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New Preamp Installed! However.. Strange behavior. Help?

CascadeBass

CascadeBass

May 29, 2005
824
1,032
Roseburg, Oregon
#1
I installed my new Audere Classic preamp the other day. A few issues are present and I would like the collective thoughts and direction aside from the obvious (which is removing shrink tubing and checking my solder connections.)

The first thing I noticed when plugging in for the first time:
-I guessed wrong on which was the bridge pickup and which was the neck pickup, so my blend control is backwards. Don't care much about this.

The next thing I noticed:
-At first when I tested it, only one pickup was working. This was before I buttoned everything up in the cavity and put the back plate on. I just wanted to make sure things were good prior to permanently arranging and stuffing everything in its place and putting the cover on. I decided maybe I was dealing with shielding, or something was shorting against a pot or something, so I got everything tucked away and put the cover on and plugged in and low and behold... both pickups worked. Not ideal but I was moderately relieved, assuming... I don't know what I was assuming.. or why I thought I was out of the woods.

The next next thing I noticed after pulling the bass out and playing it the following day:
-No sound was coming from the bass. I played with volume and blend, no difference. I played the strings harder and all of a sudden, I was getting sound. I noodled around without any issues, then stopped playing to answer an email. When I started playing again, no sound. Played HARDER, got sound.

This seems like more than a flimsy solder joint, but I could be wrong. Certainly my next step is to cut off the shrink tubing and examine my solder joints. This preamp came prewired with pots and output jack, etc so all I had to do was solder the pickup connections and bridge ground. I felt like my solder joints were solid.

Can you think of anything else that could be going on based on what I've described?

Edit: I did consider maybe it's my used-from-GC Eden WT-300. I will take my bass to the local music store and play through one of their setups to see if I can reproduce this. That wouldn't explain my initial behavior whereby only one pickup was working though.

I have also not swapped instrument or speaker cables yet.
 
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#3
No, I just closed my eyes and chose any two available leads and soldered them together. Do you think that could be the issue? :woot:

Kidding of course. Yes, I read the instructions many many times before doing the work, and I followed them correctly. That being said, I could not find a cavity ground point. I would not expect NO CAVITY GROUND to cause intermittent behavior, but what do I know.
 
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#4
CascadeBass said:
No, I just closed my eyes and chose any two available leads and soldered them together. Do you think that could be the issue? :woot:

Kidding of course. Yes, I read the instructions many many times before doing the work, and I followed them correctly. That being said, I could not find a cavity ground point. I would not expect NO CAVITY GROUND to cause intermittent behavior, but what do I know.
Click to expand...

The reason I asked was because I found the Audere instructions to be clear as to which pickup was which; you said you wired yours backwards.

I find the Audere pres to be well-designed and like a rock. The designer is pretty quick to reply as well, so you might ask him about your problems. When working properly, they're the best. Good luck.
 
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#5
CascadeBass said:
No, I just closed my eyes and chose any two available leads and soldered them together. Do you think that could be the issue? :woot:

Kidding of course. Yes, I read the instructions many many times before doing the work, and I followed them correctly. That being said, I could not find a cavity ground point. I would not expect NO CAVITY GROUND to cause intermittent behavior, but what do I know.
Click to expand...

From the Audere website:

Step 5) Output Jack Tab 1-top) Jack Audio Out - White wire Tab 2) Jack Ground - center tab: 2-3 Grey/White wires. The loose Grey/White wire connects to your Cavity Ground. Tab 3) Jack Negative - Black wire
 
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#6
Identifying which preamp leads corresponded to which pickup position was easy.... figuring out which leads coming out of the pickup cavities was not. I chose wrong. That is an easy fix but not related to my bigger issue, which I am starting to think is my Eden head.

I may replace the preamp tube first, after I go to the music store and play through one of their amp rigs to confirm.
 
#9
eniac said:
Before doing anything else, connect the effects send and return jacks together.

You can also try plugging your bass directly into the effects return jack and see if you get at least some volume.
Click to expand...

Ok, here is what I did:
-Plug bass into input on front of head, play strings softly... no sound
-Plug bass into effects return on back of head, play strings softly... no sound
-Still on return side, play strings more loudly.. sound

I *think* this does not rule out my amp being the problem, only possibly eliminates the preamp section as being the problem assuming effects loop is post-preamp.

My next step is definitely to play through a different amp. More to come once I do that, which may not be until tomorrow because adulting.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that prior to the effects loop test, I also plugged directly into my tuner and gently played strings and I was getting a signal so that is a promising hint that maybe my amp is the problem.

I would be happy to find out that even though I bought the head used from GC for $229, I am happy to chase down fixing it or just buying a Peavey MiniMax2 for $400, lol. That seems to be my best option for max power at that price point as it will be a spell before I can pull the trigger on a Mesa Subway D-800.
 
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#11
Yes.. Oregon crew! That's part of the reason I went with Audere when I realized they were "local". I did speak to him on the phone prior to ordering to begin with.

What I don't want to do is waste his time without further investigation and I am pretty sure I can reproduce this behavior at a local music store with either just bringing my head or just bringing my bass (I don't have any readily-accessible musical friends, whereas the music store is 5 minutes from my house).
 
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#12
Well... I went to the music store with just my bass and my head. I forgot to bring my cable in order rule that out.

My bass performed flawlessly through an old Peavey TNT and a Markbass LMII stack. A different bass from the store worked through my head also, as did my bass so that is very annoying. One could think that's because I was using a different cable than at home.

So then, I came home and plugged in my bass with my cable into my head and it also did not give me any problems.

At least the bass didn't act up at the music store. I really don't think the bass is the issue anyway. Not much to go wrong there with a brand new preamp and a fairly confident installation by me.

Basically I give up for now. Next time it happens to me I will swap cables, as I do have another instrument cable. In the meantime I am going to take the head to a tech. Can't hurt; it should be looked at anyway since it's from 1997.
 
#16
CascadeBass said:
No, I just closed my eyes and chose any two available leads and soldered them together. Do you think that could be the issue? :woot:

Kidding of course. Yes, I read the instructions many many times before doing the work, and I followed them correctly. That being said, I could not find a cavity ground point. I would not expect NO CAVITY GROUND to cause intermittent behavior, but what do I know.
Click to expand...
I don’t have the bandwidth right this second to read too closely and do research, but suffice to say that in many schemes A missing cavity ground could absolutely be an issue. there are arrangements that use the cavity ground as the central ground point. This is easily worked around, if it’s even the issue, but given that it seems like you are doing more of a paint-by-numbers operation, I would commit to that and follow the instructions in their entirety, rather than granting yourself exceptions
 
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