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P-Bass volume issues

OldKayBlonde

OldKayBlonde

Jan 27, 2020
40
55
#1
I recently picked up a ‘78 P-Bass from the original owner. It’s literally mint! So I adjusted truss rod, polished frets, conditioned fretboard a bit, put new LaBella flats on it and did the rest of the set up. I found I couldn’t really adjust the pickups. I removed the pick guard and pulled the pickups. The foam was completely dried up and shrunken. Almost looked melted. I checked all the wiring connections. All looked good. I put new foam under the pickups, put everything back together and finished. Now the problem. The bass has great tone. However, the volume occasionally fades out and I get some scratchy sounds. I do rest my thumb on the edge of pickups when playing so it has some pressure as I play. Also seems that if I roll the volume knob off full, it drops dramatically. It’s either full or completely low. Doesn’t seem to be an in between. Thoughts?
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#8
braud357 said:
Common for foam rubber to degrade or disintegrate. The old Kustom "tuck & roll" cabs used foam rubber gaskets on the back panels. They liquified, turning to messy, tar-like mess ! Very hard to clean up ! PS: LOVE the bass - congrats !!
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Thank you!
But yes. I had to scrape the old foam off of everything. It was like someone melted them with a heat gun!
 
#10
Many Fenders don't use a separate ground wire on their harness for pot and jack grounding. If there's only one wire soldered to the output jack, then you have one that uses the shielding foil as the grounding conductor. Make sure the nuts holding the pots and jack to the pickguard are snug, and that the foil underneath where they make contact is clean and not corroded.
 
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#11
I would hope that in the process of removing the foam you didn't damage the pickup windings or the solder connections for the output wires. I'd first make sure that isn't the case and verify that the pickup is good by wiring it straight to the output jack (doesn't have to be the one in the bass if you have a spare). If the pickup is good, proceed to step 2..

I had a similar issue with a P-bass and the cause was a bad ground wire connection. I'd check all of yours and re-solder if necessary. I'd definitely also try the steps Crater recommended. If none of that solves the problem I'd try replacing the volume pot and maybe the tone pot too (hang on to the originals, though).
 

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