help soldering

[El-Bob]

i soldered a new output jack into my bass last night ( 2 - conductor jack into a p - style bass ) and now when i plug my bass in i get a loud hissing sound. i'm sure the problem is from my soldering, can someone help me out with this?

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Does it go away when you touch the strings or anything?

 

[Liko]

You probably swapped leads. The signal produced by the bass doesn't depend on which side of the pickups are hot and which is ground, as long as both pickups are wired the same way. What does make a difference is shielding and noise grounding. That MUST go through the ground side of the cable in order for the bass to be noiseless (or reasonably so). If the noise goes through the hot side, it is amplified.

I would recommend you desolder both leads to the jack and reverse them. If you have a multimeter that can read ohms, here's a tip; touch one probe to the outside of the jack, then touch the other to each terminal of the jack in turn. When you find a terminal that has zero ohms (there may be more than one if you're using a stereo jack; no real difference if you don't need stereo output), that's your ground side. The terminal that is discontinuous (the meter will show OL, MAX or the needle will peg to the far right) is the hot side. Wire the leads to the terminals accordingly.

 

[El-Bob]

Does it go away when you touch the strings or anything?

it gets substantially worse when i touch any metal part on the bass

 

[El-Bob]

You probably swapped leads. The signal produced by the bass doesn't depend on which side of the pickups are hot and which is ground, as long as both pickups are wired the same way. What does make a difference is shielding and noise grounding. That MUST go through the ground side of the cable in order for the bass to be noiseless (or reasonably so). If the noise goes through the hot side, it is amplified.

I would recommend you desolder both leads to the jack and reverse them. If you have a multimeter that can read ohms, here's a tip; touch one probe to the outside of the jack, then touch the other to each terminal of the jack in turn. When you find a terminal that has zero ohms (there may be more than one if you're using a stereo jack; no real difference if you don't need stereo output), that's your ground side. The terminal that is discontinuous (the meter will show OL, MAX or the needle will peg to the far right) is the hot side. Wire the leads to the terminals accordingly.

thanks for the responses i'll try re-soldering it tomorrow or tonight if i have time , i don't have a multimeter on hand, but i may be able to borrow one from my electro teacher if the need arises. btw, it's not a stereo jack. anymore advice is more than welcome.

 

[Rattman]

it gets substantially worse when i touch any metal part on the bass

Hey Bob.. the previous poster had it 'nailed' I think. You need to take a pic.. then unsolder both leads. The pic is so you don't get mixed up again. Reverse the leads with the pre-unsolder pic as your reference. You probably have your signal running thru the ground lead and vice versa. Hopefully you are not using a stereo input jack?

 

[Thor]

Another tip as an aside:

I always recommend to people who are new at soldering that
they take some spare wire and practise a few times before
doing the job.

Soldering is about getting the heat right, too cold and
you get a bad joint, to hot and the solder can flow off the joint
and burn up the insulation on the wiring.

Use a good iron, the Weller with the Hi-Low trigger is
really good. Heat the work, not the solder, keeping the
solder slightly away from the iron and the solder will flow
naturally into the joint. Remove iron immediately and blow on
it, cooling it off.

 

[El-Bob]

Hey Bob.. the previous poster had it 'nailed' I think. You need to take a pic.. then unsolder both leads. The pic is so you don't get mixed up again. Reverse the leads with the pre-unsolder pic as your reference. You probably have your signal running thru the ground lead and vice versa. Hopefully you are not using a stereo input jack?

it's not a stereo jack

 

[El-Bob]

Another tip as an aside:

I always recommend to people who are new at soldering that
they take some spare wire and practise a few times before
doing the job.

Soldering is about getting the heat right, too cold and
you get a bad joint, to hot and the solder can flow off the joint
and burn up the insulation on the wiring.

Use a good iron, the Weller with the Hi-Low trigger is
really good. Heat the work, not the solder, keeping the
solder slightly away from the iron and the solder will flow
naturally into the joint. Remove iron immediately and blow on
it, cooling it off.

great tips, i learned to solder last year in school, but they never gave us tips like that. thanks

 

[El-Bob]

so, i'll probably try re-soldering it after school tomorrow, thanks for your responses, more input is always welcome