Help! I'm confused!

[Jimbow]

Hey, I have a passive bass that I tried to play today. Yesterday it played great, but today I plug it in and lo and behold, nothing except a high pitched buzzing comes out of my amp. I plug in my cheapie starter bass to check, and that one works fine. So it had to be something with the bass, not the amp. I popped off the back panel and the first thing I see is the red wire that runs from the volume pot to the neck pickup is melted and in two pieces. I also see that one of the wires from my output jack is unsoldered. I stripped/resoldered/reinsulated the melted wire and resoldered the output jack, but I'm still getting nothing but the whine. It's not loud, it sounds like guitar feedback, but really quiet. As far as I can tell, it isn't giving off heat anywhere, so I am really confused as to what would cause the wiring to melt/unsolder like that. Is it possible that a bare spot on the wire from the pot to the pickup touched the bare end of the output jack wire? They are long enough to reach each other. That's the only thing I can think of.

Is it possible to short circuit a pickup? My pickups are soapbar - style, and I am pretty sure they're wired in parallel. Thanks.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I got it used, so it's not under warranty.

 

[luknfur]

Hey, I have a passive bass that I tried to play today. Yesterday it played great, but today I plug it in and lo and behold, nothing except a high pitched buzzing comes out of my amp. I plug in my cheapie starter bass to check, and that one works fine. So it had to be something with the bass, not the amp. I popped off the back panel and the first thing I see is the red wire that runs from the volume pot to the neck pickup is melted and in two pieces. I also see that one of the wires from my output jack is unsoldered. I stripped/resoldered/reinsulated the melted wire and resoldered the output jack, but I'm still getting nothing but the whine. It's not loud, it sounds like guitar feedback, but really quiet. As far as I can tell, it isn't giving off heat anywhere, so I am really confused as to what would cause the wiring to melt/unsolder like that. Is it possible that a bare spot on the wire from the pot to the pickup touched the bare end of the output jack wire? They are long enough to reach each other. That's the only thing I can think of.

Is it possible to short circuit a pickup? My pickups are soapbar - style, and I am pretty sure they're wired in parallel. Thanks.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I got it used, so it's not under warranty.

FWIW:

To my knowledge there's not enough current flowing through a bass to melt anything. I'm guessing that's the first time you've had the cover off the bass?

Don't know if it's possible for a short to run current back from amp to do such a thing or not. I do know there's enough juice in the amp to smoke the bass and the cord provides the link.

 

[Jimbow]

No, I had the cover off of it about a month ago when I bought it to check the wiring.

I hadn't thought about the amp thing, maybe a power surge of some sort?