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I suspect a broken connection inside the wiring. Touching the pickups is providing just enough ground through your body to cause a pop (same thing happens inside in an amp if I touch certain points with an unconnected screwdriver). Can you take a picture of the inside control cavity and we can look at it.
I highly doubt it's "non-magnetic strings"!
I highly doubt it's "non-magnetic strings"!
That's great input from all; I'm impressed and grateful for the responsiveness of the community here! Here is an update (no pictures yet, sorry):
I bought some new strings (baby steps) and put them on. They are attracted to the pickup posts, and they make a pop in the amp when I tap them to the posts (unlike the old ones). While this was interesting, it still did not solve the problem. The volume knob on the guitar appeared to be working, as adjusting it made the static/noise level on the amp louder/quieter, but still no sound from the strings.
I followed the original advice here for the next steps and wired the pickups directly to the output jack. The result sounded like the most crystal clear and beautiful bass sound, and without overhead noise at high or low volumes. I'm taking that as a win for round one and calling the pickups good. Knowing that the circuit tested ok with a multimeter but still wasn't working with the two pots plus all the overhead noise indicates to me that one or many of those solder joints is bad. Most likely the ground to one or both of those pots is horrible. I've seen entire satellite communications terminals fail to pass data because of a bad ground, so I believe it's possible.
My proposed next step (please redirect me if there is a better way) is to remove all of the wires, solder, and clean the components. I'll rewire everything properly and hope that everything works. If not, I'll know one of the pots is bad, isolate which one, and replace it.
Thanks again for the continued support guys!!
I bought some new strings (baby steps) and put them on. They are attracted to the pickup posts, and they make a pop in the amp when I tap them to the posts (unlike the old ones). While this was interesting, it still did not solve the problem. The volume knob on the guitar appeared to be working, as adjusting it made the static/noise level on the amp louder/quieter, but still no sound from the strings.
I followed the original advice here for the next steps and wired the pickups directly to the output jack. The result sounded like the most crystal clear and beautiful bass sound, and without overhead noise at high or low volumes. I'm taking that as a win for round one and calling the pickups good. Knowing that the circuit tested ok with a multimeter but still wasn't working with the two pots plus all the overhead noise indicates to me that one or many of those solder joints is bad. Most likely the ground to one or both of those pots is horrible. I've seen entire satellite communications terminals fail to pass data because of a bad ground, so I believe it's possible.
My proposed next step (please redirect me if there is a better way) is to remove all of the wires, solder, and clean the components. I'll rewire everything properly and hope that everything works. If not, I'll know one of the pots is bad, isolate which one, and replace it.
Thanks again for the continued support guys!!
Your pleased reaction to the potless sound leads me to believe you'd prefer 500K pots over 250K pots. Since your pickups AND output jack are fine, I'd suggest you buy two new 500K pots (make sure your knobs will fit) and a .1uF OD polystyrene film (225P series) cap. That's an easy solution...
unless you want to try it potless for a while. That would be even easier and cheaper, but the downside is having to use the controls on the amp.
You could also just use a 500K V pot and wire that straight to the jack. <<< This right here is the easiest solution, and you might like it. Having to adjust volume at the amp gets old if you're playing with others, alone it's no big deal.
It all depends on how much you're into the potless sound.
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I would replace both pots. As for the cap? That is a 'salt to taste' situation. You might want to try a couple different values. An .047 is fairly typical for a bass, and will roll off less highs than an .1
I'd go a step further and say 2, 1 meg volume pots and a no load tone control, I also play a bass with just a kill switch and a selector switch.
For the cost of 2 pots, and a cap, I would replace them, 250k pots for more bass, 500k for less bass, any .047μf cap is used a lot, .022μf cap is brighter sounding, a no-load tone pot takes the tone pot out of the equation, when fully opened. There's a world of opinion on pot values, my preference on my Jazz, and P basses is 250k pots, (no load for the tone pot), and a .022μf cap, giving me a kinda bright sound with all on 10.
I had the same problem and what I found was a piece of wire had fell down and grounded out against one of the pots check between where the pickup ties in and the and the pot I had a piece of wire right between those two I moved it it worked perfectly
