in the long run, they end up messing the bass up more then it already is. ( or sometimes they fix it completely )

SO, what you could do, is just take it to a professional, and have them check it out, and if it checks out to be the pickups, then your going to have to get new ones. But you never know, it might just be a loose wire somewhere.


Rock on
Bass Masta

[PilbaraBass]

Originally Posted by DCOOPER

Hi folks.I have a lovely custom bass which has served me flawlessly for 4 years but has recently developed a problem.With the pickup selector in mid position the B,E and A strings dont make any sound but the D and G strings do.If i pan to the front pickup again no sound but panning to the back brings all the strings back to life!!Anyone have any ideas what the problem is?Im hoping a loose connection somewhere and not faulty pickups.Any help greatly appreciated.

ok...need to establish some things...first, you have a 5 string, that's obvious...

theres a problem with the front pickup...the selector in the mid position must put the pickups in series rather than parallel...in parallel you'd have some sound (it would sound like the back pickup alone on the BEA but it would have sound)

the pickups (at least the front pickup) must be a split coil...either a P-style pickup, or a split-coil (side-by-side coils) jazz...

the coil over the BEA strings is dead...either the lead has become disconnected or theres a break in the winding...

get someone with some pickup knowledge (and knows how to use an ohm-meter) to check it out.

[Revmizery]

Pics of this bass would be a big help in figuring out what is wrong with it.

[DCOOPER]

Thanks for the help guys.The pickups are Jerzy Drozd JDEX which i believe are his standard split coil pups.If its a fairly simple thing to put right i dont mind. I was worried it may be a bigger problem with the preamp (Aguilar OBP3).

[PilbaraBass]

Originally Posted by DCOOPER

Thanks for the help guys.The pickups are Jerzy Drozd JDEX which i believe are his standard split coil pups.If its a fairly simple thing to put right i dont mind. I was worried it may be a bigger problem with the preamp (Aguilar OBP3).

nope....a preamp problem would never manifest itsself like that...

it IS fairly simple...either you need to repair or replace the pickup...

[DCOOPER]

Thanks for the advice.Il have it checked out.

[Pilgrim]

Basic rule: figure out the simplest thing that can cause the problem, and look there first. that usually solves it.

In this case, that's the switch which selects the pickups - or the wiring to it. look there first.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by DCOOPER

Hi folks.I have a lovely custom bass which has served me flawlessly for 4 years but has recently developed a problem.With the pickup selector in mid position the B,E and A strings dont make any sound but the D and G strings do.If i pan to the front pickup again no sound but panning to the back brings all the strings back to life!!Anyone have any ideas what the problem is?Im hoping a loose connection somewhere and not faulty pickups.Any help greatly appreciated.

Obviously you have split pickups, which is why you only get sound from two strings. There is either short in the wiring for the front pickup, which is killing the signal from the other strings on the rear pickup, or the pickup is dead, but that doesn't explain the problem with panning.

I don't know how the bass is wired, but it seems either each half of the pickups are in parallel, or they have both pickups connected somehow.

But my guess is that there is a short somewhere. You really need to look inside and use a multimeter so see what's going on.

[DCOOPER]

Thanks for the advice.Im going to take it to a guitar repair shop and have them look.I also emailed Jerzy Drozd and he got back to me and has offered to send me new pickups if they have developed a fault.I think thats great service.