Emerson Prewired P Bass Kit Help — Ground Wire Question

Nothing else to buy in wire department just the pickups the wire from bridge just solder to the solder point on the tone pot. the white wire from the pickup goes to volume pot as shown in diagram & black to either solder point on volume or tone pot . Only other thing you going to need is volume / tone knobs if you dont have them if you dont have the bridge ground wire yes you need it about 6" long or so

 

Looks like all you need to add is a front wire to the bridge. Sounds fun!

 

Hi nah no specific cable if you have enought length left over from your pickup you could use it . You can get it from a Lowes auto shop etc it will be the same diamater etc as your pickups

 

I bought this exact kit recently and I cannot get it to work. There's only 3 wires to connect. I added some images. Any opinions out there while I'm waiting on a response from the company?

 

Your solder joints look like they may be cold. Get your iron hot, clean it well, tin it, and then reflow the solder joints.

Do you have a multimeter? Check for continuity along the signal path and check for shorts to ground.

Did the pickup work before you soldered it to this harness? Was this a working instrument or something brand new?

 

Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like you don't have the wire connecting the two pots together?

 

Thank you TB fam for the responses!!!

More details. It was a working instrument but I'm replacing the pickups and the pre amp. The pickups are brand new fender 63s. They work fine. I checked the continuity of the connections in the pre and everything provides a tone on the multimeter.

The two pots are connected from the factory. I only added the white wire to the same plug as where the resistor and the connecting wire are.

I am sure my soldering is cold, especially on the black wires. I'm nervous to overheat the pots. Would cold solders be enough to not let any signal through? What temp should I set my iron to?

 

Assuming you're using leaded solder, 375-400C is good enough. You need at least 40W of power.
Make sure the tip of your iron is tinned, clean it on a wet sponge. A flat or chisel tip works best.

Tin the lugs on the pot and the ends of the wires first. Then insert the wires in the lugs and apply the tinned iron for 1-2 seconds, then come in with the solder from the other side, it should melt and flow directly to the parts you're trying to solder. Remove the solder and then the iron, don't blow on the joint.

If you're using 60/40 solder, it needs a couple of seconds to solidify. Any movement at this time could result in a cold joint. 63/37 solder solidifies instantly.

if you're adding the black ground wires to the existing solder joints on the back of the pots, they need a few seconds to melt. If you're adding a solder joint there, sand the back of the pot with sandpaper then apply some flux. Otherwise the solder might not stick.

 

Update - I took it all apart today and tested each component with a multimeter. The tone pot is fine, reading 250k. The volume pot, however, only gives a reading of 35k. I tested it around 10 times and consistently received the same result. I reinstalled the original pre, and even with my cold solder, the new pickups work nicely. I reached out to the manufacturer to see what they say and will post back when I learn more.

This is a Squier series fender mim from the 90s. I absolutely love this bass but most of the innards are pretty anemic. That's why I wanted to change everything. Thanks for the help everyone. Back to soldering practice!

 

If the original pots and tone cap are working fine, you should just leave them as-is. Return the new harness or save it for a different project. The only functional difference between your stock electronics and that prewired harness is the treble bleed circuit, which is about 10 cents of parts - you can add those in easily if you want them.

 

Update - Emerson was great to work with. I sent back the pre and they rebuilt it. I installed it this morning in a Mod Shop p-bass that has Lollar high-winds in it. The p-ups were way too hot with the stock pre-amp. The upgraded pre really calmed them down and makes the bass so much more pleasant. I don't have measurements or anything (and maybe it's psychological) but I get a whole different sound out of the bass now. Thanks again everyone for all of your help.