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Bass volume problem?

P

psung

Guest
Jun 14, 2013
16
0
#1
Hey guys,

A beginner here.
I owned a Hofner Icon Bass for a few years now. Recently, the input jack came out loose and I was able to fixed it, however, ever since then it always have this volume problem.
The pickups seem to be working fine but the volume only comes out when the volume knobs are turn fully up.

Turn the volume knobs down just a tiny bit then there's this cracking sound and the sounds are gone.
The pickups are still up but the sounds are almost completely gone with just a few tint of sound burst up here and there.

Anyone know what is causing this?

Thanks
 
#2
Sounds like your connections from the pups to the input jack have become loose and or disconnected. Are you any good at soldering? It probably just needs a good once over with a soldering iron where the wiring meets your input jack connections from your pups. That's what it sounds like to me anyway. What did you mean by your input jack came out loose?
 
#3
gregmon79 said:
Sounds like your connections from the pups to the input jack have become loose and or disconnected. Are you any good at soldering? It probably just needs a good once over with a soldering iron where the wiring meets your input jack connections from your pups. That's what it sounds like to me anyway. What did you mean by your input jack came out loose?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. This might sounds stupid, but is there anywhere I can find a step-by-step tutorial with picture on how to do just that?

What I meant by input jack came out loose is that, I plug the bass into the amp rather too often and one day when I pulled the cable out, it must have unscrewed the input jack and so it got loose inside the body.
I have to use a plier to pull it out.
 
#4
Ah yes, I see what you're saying. I'm really not that familiar with the hofner you're using, of course I know what bass it is and I'm very familiar with its appearance, but not in detail it's components. If you google something's like "insert your bass and model here" pickup wiring diagrams I'm sure you will find what you are looking for. If you're not experienced with taking the guts (wiring and so forth) out of your bass and you don't feel comfortable doing so for the first time on your own, you may want to take it into a music store that has a tech so they can help you. I took my P bass into a local GC recently and the tech was a great guy. He helped me and explained to me how to wire my pickups I was installing in there. It was a great experience.
 
#5
I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I think that perhaps jack got a bit twisted inside the bass when you re-tightened it and is making contact with some other bare connection. This should be an easy fix.
 
#7
While you have it open, check all the wiring to all the pots, as well. There may be one that's loose, cracked or pulled to the point of barely making contact or contacting something it shouldn't.

Likewise, tighten up all the nuts on the pots so they don't move when run through their entire range when observed with the cavity open. The scenario where something shorts out (or opens up) once the pot is moved off of full volume sounds like a pot where the pot body is moving and causing movement of the wires inside the electronics cavity.

Wiring diagrams are easily found, nowadays on google.

Good luck and Rock On,
'Bolt
 

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