Jazz bass has no sound! PLEASE HELP!!

[TastyBass504]

I purchased a budget jazz bass by Glarry a couple months ago. Up until now, the bass played beautifully after a few minor tweaks. The sound coming from it has always been constant, and all of the pots were without issue…like no crackling or nothing. Last night, I put on my headphones, went to play, and not a sound! Since then I’ve searched the far ends of the internet, YouTube, and even consulted with ChatGPT lol
These are some things mentioned that I’ve already tried:

Check the output jack - I did so, and lo and behold the cheap wiring/soldering had come undone/disconnected. I fixed it with a quick solder job.
Outcome: this did NOT fix the issue!

I was so certain this was the issue. So, I got my ohm meter and checked all the pots, output jack, and they all checked out.
From what I see there’s no disconnected wires. I also checked my instrument cable with the meter while it was jacked into the bass and the cable is good. My amp appears to me fine…with the cable plugged into the amp I touched the other end and I get humming. Tried plugging it into the bass, and I got the famous crackle then nothing. Not a sound. I’m at my wits end, and don’t have the money currently to bring it to a shop…hell I purchased a budget bass so…lol

Anyone ever heard of this!? PLEASE HELP! Thanks.

 

[MirandM]

You may have a short to ground somewhere.
Here's the step plan:
1. Take photos of the current wiring before doing anything.
2- disconnect the pickups, desolder their wires.
3. check each pickup individually with an ohm meter, they should be between 5 and 12 kOhm.
4. if you have a switch, desolder it and check if it works correctly
5. desolder each pot and check it's function. somewhere on them it should state the value, 250 or 500 kOhms are most normal, check these values on each terminal. If there's jumps in the value, use a contact cleaner and spray it into the pot and check again.
6. check the output jack on the two wires that come from it against the jack wire at the jack that goes to the amp. You should have 0 ohms on each individual wire and certainly no short between the two.
7. check each individual wire from the jack to the pots, that is if the conductivity of each wire is 0 ohms, if there's a break you will notice.
8. resolder each connection
9. if everything is ok, check if there's no error in the wiring and reconnect everything.
The only way to find the error is by using a step plan and doing each step one at a time, you'll be amazed at how small and unnoticeable a failure can be.
Good luck

 

[Keith_Brown]

You may have a short to ground somewhere.
Here's the step plan:
1. Take photos of the current wiring before doing anything.
2- disconnect the pickups, desolder their wires.
3. check each pickup individually with an ohm meter, they should be between 5 and 12 kOhm.
4. if you have a switch, desolder it and check if it works correctly
5. desolder each pot and check it's function. somewhere on them it should state the value, 250 or 500 kOhms are most normal, check these values on each terminal. If there's jumps in the value, use a contact cleaner and spray it into the pot and check again.
6. check the output jack on the two wires that come from it against the jack wire at the jack that goes to the amp. You should have 0 ohms on each individual wire and certainly no short between the two.
7. check each individual wire from the jack to the pots, that is if the conductivity of each wire is 0 ohms, if there's a break you will notice.
8. resolder each connection
9. if everything is ok, check if there's no error in the wiring and reconnect everything.
The only way to find the error is by using a step plan and doing each step one at a time, you'll be amazed at how small and unnoticeable a failure can be.
Good luck

Great work M: also the short may well be the jack itself. Look at the rings on the side of the jack, you just soldered a wire to the connector, make certain there is no touching of the center to the sleeve. I've had the center get bent just a little and it'll touch the side thus shorting the connector.

One other thing is that shielded wire can short internally on older guitars: as MirandM advised, your Ohm meter will answer this quickly.
Both pickups aren't going to fail at the exact same time and usually your pots have been telling you they're not happy for a long time before they die.
Switches hate humans-period. They'll go south for no reason at all. You'll get this figured out, regardless of the caliber of the instrument, it has things in common with most of them.

Important that you step away a little so you don't miss the simple stuff and it will be a simple thing causing this issue.

KB

 

[Matt Liebenau]

If the control cavity is shielded, copper or, more likely, black paint, make sure the tip connector on the output jack isn’t touching the shielding with a plug inserted. If the wires broke or pulled out it’s likely because the jack got turned somehow. The long piece that the end of the plug touches could be touching the shielding and grounding out. Also check to make sure the potentiometers haven’t turned and have a lug touching the shielding.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Or: the jack mechanically failed.

