Diagnosis?

[ColinGWood]

Hey guys, not sure if should post this here or under "setup/repair". Anyhoo.

I have an Ibanez SR400QM. It has a pickup selector/blend knob for the two standard SR pickups.

Half of the time I can't even allow the neck pickup to be in the mix at all. Its all bridge or nothing. This is because the signal from the neck is weaker, with a crackling sound, and there is always pops and crackels when I turn the knob towards the neck pickup. Like I said, its usually neck and nothing else.

However, some days I turn the knob and the neck pup sings like a wildebeest!

Can anyone assess these sypmtoms and tell me whet's wrong? Maybe just a loose wire? Remember sometimes the pickup works, but MOST of the time it is at 50 percent volume, with ugly background noise.

Thanks!!

 

[M0ses]

Sounds like your blend pot is at fault (crackles, bad sound). You might try replacing that.

 

[ColinGWood]

Sounds best left to a professional, eh?

 

[M0ses]

What fun is that? What kind of help is that? Bah, your post annoys me.
Replacing a pot is easy as cake if you know how to solder. If you don't know how to solder, you need to learn.

 

[ColinGWood]

No thats exactly it, hah

I DONT want to take it to a professional, but it seems like to replace the pot would be a lot of work and i could potentially just screw up on an epic level.

Have you got any tips? what tools will I need? materials? How Do I know im fixing the problem? I have time on my hands, waiting to go to college, so if its a DIY-able job Ill DIY it!

 

[M0ses]

Sorry for being rather snappy in that post. Didn't mean to come off like that.

Well, my pot theory is just that, a theory. But pots don't cost a lot and it's really not a lot of work. I can give you the basic guidelines.

You need
- a new blend pot
- a soldering iron
- resin core solder (non acidic)
- de-soldering tools

You can easily find detailed information on soldering with Google.
That Ibby's controls are rear-mounted, which means you won't even have to take the strings off. If the problem is indeed the blend pot, all you have to do is take the old one out and put the new one in exactly like you left it, unless the original connections were also bad. If it wasn't the blend pots fault, you're down maybe 4 bucks but up experience.
You could screw up on an epic level, but I really doubt you could do any permanent damage, or anything that would be hard to undo.

 

[ColinGWood]

I was thinking for awhile that maybe the neck pickup or the wiring to and from it were shoddy. But after the tone I got out of it today, it must be the pot because the "blend" of pickups has always sounded shoddy all around, compared to when the bridge pickup was on full.

Tomorrow Ill actually put on my specs and take an in depth look at the wiring and see if i cant see the problem between neck pick up and blend knob myself.