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Overloading pickups?

Ian the bassist

Ian the bassist

Sep 15, 2009
426
11
Dublin, Ireland
#1
I have a question. I have a warwick streamer jazzman bass that have a few small problems. If I pull back hard on the E string(just punching it hard so to speak) I get a farty overdriven sound off the note out of the speakers.

It seems to only happen when I do this on the e string. I thought the pickups might have been too high, so lowered them. Same problem. Tried in headphones and different amps so it's definitely the bass. It's like all loud low frequencies make it fart or overload.

I will take it to a tech to sort it out. But does this description give anyone any insight as to what my problem is? Also when I blend my 2 pickups together, there is a massive volume loss. And the passive push/pull swith doesn't work. Help on that would help me alot also.

Cheers
Ian
 
#4
Hello Ian,

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your Streamer Jazzman. If you're bass has a battery, be sure to change it first with a fresh one. If you're still having issues, have it checked out by a competent technician. Please feel free to post here, PM me, or email me at [email protected] and I would be more than happy to assist you in any way possible Thanks!
 
#7
Ian the bassist said:
I changed it very recently to a fresh one. The other problems existed before. It doesn't do anything when I pull the switch. No change in sound whatsoever.
Click to expand...

you said you changed the switch, and now it does nothing.
So was it also doing nothing before you replaced it?

Low battery can certainly give you that kind of effect. But you can also get something similar if you simply have too much bass, and you will notice it more on the E string, obviously. How is your bass EQ control, are you boosting your lows a lot? If yes, does it go away or get any better if you turn the bass EQ down?
 
#8
mcnach said:
you said you changed the switch, and now it does nothing.
So was it also doing nothing before you replaced it?

Low battery can certainly give you that kind of effect. But you can also get something similar if you simply have too much bass, and you will notice it more on the E string, obviously. How is your bass EQ control, are you boosting your lows a lot? If yes, does it go away or get any better if you turn the bass EQ down?
Click to expand...

I changed the battery. Not the switch. It does get better when I lower the eq. But it is still there. Are you saying I should have the EQ on the bass flat maybe? And use the amp instead to boost the bass tone? I used to boost the lows on my older bass and I never got this problem though. I should mention I have all the controls all the way up. So they are all boosted.

It seems to come from the bridge pickup.
 
#9
Ian the bassist said:
I changed the battery. Not the switch. It does get better when I lower the eq. But it is still there. Are you saying I should have the EQ on the bass flat maybe? And use the amp instead to boost the bass tone? I used to boost the lows on my older bass and I never got this problem though. I should mention I have all the controls all the way up. So they are all boosted.

It seems to come from the bridge pickup.
Click to expand...

Hello Ian,

If all of your tone controls are completely boosted, your signal may be too strong and distorting. The tone controls are powerful, and are meant for tone shaping. There is a chance you are getting your input signal too hot...I would recommend a flat setting, and see if it helps the issue you're having. Please, keep me posted!
 
#10
Ian the bassist said:
I changed the battery. Not the switch. It does get better when I lower the eq. But it is still there. Are you saying I should have the EQ on the bass flat maybe? And use the amp instead to boost the bass tone? I used to boost the lows on my older bass and I never got this problem though. I should mention I have all the controls all the way up. So they are all boosted.

It seems to come from the bridge pickup.
Click to expand...

No, all I'm saying is you may be getting too hot a signal, and therefore distorting. Too much bass boost at your bass can do that easily.
Different basses, different pickups, different levels...

*if* the signal is too hot, can try first to screw the pickups further into the body. This will reduce output... although it will also change the sound to some extent.
In addition, you have a volume in your bass... bring it down until you don't distort, and crank the amp as needed.

Bass EQ fully up does not seem like a good idea to me, regardless everything else. If you feel you need so much bass boost, start at your amp. Make sure with your bass flat you get close to the low frequency content you want. Then use your onboard EQ too add or remove, but where you don't need to add just so much. Then you could avoid overloading the input of your amp with excessive bass.
 
#11
If you have max boost on everything and running a 9V system you will probably get clipping.

In theory running everything on full boost and all flat will give you about the same sound, but the volume will be louder. (This is simplified, of course) If you also run your volume at full the preamp in your bass simply doesn't have high enough voltage from the battery to generate a signal loud enough.

The base setting on a EQ should always be flat. From there you adjust each frequency range to get the sound you want. If you want more power (When your volume knob on the bass is at full) you crank up your amp, not the EQ.
 
#13
WarwickOfficial said:
Both of the above posts offer excellent advice, furthering what I mentioned in my previous post. Give it a try, and let us know how things work out. Let's see if we can't get this sorted out the easy way!
Click to expand...

I’m having the same issue with my thumb bo 5. I just replaced my preamp. Matching exactly what I had before. Same result. Brand new battery, three different amps and cab configurations, Lowered pickups, eq is flat. Same issue. I’m so confused at this point.

Is it possible that the active pickups’ preamps are failing?
 

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