 

[MirandM]

AS I said, these are all possible failures, Go the step by step route and don't be confused by so much info.

 

[SharpCat]

All advice above good, but seems like if you found an issue already (broken wire) and fixed it, then likely the fix was wrong. I suggest taking good pics of what you fixed and describe what you did for verification. Then move on to other possible problems.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

One more, were both wires disconnected at the output jack? If so did you switch the hot and ground when you reattached them?

 

[TastyBass504]

One more, were both wires disconnected at the output jack? If so did you switch the hot and ground when you reattached them?

Thank you Matt for both responses. Yes, both wires were disconnected. The wires they used look cheap and are a rather small gauge. I made sure to use a proper diagram to reattach them, making sure the ground went to the sleeve and the hot to the tip.

As far as the shielding like you mentioned earlier, I had to shield it myself using copper foil tape. Since doing so I’ve had no issues until now. The output jack and pots have always been tight, so I think the wires came loose because of such a small gauge that was used. I pay really close attention to everything I can with my bass…I’m a very detail oriented person, and I take care of my things. Even after playing everyday I check it over and wipe it down lol
This issue really took me by surprise mainly bc nothing even lead up to it!

 

[TastyBass504]

AS I said, these are all possible failures, Go the step by step route and don't be confused by so much info.

Thank you for both responses MirandM esp where you laid out all the steps for me, much appreciated! I’m patient, so I’ll make sure to take it step by step, and not let too much info overwhelm me.

 

[TastyBass504]

All advice above good, but seems like if you found an issue already (broken wire) and fixed it, then likely the fix was wrong. I suggest taking good pics of what you fixed and describe what you did for verification. Then move on to other possible problems.

As soon as I make it home this evening I’ll make sure to post pics along with detailed info. Thank you.

 

[fig]

So, I got my ohm meter and checked all the pots, output jack, and they all checked out.

Gentle reminder, in case you weren't aware.

MirandM kept telling you to disconnect wiring to each component you're testing. Disconnecting the wires has to be done.

If you're already doing that, cool. If not, then for accuracy's sake, start.

By not disconnecting wiring to the component being tested, the current between the ohmmeter's two probes will travel through all connected parallel paths of the remaining circuitry that isn't being tested. This will give you false readings. The term is "back-reading", as in, "Man, these readings seem really off. I must be back-reading through some other areas of the circuit."

I've seen alot of threads where a player wants to check the ohms value of their pickup and think that just turning the volume pot to 10 to take the reading from the jack through the pickup will give them the correct pickup ohms. It won't. Ever.

MirandM laid out good logical steps, as you've seen. I just wanted to make sure you're doing them properly for accuracy. No insult intended if you were already disconnecting things.

 

[TastyBass504]

Gentle reminder, in case you weren't aware.

MirandM kept telling you to disconnect wiring to each component you're testing. Disconnecting the wires has to be done.

If you're already doing that, cool. If not, then for accuracy's sake, start.

By not disconnecting wiring to the component being tested, the current between the ohmmeter's two probes will travel through all connected parallel paths of the remaining circuitry that isn't being tested. This will give you false readings. The term is "back-reading", as in, "Man, these readings seem really off. I must be back-reading through some other areas of the circuit."

I've seen alot of threads where a player wants to check the ohms value of their pickup and think that just turning the volume pot to 10 to take the reading from the jack through the pickup will give them the correct pickup ohms. It won't. Ever.

MirandM laid out good logical steps, as you've seen. I just wanted to make sure you're doing them properly for accuracy. No insult intended if you were already disconnecting things.

Actually, I haven’t been able to start on the steps that MirandM suggested. When I get home this evening I’ll begin the process. I really appreciate the heads up, and for everyone’s help so far. I’ll keep this thread up to date until problem is solved…and let’s face it I’ll prolly have more questions along the way possibly lol

 

[HardNHeavy]

prolly something simple....goodluck

 

[DWBass]

Pickups may be trash!

 

[Crater]

Here's a quick test you can do with a multimeter and an instrument cord. It doesn't require you to disassemble the bass or unsolder any parts. I used a couple of test jumpers to make a solid connection without having to hold the probes down. Your readings won't be exactly the same as mine, but should be in a similar range.

