i have a set of Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounders installed in my p/j bass. After getting them installed they played great. Then slowly I noticed having a clipping sound when I played the a string from time to time and noticed it would clip my amp. Over time it has gotten significantly worse and now does it pretty often. I know it's not my amp or cables. I have used multiple cables and amps and di'd and have come to the conclusion it's the pickups. Anyone have any thing like this happen to them before?
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Pickups clipping
- Thread starter Jguess85
- Start date
I've lowered the pickups and all of that. It's makes a horrible like crackle noise/pop noise when played. It did it through all the amps and di's to the house systems I've tried it on.
Pickups cannot clip but perhaps you mean click? Clicking is likely to be caused by a change in neck relief or strings hitting the pole pieces on the pickups. You'd have to recheck your setup for the former and you could check for the latter by taping some cardboard or plastic over the pickups to see if that reduces or eliminates it. If so then you probably have to lower the pickups a little. Ok, now I see that in a followup post you describe the noise as a crackling and popping. That sounds more like a loose connection in the bass or possibly the pickups but it is unlikely that both would have loose connections so I am guessing somewhere in the rest of the wiring. Possibly also a bad pot. And don't forget to check the wiring to the output jack and the output jack itself.
yep, passive pickups don't "clip", that just doesn't happen.
either the strings are hitting them (creating that clacking sound), you'e got the gain set weird (clipping stuff downstream) or you've got wiring issues elsewhere, dirty pots maybe.
I know this might sound a little snarky, but have you tried changing batteries in the bass?
Honestly, gradually clipping more and more would have me suspect batteries somewhere more than anything else.
It could also be a bad connection in the wiring of the bass, causing the signal to come and go as it vibrates.
Honestly, gradually clipping more and more would have me suspect batteries somewhere more than anything else.
It could also be a bad connection in the wiring of the bass, causing the signal to come and go as it vibrates.
Not snarky at all and the rest of us have been assuming passive, which may not be true!
I had a problem similar - I found it was occurred when touching the pickup poles with my fingers. I guess it was a grounding issue. Don't remember how I solved it. I really doubt it is actual clipping. Bad jack maybe. Doubt it is pots.
This is what happened to me. Same noise as you describe for a couple of days (got worse over time) and then stopped - yay! Hey wait my bridge pickup isn't working at all..... one of the two wires popped off the pickup itself, so I had to solder it back on. I usually use a 40W soldering iron for most guitar/bass work, but 25W was plenty for this tiny wire. YMMV
clean the output jack if it's got any corrosion on it could cause the cable to have faulty contact and when you play you make the whole instrument vibrate and so the cable may/may not make good contact and so the input on your amp or pedals down the chain go on/off or because of the fault contact. You could try cleaning it first with a q-tip and if you can gain access to the output jack could even slightly sand off the contact surfaces to make sure you get good contact.
