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HELP! My bass is silent

B

BryanC

Aug 23, 2010
79
24
Bellville, South Africa
#1
I have an Ibanez 4 string. (First bass, I bought second) It is entry level, P/J configuration. Most likely a GSR190.

So I decided to shield control cavity. I carefully note the all the connection, unsolder, shield and re-solder all connections. Then silence.:bawl::help:

I did notice the neck pick (P-type) up has 2 wires, ground is the screen and the core is +. The bridge pick-up (J-type) has 3 wires, a screen, a white and an orange. It seems the screen and white was wired to ground and the orange to +. I redid it this way. Is this correct?:confused:

Can anybody help me with trouble-shooting or should I just take it to a tech?

Thanks for any help.
Bryan
 
#2
BryanC said:
I have an Ibanez 4 string. (First bass, I bought second) It is entry level, P/J configuration. Most likely a GSR190.

So I decided to shield control cavity. I carefully note the all the connection, unsolder, shield and re-solder all connections. Then silence.:bawl::help:

I did notice the neck pick (P-type) up has 2 wires, ground is the screen and the core is +. The bridge pick-up (J-type) has 3 wires, a screen, a white and an orange. It seems the screen and white was wired to ground and the orange to +. I redid it this way. Is this correct?:confused:

Can anybody help me with trouble-shooting or should I just take it to a tech?

Thanks for any help.
Bryan
Click to expand...

I'd find a good tech in your area and take it to them.

If your bass has any sort of circuit in it, such as a board or mini-board, these have to be handled just like computer components. Something as simple (and small) as static (shock) from your hands can damage them. You should always be grounded when inside of a guitar, computer, anything with a micro circuit board in it.

Hopefully it's something simple like your wiring or soldering is a little wonky and it'll be a simple fix.

But find a local guitar tech or a luthier you can take it to. The small $$$ to get it diagnosed is worth it.

I wish I had some other advice.
 
#3
If that's how it "was", and you did it the same way, and it worked before, then it is right. Sounds like you just missed a solder somewhere.
Go through it again.
You can also de-solder the pickups, and then connect them directly to an instrument cable to be sure that they are still OK. Just hold the wires on the tip and sleeve of the cable - but just go over it. I think you just missed something. And make sure you did not connect (+) wires to your new shielding.
 
#4
First the stupid question, is it an active bass? And if it is, did you remember to install a battery?

That covered, if you incorrectly wired 1 of 2 pickups I would still expect the other pickup to work. So, I can't say that the 3 wire pickup is properly wired, but even if it wasn't it shouldn't stop sound from the other pickup.

Unless you somehow grounded the entire system, but I think the pickup selector should isolate each pickup well enough to compensate for a "bad" pickup.
 
#6
DUC1098 said:
First the stupid question, is it an active bass? And if it is, did you remember to install a battery?

That covered, if you incorrectly wired 1 of 2 pickups I would still expect the other pickup to work. So, I can't say that the 3 wire pickup is properly wired, but even if it wasn't it shouldn't stop sound from the other pickup.

Unless you somehow grounded the entire system, but I think the pickup selector should isolate each pickup well enough to compensate for a "bad" pickup.
Click to expand...

It is an active bass. I was working with the battery out and testing with the battery installed.

I will look at the whole system again and look for any + to ground mistakes.

Thanks
B
 

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