My bass died :(

littlegreenman

Time for the guitar doctor.

Was fine last time I played it, and now caput, no sound at all. Can't see any loose wires in the back or anything untoward, hopefully not something too expensive to fix.

Pain in the arse though, I have 2 music thingies to do this weekend, and now I have to sequence bass lines instead of just playing them

wibble

Battery died again?

littlegreenman

Nope, brand new battery.

wibble

oh ok, just wondering if you had left your cable plugged in.

littlegreenman

If only. I had the back off looking for any loose wires but it's like a panel from the Enterprise under there with all the active stuff and circuit boards! Spaghetti junction.

ThePrettyDamned

littlegreenman;186233" said:

If only. I had the back off looking for any loose wires but it's like a panel from the Enterprise under there with all the active stuff and circuit boards! Spaghetti junction.

littlegreenman;186233" said:

If only. I had the back off looking for any loose wires but it's like a panel from the Enterprise under there with all the active stuff and circuit boards! Spaghetti junction.

Check the output jack, and see if the solder joints look dry or cracked. Or, plug a cable into it and make sure all the connections are good. It could be a knackered socket.

Otherwise, post some pics here? If it's a spaghetti junction, a more experienced tech may notice a poor join quicker

ICBM

littlegreenman said:

Nope, brand new battery.

Could it be dead out of the box?

If you don't have any other means of testing it such as a pedal, you can always try licking the terminals to see if it works . (Old-fashioned method, make sure you have something strong-tasting to wash your mouth out with handy if it is OK!)

I do not like active instruments and this is one of the reasons why.

Misterg

Jack lead??

littlegreenman

Aforementioned spaghetti junction!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/579196_10202102001723787_691081200_n.jpg

Remembered I have a multi-meter knocking around, so checked the battery, 9.6v. Then checked the continuity from battery case to circuit board and jack socket. Bingo!

https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/539213_10202101950442505_1273474524_n.jpg

Quick dab of solder to the offending loose wire and it's all happy again

ICBM

Good news, but that would have been a right bugger if it had happened at a gig.

What does the pull switch on the pot do? Hopefully bypasses the actives so you have an emergency fix. If not - I can't see if it's wired up or not in the pic - it might be an idea to do that...

littlegreenman

Not 100% sure what the pull switch does, the electrics were switched from the original MEC actives to some SD Basslines when @fretmeister had it so the Warwick schematic isn't much help. The original was an eq bypass which seems to be the same but can't be sure. It's not a bypass to passive as far as I can tell, with the battery out it doesn't work in either switching mode.

Just glad it's fixed now, it is a phenomenally nice Bass

mart

If it's still got the original pickups, then they're probably active (if they say "Dynamic Correction" on them, they're passive, otherwise they're active). In that case, they need the battery in order for them to give much output. So the pull pot will just be an EQ bypass.

When I renovated my Rockbass, one of the things I was most keen to do was to swap out the active pups for passives, so I no longer had to panic about batteries.

Unfortunately, you're reminding me that the last time I played my Thumb the electrics were going crazy - fine for a bit, but after five/ten minutes there was lots of strange noise and no signal. I should probably rip the preamp out of that, as I'm sure the pups are fine.

fretmeister

The MEC's were taken out by the owner before me.

Because they suck arse like a £3 whore.

The Seymours are far better.

Glad it's sorted! I still think about that bass!

mart

fretmeister said:

The MEC's were taken out by the owner before me.

Because they suck arse like a £3 whore.

...

Doh! Me not reading the post properly. So what model is it? Some old Streamer?

fretmeister

hell no!

It's a proper early Fortress! A thing of beauty

littlegreenman

mart said:

fretmeister said:

The MEC's were taken out by the owner before me.

Because they suck arse like a £3 whore.

...

Doh! Me not reading the post properly. So what model is it? Some old Streamer?

fretmeister said:

hell no!

It's a proper early Fortress! A thing of beauty

Fret tells the truth

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1.0-9/402766_2841588231060_60013814_n.jpg

Ianpdq

ICBM said:

littlegreenman said:

Nope, brand new battery.

Could it be dead out of the box?

If you don't have any other means of testing it such as a pedal, you can always try licking the terminals to see if it works . (Old-fashioned method, make sure you have something strong-tasting to wash your mouth out with handy if it is OK!)

You can taste the positive as well

mart

littlegreenman said:

fretmeister said:

hell no!

It's a proper early Fortress! A thing of beauty

Fret tells the truth

...

Ahh! Just like the first Warwick I ever bought. Unfortunately mine was all maple - body and neck, which I understand now was quite rare. I just couldn't stand the sound - way too bright for me.