I am new here! (TECH QUESTION)

Sounds like the pickup is shorted. That, or the blend pot's input for that pickup.

 

it's easy to fix either way, but it's either cheap (a wire or the pan pot) or expensive (the pickup itself).

 

I recently had a similar problem with an Ibanez SRA.
A quick reflow of the solder on each of the blend pot's terminals fixed it.

 

You have something going to ground in your neck pickup. Its probably just a wire.

 

Sounds like a wiring problem from the pickup to the blend. If you want to check, open up the control cavity and check the wires coming from the pickup to the blend and making sure they are still attached.

Dry solder joints could easily be an issue too, it does depend.

Breaking a pickup takes some special skill

 

The fact that it only works when the bridge pickup is soloed, and that the signal is cut out when the neck pickup is introduced means that the signal is being taken to ground. Dry solder joints or loose connections won't cause those problems.

 

If I had to guess, the positive wire, or something connected to the positive wire of the neck pickup is grounded out. Pickups very rarely fail.

 

Great news! That's the best to hear.
I've only had one bad Ibanez pickup- was open circuit, (epoxy potted)
in used bass (SRX705), and got it that way, so just replaced the pickup.
Passive pickups are easy to check with a multi-meter, or just jumper it to the jack to see if it generates a signal or not.
Then go from there.

 

Sounds like the OP's issue is being well taken care of. However, being an electronics guy, let me elaborate on this statement.

It's true that the signal could indeed being taken to ground. This would happen if there was a short in the wiring somewhere, meaning a bare wire or a wire with the insulation skinned away, exposing the bare wire and touching a ground wire, lug, shielding, or even the shielding paint somewhere.

And cold solder joints and loose connections can work. Or not. At best, the connection will be intermittent.

If a connection isn't made, as in a wire being broken or disconnected in the circuit (say the wire going to the output jack is completely broken away), then the signal doesn't go anywhere at all. With an incomplete circuit, there's nowhere for the signal to go. In fact, you could get really picky and say that the signal never gets started because of the incomplete circuit.

However, I won't get that picky, I've been crowing enough semantics already...:roll eyes:

 

"incomplete circuit"/ open circuit, same thing-
could be in pickup coils, between pots, etc.

 

Yes, it is, but not the same thing as shorted to ground, although the result is the same.

 

Not really. On a two pickup bass with both pickups on, they are both part of the circuit. If the pickup has an open connection then it just will not work within that circuit. If it is shorted, then the signal of the entire circuit is taken to ground, and the bass will make no sound, unless the pickup that is not shorted is soloed. If it was just open then the bass would act as if the good pickup was soloed at all times. Its a pretty major difference really.

 

I can't believe I'm using this phrase, but it kinda depends on what "It" is...My mistake for thinking some things were common sense.

 

You said the result would be the same between a short and open. Its not the same at all