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List Your Bass Malfunctions!

#23
Broken door clip on the battery box of my Lakland 55-02, bought one off Ebay, Fishman was asking twice the price of the box just to ship this tiny thing to Canada.
Imput jack of my MTD Z5, company sent me a free one well passed warranty, cool.
 
#24
I'll play, here goes:

Broken G strings from being a noob trying to learn slap-pop.
Broken other strings from buying defective strings.
Strings that come DOA.
Tuners that lose their bushing
Tuners that break a gear-tooth
Tuners that shear off their alignment screw
Tuners that get plain broke-off
String retainer screws that pull out.
Splitting headstocks.
Cracked nuts
Nuts that shift to the side from glue failure and being on a Kramer hockey-stick neck
Pull-up fingerboard from truss rod maladjustment.
Twisted neck
Ski-ramp neck
Stripped trusses
Broken trusses
Raised frets
Stripped neck bolt (from the factory)
Neck pockets too wide/narrow.
Rattling pickguard (stripped or non-existant screws)
Broken pickup mounting ring (old EB-O)
Stripped pickup mounting screws (pickup wont stay down)
Missing or failed foam/springs (pickup wont come up)
Glue failure on pickup magnet letting magnet pop-off (Dimarzio model P during middle of a recording session)
Vanishing bridge adjustment screws
scratchy pots and or jacks
worn-out side mount jacks
Broken connections
Loose pots
Defective preamps that cause overnight battery drain.
Leaky "exploded" batteries
Strap-lock failure (schaller and dunlop both)
Stripped/pulled strap button.

And these are primarily from basses that I've owned. I'm sure I've forgotten a few things, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.
 
#25
Schecter stiletto extreme-4:
Jack falling out
Nut falling out
Super weak/thin poly finish that dents if you sneeze at it
Random buzzing when facing certain directions while plugged into an amp

Parts P:
Bad jack
Tone pot fried itself before a gig (but I'm handy and bypassed it)
Pickguard mounting screw holes over cavities
Ski ramp neck(fixed for now)
Jumping off of the paint rack while still wet (okay that was my stupidity:P)

I could list a bunch more if friends guitars/basses were included, but I'm lazy and it's late so I'm only listing my current two electric basses.
 
#29
jmattbassplaya said:
I've gotten a bad jack. That's about it. I take care of my stuff.
Click to expand...

Jacks are the one thing that really bug me. OK, Switchcraft jacks are not horrible, but they aren't the ultimate either.

Why doesn't some jack company (I don't care if it's in China) get off their butt and design a jack that will last essentially forever.

How hard can it be? Gold contact points that wont corrode and get covered with oxide over time and yet thick enough (not micro-thin flash dip flash plating) that years of plug insertion won't wear through it. And then let's put a REAL spring behind the contacts. You know, a tempered blue steel one that won't give out in 3 months instead of a bent piece of tin can metal. One that keeps it's "spring" until the next ice age. And make the insertion/holding tension right so it doesn't take a gym subscription to put in the plug or it doesn't fall out in the middle of a song.

I mean, this is not rocket science. How hard can it be? Sure maybe you'd have to fork out some cash for a jack like this compared to Chinese junk or even Switchcraft, but for your main go-to axe? You KNOW it would be worth it! And hey, if I'm forking out multi-grand for some Sadowski or Alembic you'd EXPECT it to have one of these jacks.
 
#31
15 basses over the last 30 years, none of them have been budget instruments, many gigs, and I've only experienced failed pots, jacks and battery clips - consumable items. I attribute the bulk of my success to taking meticulous care of my instruments, staying away from low-end gear and a good degree of luck.
 
#32
john nam said:
bongolation, what did you mean by straplock failures? I'm using Dunlop straplocks right now, should I be worried?
Click to expand...

...not to worry, but if you use Dunlops (and they are on almost all my basses), you may find over time that the tiny ball bearings can become sticky. If they do, the pin can pull out unexpectedly. It's a shock when it happens, but fortunately, just the tiniest drop of light machine oil and you're good to go again.
 
#33
TomB said:
...not to worry, but if you use Dunlops (and they are on almost all my basses), you may find over time that the tiny ball bearings can become sticky. If they do, the pin can pull out unexpectedly. It's a shock when it happens, but fortunately, just the tiniest drop of light machine oil and you're good to go again.
Click to expand...

+1 Great advice! I have 2 sets of Dunlops from the 1980's. A drop of light machine oil annually and I've never experienced a failure.
 
#34
All I've had are bad pots...once during a gig (tone control went first time I used it, then whilst trying to sort it out I stripped the screws, so :hmm:) and once I don't know when (had a slightly dodgy volume pot on my mustang - it'd work 95% of the time but it'd suddenly go silent, just touching it would sort it out...but the other day I got it out to try it out having not played it for years and if anything it was worse - WD40 didn't help either, looks like it needs a new pot or some re-soldering :crying:...)


EDIT: I'm no good with electronics, and I seem to strip screws almost every time I tighten them...
 
#35
BluesProgMetal said:
Bridge pickup keeps shorting out on my Hofner (This is the only bass I use BTW) and scratchy volume pots. Not a ton of sustain as with all hollow bodies, but love the thing to death so I think ill keep it
Click to expand...

Is it a Hofner Icon? If so, there's a known issue with the slide switches. Take off the cover and carefully spray some contact cleaner on them. It fixed mine from shorting and cutting out all the time. Hope it helps!
 
#39
Oh, I forgot a good one: Put together at the factory with the wrong parts.

Incredible, but true, several examples in MIA Fenders in '11 alone. Not just on my bench, either...one someone posted pictures of here, a real jaw dropper, had the wrong machines that actually hit the head when you rotated them. And they shipped it! :eek:

Remember that thread? Wow!

Oh, and frets not fully seated. You see that a lot in guitars and basses, and not just the cheap ones.
 
#40
At a gig, the neck pickup of my bass fell out. Stripped screw, I guess. I wasn't using the neck pickup at the time, or for any of the songs on that gig, but it was still alarming.

Recently, after 12 years of use, a wire came disconnected from the jack in another bass. I still need to have it resoldered. For now there's the quick fix of having striped the end of the wire and wrapped it around where it's supposed to be soldered, but that won't last.
 

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