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Musicman Pre-Amp Problem

#21
OP, I understand you are frustrated, but I think you're expectations are unreasonable. The way I read this, you had a problem that you waited to address until your warranty expired and MM offered to give you a new pre-amp in exchange for your old one. That IS GREAT customer service.

Regarding the post suggesting ripping-off a retailer: shame. It hurts my feelings to see that kind of thing on TalkBass.
 
#22
Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
OP, I understand you are frustrated, but I think you're expectations are unreasonable. The way I read this, you had a problem that you waited to address until your warranty expired and MM offered to give you a new pre-amp in exchange for your old one. That IS GREAT customer service.
Click to expand...

They offered to SELL him a preamp...at full price...for the bass he just had spent $1800 for 13 months ago...but only if he sends the broken one back.

As far as 'ripping off a retailer'...how do you feel about Music Man 'ripping' the OP off? Why is that okay?
 
#23
mmbongo said:
They offered to SELL him a preamp...at full price...for the bass he just had spent $1800 for 13 months ago...but only if he sends the broken one back.

As far as 'ripping off a retailer'...how do you feel about Music Man 'ripping' the OP off? Why is that okay?
Click to expand...

First of all I am totally sympathetic to the OP's situation. It sucks.

Regarding MM's position: the bass is out of warranty. You know how long the warranty is when you buy a product. The product is ALWAYS going to fail after the warranty has expired - a decade, a century or one month after. A company cannot afford to budge on this. People do stuff like plug their bass into the speaker out on their amp.

Should MM have a longer warranty? Maybe. Better QC on their pre-amps? Maybe. Should we all think twice about buying a MM product? Maybe, and that is the only form of justice to be had here.

Regarding ripping off a retailer and MM "ripping off" the OP. MM did not rip off off the OP. The company has arguably failed to produce a quality product and/or failed to adequately support their customer. That's not the same as stealing. Taking a pre-amp out of a new bass and returning it is stealing. Furthermore, regarding the suggestion that MM deserves it, the actions of others neither elevate nor diminish the propriety of your own.
 
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#24
I'm still wondering if the OP has taken this to a qualified tech to examine.

It's possible you just have a wiring issue, or something similar occurring. Have you had someone qualified confirm that the preamp is indeed dead? If so, did they quote you a repair price?
 
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#25
I had to replace an op-amp in the preamp of an EBMM Sterling SUB a while ago. It was doing strange things like the OP mentioned. It was cheap to get the part, took some skill at soldering, but wasn't earth shatteringly tough and I fixed it with success, using info that TB provided me.

If you don't have a local guy, I'd offer up my services as an amateur bass tech with lots of experience. PM me if interested... But I'd suggest having a local tech check it over.
 
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#29
Thought I would update the never ending saga of may MUSICMAN STINGRAY SLOW SPECIAL. Had the preamp replaced and the guitar setup. Still, wound up going back to my original Ibanez SR500 Bass. I love the look and sound of the Stingray but no one has been able to get the action anywhere close to the action on the Ibanez. So the Music man remains a pretty ornament in my music room and the source of many stories of how I've wasted over $2000, so far, on my 'dream' bass. Like cars, there should be a lemon law for basses.
 
#30
Lemon laws state that if a car has to be repaired 3 times for the same problem during the warranty period, the vehicle will be replaced, or the purchase price will be refunded.

The problem sounded like a bad op amp. The op amps are cheap. I've built a few MM preamps. They cost me about $10 a piece to build. I've built many other types of preamps over the decades. Op amps occasionally fail, and they do what yours did usually before complete failure. It happens.

It's not MM's fault the preamp failed. It's not your fault. It just happens. When a product fails it's a crap shoot whether it happens within or after the warranty period. This is life.
 
#31
Hello everyone. Dont mean to get in the way but i have a similar problem on my sterling sub ray4. I turn the volume knob a hairline and it goes almost full blast! I thought it was the volume pot and switch but the problem persisted. I think its the pre-amp...... i got the bass recently from one of those used stuff apps. At the price i got it i didnt care what was wrong and bought it. 40 dollars! Almost a steal! I fell in love with it and want to fix this little critter.
 
#32
rojo412 said:
I had to replace an op-amp in the preamp of an EBMM Sterling SUB a while ago. It was doing strange things like the OP mentioned. It was cheap to get the part, took some skill at soldering, but wasn't earth shatteringly tough and I fixed it with success, using info that TB provided me.

If you don't have a local guy, I'd offer up my services as an amateur bass tech with lots of experience. PM me if interested... But I'd suggest having a local tech check it over.
Click to expand...
I need help with that bro. I think i need to replace mine too. I have a problem that my volume knob turns on super fast. No tappering.
 

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