Photo 1: I used a short effect pedal jumper cable in the output jack and some alligator clip "test jumpers" bought at an auto supply. Both volumes and tone at max, DC resistance is 3.5 K Ohms. This is basically the resistance of the two pickups and two volume controls in parallel. The tone control should not affect the DC resistance at any setting.

If the measured resistance is either a short circuit (zero or very low ohms) or open circuit, (infinity ohms) you've got some kind of wiring problem.

Photo 2: 1 volume at "0", the other volume at "10" DC resistance is right at 7 K Ohms, so it's the resistance of one pickup coil in parallel with both volume controls. (Note that this is twice the resistance of "both pickups on")

Photo 3: Both volumes at "0" (zero) DC resistance is 126 K Ohms. This the resistance of the two volume control pots in parallel. With the volumes at zero, the pickup hots are connected to ground essentially taking them out of the circuit.

Since your bass has no sound, I'm guessing it's either a short or open circuit condition.

 

[TastyBass504]

Here's a quick test you can do with a multimeter and an instrument cord. It doesn't require you to disassemble the bass or unsolder any parts. I used a couple of test jumpers to make a solid connection without having to hold the probes down. Your readings won't be exactly the same as mine, but should be in a similar range.

Photo 1: I used a short effect pedal jumper cable in the output jack and some alligator clip "test jumpers" bought at an auto supply. Both volumes and tone at max, DC resistance is 3.5 K Ohms. This is basically the resistance of the two pickups and two volume controls in parallel. The tone control should not affect the DC resistance at any setting.

If the measured resistance is either a short circuit (zero or very low ohms) or open circuit, (infinity ohms) you've got some kind of wiring problem.

View attachment 7297408


Photo 2: 1 volume at "0", the other volume at "10" DC resistance is right at 7 K Ohms, so it's the resistance of one pickup coil in parallel with both volume controls. (Note that this is twice the resistance of "both pickups on")

View attachment 7297410

Photo 3: Both volumes at "0" (zero) DC resistance is 126 K Ohms. This the resistance of the two volume control pots in parallel. With the volumes at zero, the pickup hots are connected to ground essentially taking them out of the circuit.

View attachment 7297422


Since your bass has no sound, I'm guessing it's either a short or open circuit condition.

I did a test like this earlier which brought me here. I kept getting an ohm reading of 1. So I’m assuming there’s a short or open circuit cond like you said then, yea?
If that’s the case, I’m about to start soldering and re-soldering lol
Thank you for actually setting up a multimeter and taking pictures. I humbly appreciate that fr

 

[TastyBass504]

Great work M: also the short may well be the jack itself. Look at the rings on the side of the jack, you just soldered a wire to the connector, make certain there is no touching of the center to the sleeve. I've had the center get bent just a little and it'll touch the side thus shorting the connector.

One other thing is that shielded wire can short internally on older guitars: as MirandM advised, your Ohm meter will answer this quickly.
Both pickups aren't going to fail at the exact same time and usually your pots have been telling you they're not happy for a long time before they die.
Switches hate humans-period. They'll go south for no reason at all. You'll get this figured out, regardless of the caliber of the instrument, it has things in common with most of them.

Important that you step away a little so you don't miss the simple stuff and it will be a simple thing causing this issue.

KB

ok I understand about the pickups, but as far as the pots none of them gave me any issues at all…not even a crackle. Like I mentioned the bass came to me new, and I’ve only had it for a couple months. I take real good care of my bass, this is why I find this situation so perplexing lol

 

[SharpCat]

Supposition follows, tread lightly…

Wires broke, why? Maybe the jack got loose and twisted.

Wires now fixed, but multimeter reads a short.

—Is the jack lug now touching the copper tape?

—The jack body will ground against the copper tape anyway. If the hot lead got soldered onto the jack ground lug, that’d short everything as well.

 

[Keith_Brown]

Supposition follows, tread lightly…

Wires broke, why? Maybe the jack got loose and twisted.

Wires now fixed, but multimeter reads a short.

—Is the jack lug now touching the copper tape?

—The jack body will ground against the copper tape anyway. If the hot lead got soldered onto the jack ground lug, that’d short everything as well.

Hello again: one thing quickly, first I love the RS meter!
If the meter is giving you a "1" then touch your probes together first, it should read in the low Ohms, a 1 would mean open. Again I have different meters so it may be just mine: i had one before that indicated "OL" for open.

The contributors to your dilemma are some very bright minds, they're giving you a valuable resource with their experience.

Keep posted!

KB