A little while ago, my '74 Jazz started sounding weird - all nasally and honky. I think it came one fairly quickly, as I only noticed it one day while getting set up for a recording. My first thought was that it was a weird placement in the room that was cancelling out frequencies, so I moved the amp around the room to no avail. I then plugged in my engineer's cheap, Chinese made Squier and BOOM! Back was the bass & low mid, and significantly higher output. So, it was my jazz that was the problem.
The lower output from my bass was suspicious, though it had always been a bit low and I was used to turning gain up fairly high to compensate It seemed to be more so than usual, however. My engineer and I decided that it could be time to remagnetise the 40-year-old pickups, and that it couldn't hurt to try. While we had the pickups out, we though it would be as good a time as any to pot them, as they had been somewhat microphonic for many years.
After potting in wax and remagnetising the pickups with a couple of rare earth magnets, we put them back in the bass and tried it again. The output was hotter, and the sound fuller, but there was still a weird accentuation in the upper mids and a huge lack of bass and lower mid heft. This bass had always had an interesting upper mid character, but it was certainly much more subtle and didn't come at the expense of serious lower end!
What I'm interested in finding out is what might have gone funny with my pickups. Most of the 'old pickup failure' stories I've heard seem to be about complete failures, i.e. no output, usually due to a broken or shorted winding. I'm perplexed as to what might have caused such a change in character. The pickups are RWRP with each other, so it shouldn't be an out-of-phase problem. Has anyone encountered this sort of thing before?
Of course, what I'd really like to know is if there's anything I can do to fix it! New pickups are of course an option (and one that I imagine that the GAS-afflicted are likely to suggest!), and the Fender 'Pure Vintage' '74 pickups present themselves, but I'd like to keep these ones going if it's at all possible. My engineer wants to experiment with rewinding pickups, so this may be his chance...
Thanks in advance for any light that you may be able to shed on this.
The lower output from my bass was suspicious, though it had always been a bit low and I was used to turning gain up fairly high to compensate It seemed to be more so than usual, however. My engineer and I decided that it could be time to remagnetise the 40-year-old pickups, and that it couldn't hurt to try. While we had the pickups out, we though it would be as good a time as any to pot them, as they had been somewhat microphonic for many years.
After potting in wax and remagnetising the pickups with a couple of rare earth magnets, we put them back in the bass and tried it again. The output was hotter, and the sound fuller, but there was still a weird accentuation in the upper mids and a huge lack of bass and lower mid heft. This bass had always had an interesting upper mid character, but it was certainly much more subtle and didn't come at the expense of serious lower end!
What I'm interested in finding out is what might have gone funny with my pickups. Most of the 'old pickup failure' stories I've heard seem to be about complete failures, i.e. no output, usually due to a broken or shorted winding. I'm perplexed as to what might have caused such a change in character. The pickups are RWRP with each other, so it shouldn't be an out-of-phase problem. Has anyone encountered this sort of thing before?
Of course, what I'd really like to know is if there's anything I can do to fix it! New pickups are of course an option (and one that I imagine that the GAS-afflicted are likely to suggest!), and the Fender 'Pure Vintage' '74 pickups present themselves, but I'd like to keep these ones going if it's at all possible. My engineer wants to experiment with rewinding pickups, so this may be his chance...
Thanks in advance for any light that you may be able to shed on this.
