Hopefully somebody with wiring experience might recognise the symptoms here and suggest a solution. I was playing quite hard slap on a fairly new Fender jazz bass (a Japanese 62 reissue, with stock passive pickups, stock wiring, no mods anywhere) and after a particularly hard thump the output signal just disappeared and would not come back. There is actually still a very tiny amount of signal coming through when one or both volume controls are turned on full, so if I turn the amp up a lot I can just about hear notes through the speaker (both pickups seem to be doing something, and touching the pole pieces of either pickup with a metal object produces a click), but the tone control does nothing, and there is definitely a major problem that is preventing the signal moving through the electrics in the bass properly, so only a trickle of signal from the pickups gets through. I have confirmed the problem is not the amp as other basses work fine and are loud as usual. I have also confirmed it is not just dirt or corrosion on the output jack or cable end.
I am guessing that a solder joint or pot component somewhere was weak and the first hard thump this new bass experienced was enough to shake it loose, either breaking a connection or perhaps causing a short if a wire was close enough to something else.
I lifted the control cover and checked that the output jack shield has electrical continuity with all the pot bodies and with the bridge. Most of the wires in the control cavity have plenty of slack length, but the earth wire from the bridge (which the factory must have soldered last) is so short that I can't lift the control cover up very far without desoldering this wire, which I am trying to avoid, so it is fiddly to experiment at the moment, with the control cover just tilted up a inch along one side. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction of where the problem might be, and how to test it. For example, if there was a short to ground somewhere, would the output be extremely low, but still slightly audible at high amp volumes, or would it be totally silent? I have a multimeter, and a soldering iron, but I hope to determine exactly where the problem is before using the soldering iron because I am not experienced enough to solder very neatly and don't want to make more mess than necessary.
Any troubleshooting hints will be greatly appreciated!
I am guessing that a solder joint or pot component somewhere was weak and the first hard thump this new bass experienced was enough to shake it loose, either breaking a connection or perhaps causing a short if a wire was close enough to something else.
I lifted the control cover and checked that the output jack shield has electrical continuity with all the pot bodies and with the bridge. Most of the wires in the control cavity have plenty of slack length, but the earth wire from the bridge (which the factory must have soldered last) is so short that I can't lift the control cover up very far without desoldering this wire, which I am trying to avoid, so it is fiddly to experiment at the moment, with the control cover just tilted up a inch along one side. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction of where the problem might be, and how to test it. For example, if there was a short to ground somewhere, would the output be extremely low, but still slightly audible at high amp volumes, or would it be totally silent? I have a multimeter, and a soldering iron, but I hope to determine exactly where the problem is before using the soldering iron because I am not experienced enough to solder very neatly and don't want to make more mess than necessary.
Any troubleshooting hints will be greatly appreciated!
