I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

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MechaBulletBill
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I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:28 pm

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The tone pot reduces volume a little bit, but doesn't cut out at zero. Where have I gone wrong? I used this diagram.
Last edited by MechaBulletBill on Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What's wrong with my jazz bass wiring?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:05 pm

Also, could this be the jazz bass cousin of the crackwhore? I think so!

Image

There is so much dirt and gunk in that bridge pickup cavity, you don't wanna know.

Image

This bass used to be antigua. I'm pretty sure a 78 antigua jazz with B&b RW board is valuable. Not this one.

At some point in the 90s, it was on tour with a punk band, smashed into pieces, and unceremoniously bolted back together for the next night's gig. As far as I can tell, it's stayed that way since.

Somebody had also fitted mini pots so, while it worked, my friend was unhappy with it and wanted the electronics seeing to. I offered to have a look, but I don't know what's wrong with the tone knob.

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by hpr_hpr » Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:08 pm

Hmm, kinda hard to see exactly what is going on but: it looks like your hot connection is soldered to the wrong pin on the pot .. .. .. it should be soldered to the middle pin.
Last edited by hpr_hpr on Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:31 pm

hpr_hpr wrote:Hmm, kinda hard to see exactly what is going on but:
1. are those two black wires coming around the bottom of the guar the 'hot connections' to the Pus?
2.are those soldered to the CASE of the pots?
1. no, that's the wire from the cavity shield. There's only one. The shielded wires are from the pickups.
2. The wire from the cavity shield is and so is the shielding from the pickup wires. The white plastic wires are the hot pickup wires.
And that tone pot is a total cockup . . . . I'm not sure this is savable short of desoldering EVERYTHING and restarting . . . .
As far as I can tell, and as far as I have tested with a multimeter, t's exactly as per the diagram and as it was before (when it was working ok, just with crappy pots). I don't know why it would be *TOTAL* cockup, maybe a minor one.
I think this is how it SHOULD be wired . . .

1. pot cases should be connected to each other, the RING of the jack and the earth of the PU's (as well as the shielding of the cavity)
done this
2. the hot's of the Pus should be connected to the side pins of the volume pots
3. the MIDDLE pins of the volume pots should be connected to the side pin of the Tone pot and then to the TIP of the jack
OK, that was my first instinct too (being new to this, my instincts don't count for much) but not how it was before and not how it is in that diagram I linked to
4. the other side pins of the volume pots (the ones NOT connected to the PUs) should be connected to the cases.
done that
5. the middle pin of the tone pot should be connected through the orange drop cap to the case
done that
(and the the side not connected to the volume pots should NOT be connected to ANYTHING)

Now the only thing that you could still mess up is . . . the pots work backward because you connected the 'wrong' side . . . .
Ok, I'll try some of the things you've suggested. Thanks a lot.

Please feel free to comment on how fucked up my friend's bass is to make me feel better about fucking it up a lil bit more :-*

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by hpr_hpr » Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:40 pm

He . . . circuits are . . . HARD . . . and don't feel to bad I've spent an afternoon chasing a fault that in the end came to wiring the wrong pin on a rotary switch . . . . . combined with a bad soldering joint that 'looked' OK but did not conduct when the pickup was on the guitar but 'worked' when it was off . . . Oh and then there was the time that I have everything wired right but forgot to make the connection from the guard to the ring of the jack before testing and was wondering why I wasn't getting any signal . . . had what seemed half the connections resoldered before I figured it out . . . . 8)
When thinking about any advice given always ask yourself "why would (s)he know more than I do".

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:25 pm

hpr_hpr wrote:Hmm, kinda hard to see exactly what is going on but: it looks like your hot connection is soldered to the wrong pin on the pot .. .. .. it should be soldered to the middle pin.
The diagram you posted works, so thanks for that. It's working as expected. The tone control is quite subtle but oh well, you can tell from how the bass has been treated that the user is not a subtle player. He might not even play it but at least we can say it works and has decent pots in it now.

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:35 pm

hpr_hpr wrote:He . . . circuits are . . . HARD . . . and don't feel to bad I've spent an afternoon chasing a fault that in the end came to wiring the wrong pin on a rotary switch . . . . . combined with a bad soldering joint that 'looked' OK but did not conduct when the pickup was on the guitar but 'worked' when it was off . . . Oh and then there was the time that I have everything wired right but forgot to make the connection from the guard to the ring of the jack before testing and was wondering why I wasn't getting any signal . . . had what seemed half the connections resoldered before I figured it out . . . .
My first attempt was wiring up a junior and even THAT took a fair bit of troubleshooting. I thought this would only be *slightly* more difficult and I suppose that was true, in the end. I still feel silly, though.

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by s_mcsleazy » Tue Jul 18, 2017 12:24 am

keep as much of the black over puke as possible and it will look sick as hell
offset guitars resident bass player.
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by Reid » Wed Jul 19, 2017 4:19 am

Oh look someone made me in bass form... I love this!!!

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Re: I need help with crackwhore's jazz bass cousin

Post by hpr_hpr » Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:33 pm

Yeah, if that's .047 cap than I would expect the effect to be 'subtle' with Bass frequencies being lower than those of a guitar . . . . if you want more out 'use' out of it a larger cap will lower the cutoff frequency of the filter and give the tone knob more ' bite'.
When thinking about any advice given always ask yourself "why would (s)he know more than I do".

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