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Rockbass pick up problems?

E

etechstan

Dec 4, 2008
1,160
27
65
Cuyahoga Falls, Oh
#1
I went to a jam day at a local guitar shop today and proudly got out my Rockbass Streamer Standard (passive) for it's first public outing. Plugged it into the Ampeg combo and could hardly hear it. Tried various volume settings on the amp and bass and could get no improvement. I then plugged in the store furnished bottom end Ibanez and there was plenty of volume. I just went over the wiring of my bass and tried raising the pick ups but it is still very quiet. I even tried comparing it to my SX PJ and it was very quiet compared to that. Any solutions available besides installing new pick ups?
:bawl:
 
#7
Mec pups are weak however sounds like something is shorted out or otherwise not properly connected. No, string will not affect output volume in any way at all. Dead strings just provide woompy blah dead sound at regular output volume rather then volume loss.
 
#8
+1 on checking the wiring. Do you roll off the tone knob much, sometimes that can seem to lower your overall output, especially if it isn't wired properly. Warwick has schematics for all of their basses available online. Yours should probably match a standard passive 'vette. Two p'ups, a vol, a blend, and a tone.

If you aren't comfy with doing a little soldering, take it to a tech.
 
#9
Oooh, this sounds very familiar! My 5-string Standard Streamer RockBass has a very low output, too!

I had remarked with surprise that the wiring around the tone pot is different compared to a Standard Jazz Bass; Also because I was suspecting this might actually be wrong, I got the soldering iron out today afternoon to modify the wiring accordingly. But unfortunately: No change to the low output, and all three pots still work more like on/off switches rather than fading in/out smoothly. I have to put my amp's input gain level pretty much on full when playing this bass.

To me it seems it's simply those MEC pick-ups being weak! A bit of a shame really, since they actually don't sound all that bad, and I reckon those RockBass Warwicks are well-made and easy to play, too.
 

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