Ernie Ball Stingray Sound Production Issues

[louloomis]

Hi Everyone,

Apologies for the long thread, but I want to give you all the details needed.

Here we go:

SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND
1. Before you continue reading on, please consider that I did already contact Ernie Ball. They were helpful and provided a full quote for an in-house preamp replacement. They were very responsive. A+ for Ernie Ball.
2. I am trying to troubleshoot this issue myself if possible as I'd rather:
a. not spend the money as the shipping to/from Ernie Ball plus the repair is on the high side for my budget
b. use this as an opportunity to learn more about repairing such issues
3. The bass is a 1 pickup 2003 Ernie Ball Stingray 4 string bass

SECTION 2 - ISSUE HISTORY
1. I received the bass and it made no sound initially at all

SECTION 3 - REPAIR STEPS TAKEN THUS FAR
1. I cleaned and pried upwards the battery connector contact pads in the battery box
2. I removed the battery box and noticed that there was a loose wire. I resoldered that wire to the battery box
3. I installed a fresh new battery in the battery box
4. I removed the pickup and checked the wiring there and everything looked fine.
5. I removed the preamp and noticed a loose solder joint going from the pickup to the circuit board (missing almost all solder) and resoldered that connection and the other connection from the pickup to the circuit board
6. I removed the output jack and noticed that there was a loose wire - not connected anywhere - in the output jack. Since the output jack seemed to be a bit nasty looking, I ordered a new output jack from Ernie Ball and installed that in the bass.

SECTION 4 - CURRENT STATE OF SOUND PRODUCTION, POST-STEPS TAKEN IN SECTION 3
1. I can hear a solidly amplified and clear hum coming out of the amp with the bass plugged in
2. That hum goes away when I "ground" the bass - i.e. when I touch my hand to the bass strings, or control knobs, etc.
3. I can affect change to the tone of the hum by manipulating the knobs of the preamp: changing volume with the volume knob, eq with the eq knobs etc.
4. The hum is loudest when I touch the polepieces of the pickup with my finger
5. If I pluck a string, sometimes I can hear the note being played but it is fairly faint, intermittent, and distorted

SECTION 5 - QUESTIONS
1. What should I be looking for to troubleshoot next? Am I looking only at component level details on the preamp circuit board such as op-amps (if there are such things there), resistors, capacitors, etc.? Maybe one is faulty?
2. Based on the symptoms above, could there be some other more simple thing I'm overlooking. I am getting a strong signal, so the preamp is "working" but the tone production piece itself appears to not be passing the signal of the pickup.

Please let me know what you recommend.

Thanks in advance.

LL

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Are you sure the pickup is working? Do you have a meter to check for an ohm reading through the pickup?

If you don't have a multimeter (really, a necessity if you're going to troubleshoot electronics) you could disconnect the pickup and hook the wires to an output jack and test that. I have a jack with wires with alligator clip on the other end just for that.

If the pickup works, go through and double check all the solder connections, since you've found several issues there. Also, make sure you hooked up the new output jack correctly. Hot to tip, battery ground to ring, electronics ground to sleeve. Unless Music Man does something different. I'm not familiar with their new stuff.

 

[louloomis]

Hi. These are great suggestions. Here's what I did:

1. Upon your recommendation, I did check the pickup with a a multimeter. The pickup seemed to be fine.
2. I examined very carefully that the area where the pickup leads attached to the circuitboard before re-attaching them.
3. During this examination, I noticed that the two holes where the wires from the pickup were to be attached had almost no foil (or trace?) not sure what the correct term is - I'm referring to the metallic-looking substance that essentially connects the different points on a circuitboard. Full disclosure: I realize now that I had noticed this a bit before when initially trying to troubleshoot, but:
a. Did not understand the significance (more on this below) because I thought there was also a contact point on the other side of the circuit board and that the solder blob would take care of this connection as long as I put adequate solder there.
b. The area was really dirty with some kind of residue/goo/maybe some left over solder rosin-core stuff something or other, so the degree to which the "foil" was missing was obscured somewhat, too. But, again, I just didn't really know enough to think about this as deeply as I should have.
4. Purely by coincidence - and an incredible one at that, I happened to be watching an amp repair video earlier today on the popular tube site and the repair person was working on a circuitboard issue which seemed similar - missing foil and a dirty area of the board.
5. This repair person solved the issue by:
a. Cleaning the area with contact cleaner
b. Scraping away some of the remaining residue/material with an Exacto type of knife
c. Creating a small jumper wire from where the wire needed to be soldered into the board to the next contact point (which had a solid solder joint already in place) - this was to essentially "replace" the missing foil so that the connection could be made between those two points.
5. Having seen this video, I reproduced the same exact steps as this repair person, including making 2 jumpers in the two areas of the circuitboard where the two wires from the pickup attach to the board and......AND......AND.....

WE NOW HAVE A WORKING STINGRAY BASS!

Thanks for all the contributions!

LL

 

[Aeroflot]

Wow! That must have been a relief to hear that first sound of a working bass! Bullet dodged!

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Good deal. You're well on your way to becoming an o fisheye all electronics tech.

Seriously, glad it worked out quickly and relatively easily.

 

[louloomis]

Wow! That must have been a relief to hear that first sound of a working bass! Bullet dodged!

Hey...yeah! It was a relief when I heard that first solid clear bass note! That note was followed by a LOT of triumphant yelling on my part (about 1-2 minutes of solid yelling and fist pumping). I can't imagine what my neighbors thought was going on, but.....what a great moment.

Good deal. You're well on your way to becoming an o fisheye all electronics tech.

Seriously, glad it worked out quickly and relatively easily.

Thanks very much. Yes, I'm glad it worked out ok, too.

What an incredible feeling of total satisfaction.

LL