I fail at wiring

[joefee42]

...apparently. So I've been working on a parts P-style, and I decided to do the wiring myself. I looked at numerous diagrams (all pretty much the same) and went for it, very certain I knew what I was doing.
It seems that was not the case. I plug in, and no sound. None, not even a hum. Tried different cords and different amps and all that, but to no avail.

I did notice that if I touch any of the hot wires, it hums, and also that i can hear a "click click" on the D/G half of the pickup when the strings touch the pole pieces, but nothing for the E/A half. I haven't yet tried just hooking up the pickup straight to the input jack to make sure it works. That's probably the next step if I can't figure it out.

I'm assuming that it's some kind of obvious noob problem, but I've checked and double checked and triple checked. I figure a few extra sets of eyes, experienced ones, can point me in the right direction.

I had a hard time getting a good picture, but here's a diagram i drew of what exactly is going on with wiring.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Tusec]

Hmm, looks like you've got it right to me. The deal with only getting a click out of one coil seems a little strange. I wonder if something might be going on with the pickup.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

This is the one I use... it has the cap and one wire from the volume pot switched (center lug for the cap).

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[algernon]

The schematic looks ok, to me at least. It would be a good start to wire the pickup to the output jack directly, this way you'll find out if there's something funny with the pickup itself.

 

[Mitchthebassplayer]

dude your drawing rules....it looks like a really smart kindergartener made that haha

 

[bigbadbob76]

Drawing looks fine. either way works for tone wiring.
If you have a multimeter, check the resistance of each pup, they should be the same.
i suspect you may have a dodgy pup.
also check they are wired in phase or they could cancell each other out. doubtfull on a p setup though.
also.... if it hums when you touch the hot side of the vol pot, the rest of the wiring is fine.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

The drawing looks fine to me also.

Check for shorts in the wiring between hot and ground, and make sure the output jack is wired up the right way.

One half of the pickup might be bad also. Check it with a meter.

 

[luzceloffan]

Use a multimeter to check the impedance of the pickups 1st ... if ok, then check it before the volume pot, if ok, check it before the tone pot, if ok, check it before the jack, if ok ... check your cable.

If else in any of the past stament check yours joints, also a pic of the circuit of the bass would be helpful.

P.S. Do the check againts all your ground spots, since they might be act like one.

 

[Shoewreck]

The inner windings of your pickup probably touch the pole pieces. One side is connected directly to the ground, so the touch noises are eliminated, the other half is not and the noises get into your signal path. Try rewiring the pup to parallel if you don't mind a thinner tone.

 

[Shoewreck]

Regarding your problem... It looks like a pickup half or a connection around it is broken, so I third the multimeter advice.

 

[bassbenj]

Hmm, looks like you've got it right to me. The deal with only getting a click out of one coil seems a little strange. I wonder if something might be going on with the pickup.

I agree. There does seem to be something wrong with pickups.

Since you get hum when touching any hot wire that means that the controls pretty much seem to be wired right (not shorted out in any way). For a true test touch the "hot" terminal on volume control where the pickup is connected to it. Now turn the volume up and down. The hum level should go up and down. Then with a hum sounding, turn the "tone" knob. You should be able to hear the high frequencies of the hum rolled off as the tone goes max. If these things happen all the controls are wired correctly and working normally.

To test pickups, wire them in parallel rather than series. Next take a small screwdriver with a plastic handle and tap on the top of each pickups in turn. BOTH pickups should make a huge "clunk" noise in the output when you do this. If only one does then the silent pickup has a problem. Finally unsolder the pickup leads and take an ohmmeter and test from EACH lead of both pickups to ground (shield). You should measure NO resistance of any kind. Essentially the circuits should be open. If they are not then there are shorts inside the pickups, say from the coil to the pole pieces to shield ground. If pickups were MADE with this connection then they really can't be used in series. If only ONE of them has this connection then you MUST use that pickup as the one that has the wire grounded to the cover of the volume pot. And the wire to the pot cover has to be the one that has the ground connection.

Note that if you get the wires on one of the pickup halves reversed the humbucker function won't work and the bass will pickup single coil hum. But the pickup should still function to pickup the strings.

Good luck!