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P-bass pickup problems

_godspeed_

_godspeed_

Jan 5, 2009
782
864
39
Victoria, Canada
#1
Hello,

I've got a strange problem with a pickup on one of my p-basses. First, it started to "turn off" after I was not playing it for a few weeks. I poked pole pieces with a key and the sound got back. Hm, weird. It was happening from time to time for a few months. Haven't played that bass for quite some time and now there's no sound whatsoever. There're audible clicks when I poke pole pieces with any metal objects, volume and tone pots are working and I could hear audible effects while turning them, a very low hum is present (my outlet is not isolated, so pretty normal). Took the pickguard off and checked all connections and everything looks correct.
 
#4
Pics might help. When you had it opened up, did you look at the contacts on the pickups where the wires from the coils connect? Have you checked to see if a pot has rotated and a contact may be touching the shielded side of the cavity? Is the contact for the jack tip close to the cavity wall where inserting the jack might cause a short?
 
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#5
Reedt2000 said:
Pics might help. When you had it opened up, did you look at the contacts on the pickups where the wires from the coils connect? Have you checked to see if a pot has rotated and a contact may be touching the shielded side of the cavity? Is the contact for the jack tip close to the cavity wall where inserting the jack might cause a short?
Click to expand...
Here's a photo. Eveything looks good to me. I took the pickguard off and tried to monitor without any contact with the cavity and the problems are still present.
IMG_4374.JPG
 
#6
Short on the pickup end? Have you removed the pup to check those connections? The solder joints on pickups are usually well done on most brands. But they are also usually crammed into the cavity without a lot of love. It's certainly possible one broke loose. Good luck.
 
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#7
Killing Floor said:
Short on the pickup end? Have you removed the pup to check those connections? The solder joints on pickups are usually well done on most brands. But they are also usually crammed into the cavity without a lot of love. It's certainly possible one broke loose. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Yep, I checked those as well. It's a 62 AVRI so all connections are solid. As I said before pole pieces do make audible clicks when touched with metal, so I'm not really sure what else I could do apart from swapping the pickup...
 
#10
Can you show a picture of the pickup wire on the bobbin where it connects to the solder? Have you switched out your cables? P basses are really simple animals, if everything is right in the bass, something on the signal chain (not your bass) is wrong.
 
#11
Bass4ThePublic said:
Can you show a picture of the pickup wire on the bobbin where it connects to the solder? Have you switched out your cables? P basses are really simple animals, if everything is right in the bass, something on the signal chain (not your bass) is wrong.
Click to expand...
I tried connecting pickup directly to output jack and there's still no sound except for barely audible clicks when poking with metal on poles. I tried different pickup and it works fine, so definitely not a circuit problem, but a pickup. Here's a photo of the all soldering points on the pickup.
FF065394-77BF-49AF-8E7C-B703CD9CDD39.jpeg
 
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#12
_godspeed_ said:
I tried connecting pickup directly to output jack and there's still no sound except for barely audible clicks when poking with metal on poles. I tried different pickup and it works fine, so definitely not a circuit problem, but a pickup. Here's a photo of the all soldering points on the pickup. View attachment 4096309
Click to expand...
So those look OK, I'd look at the connection on the other side of those solder joints. The ones under the covers where the actual really-fine coil wire starts and ends. You can see what I'm talking about in this picture:

Creamery_Custom_14_Solo_P-Bass_Pickups.jpg

There are little tiny wires coming from the coils and going to those solder spots.
 
#13
Reedt2000 said:
So those look OK, I'd look at the connection on the other side of those solder joints. The ones under the covers where the actual really-fine coil wire starts and ends. You can see what I'm talking about in this picture:

View attachment 4096311
There are little tiny wires coming from the coils and going to those solder spots.
Click to expand...

Just double-checked those and everything is connected properly.
 
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#14
_godspeed_ said:
Just double-checked those and everything is connected properly.
Click to expand...
Hmmmmm....

Do you have a multi-meter? You can read the resistance of each coil (value ranges should be listed online somewhere) and look for problems. Id read them directly from where the coils connect under the covers, then compare to the other side of the pickup and the ground plate. There could be a cold solder joint which looks right, but is restricting the flow of electricity. Outside of that I'm not sure what to tell you...
 
#16
Reedt2000 said:
Hmmmmm....

Do you have a multi-meter? You can read the resistance of each coil (value ranges should be listed online somewhere) and look for problems. Id read them directly from where the coils connect under the covers, then compare to the other side of the pickup and the ground plate. There could be a cold solder joint which looks right, but is restricting the flow of electricity. Outside of that I'm not sure what to tell you...
Click to expand...
Ok, I just did measuring with multimeter (for the first time in my life haha). Pickup measures 5.42 throughout all points except for the last one that is going to the pot itself. Interestingly it doesn't measure anything at the last soldering point on bobbin and measurements are jumping at the end of the wire (the actual wire that is going to the pot) - they start at about anywhere from 11 to 6 and slowly going down and jumping up and down at 5.30 (so 5.30, 5.25, 5.40, 5.20, etc.) and it doesn't stop.
 
#18
_godspeed_ said:
Ok, I just did measuring with multimeter (for the first time in my life haha). Pickup measures 5.42 throughout all points except for the last one that is going to the pot itself. Interestingly it doesn't measure anything at the last soldering point on bobbin and measurements are jumping at the end of the wire (the actual wire that is going to the pot) - they start at about anywhere from 11 to 6 and slowly going down and jumping up and down at 5.30 (so 5.30, 5.25, 5.40, 5.20, etc.) and it doesn't stop.
Click to expand...
So from the final spot to the end of the lead measures open? Or from the start of that coil to the end of that coils reads open? There should be 0 resistance from the last solder joint to the end of the wire. There should be measurable and steady resistance across the coil. You could try reflowing the last solder spot.
 
#19
Reedt2000 said:
So from the final spot to the end of the lead measures open? Or from the start of that coil to the end of that coils reads open? There should be 0 resistance from the last solder joint to the end of the wire. There should be measurable and steady resistance across the coil. You could try reflowing the last solder spot.
Click to expand...
Last solder joint resistance is 0, end of the wire shows jumping numbers if that makes sense
 
#20
_godspeed_ said:
Last solder joint resistance is 0, end of the wire shows jumping numbers if that makes sense
Click to expand...
Sort of, it seems like you've isolated the problem to that spot. When you're measuring from the last solder spot, where is the other lead from your meter? Maybe a couple pics would help.

Have you re-done that last spot? Again, there shouldn't be any resistance across the wire (from that last solder spot to the end of the wire where it attached to the pot).
 

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