Members Delmont Posted April 17, 2016 Members Share Posted April 17, 2016 Hi! My bass cuts out sometimes. I have to hit the back of it to make it come on again. I have a soldering iron and want to fix the bass. How do I track down the short? Thanks! Del Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators isaac42 Posted April 19, 2016 Moderators Share Posted April 19, 2016 First thing I'd do is open it up and look at the wiring. When you have an intermittent fault like this, it's likely to be a loose wire, or two wires too close together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Delmont Posted April 19, 2016 Author Members Share Posted April 19, 2016 Thanks, I'll do that! Here are some more truth-versus-fiction quotes for your collection: "Mass market nostalgia gets us hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedent gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight." James Ellroy " The truth. Maybe it's an archaic concept these days, but I live by it. I've given my word to the people of this city that the Planet will always report the truth. No matter the risk. Somebody has to take a stand. " Perry White Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators isaac42 Posted April 19, 2016 Moderators Share Posted April 19, 2016 Gotta love a good Perry White quote! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Delmont Posted April 19, 2016 Author Members Share Posted April 19, 2016 =O] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted April 20, 2016 Members Share Posted April 20, 2016 Check the components that you have access to from the outside. The input jack and volume knobs may have loose lug nuts allowing them to move inside. This can cause their solder contact to touch things they aren't supposed to. Make sure all your solder contacts have clearance from one another then retighten the lug nuts as needed. This is very common on input jacks too because you're less likely to notice them getting loose. After that its possible you have a Pot or Switch that's beginning to fail. The symptoms of them being mechanically loose when you turn or switch them should be noticeable however. Wires should come unsoldered unless you had a loose pot and kept using it with the loose nut. If the nuts are loose you need to remove the knobs to tighten them. Some are push on and some use either flat head set screws or Allen screws. You'll have to see if there's any small holes in the sides of the knobs, if so they need to be loosened before you can get them off. The push on knobs have to be eased up a little at a time, working one side then the other. Don't compound the problem by damaging the pot shafts pulling too hard. Just eek them a little at a time on one side, then turn the knob half way around and eak the other side till it comes off. Then tighten the mounting screw after you get the pots or jack in a place where its not going to touch other connectors. You usually have to hold them on the inside while you tighten the lug on the outside. Tape the area off with masking tape so you don't damage the guitar finish too. The nuts are slim and its easy to loos your grip and gouge up the finish. Don't overtighten either. You can easily wipe out a pot or jack by overtightening the mounting nut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Delmont Posted April 20, 2016 Author Members Share Posted April 20, 2016 Thanks, WR! All three pots are new and worked fine when I put them in, and there are no switches. So I'll start with the input jack. And as for the finish, there's not much anyone could do to make it worse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Thanks, WR! All three pots are new and worked fine when I put them in, and there are no switches. So I'll start with the input jack. And as for the finish, there's not much anyone could do to make it worse! Check all of your previous wiring and solder points - there's a reasonably good possibility one is loose and intermittent. Touch up all those solder points and check the output jack's solder points - odds are better than high that one of those will be the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Delmont Posted April 22, 2016 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2016 Check all of your previous wiring and solder points.... Touch up all those solder points and check the output jack's solder points - odds are better than high that one of those will be the culprit. I was afraid someone was going to say that! Okay, okay, I'm on it! Should be able to report back before the weekend is out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 I was afraid someone was going to say that! Okay, okay, I'm on it! Should be able to report back before the weekend is out. Please let us know what the issue was when you track it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Delmont Posted May 5, 2016 Author Members Share Posted May 5, 2016 Reporting back: Just opened up the bass. Wiggled the jack connections. They were all tight. Did the same for all the other soldered wires. Also tight. Pushed apart a few wires that looked like they might have been getting a little too chummy. Closed it up and plugged it in. Played fine, and didn't break up when I gave it some stern whacks. So I'll start using it again and see if it behaves. If it doesn't, I'll take it to my gear whisperer. Thanks again, gang! Looks like a probable success story. I'll let you know if things go south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted May 6, 2016 CMS Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 A couple of additional suggestions: When you open things up to look, you can have the bass plugged in to an amp. if you're lucky it'll cut out while you're wiggling and jiggling the bits around, and this'll make it far easier to pinpoint the trouble. It's possible you've got a 'cold solder joint' somewhere. This is a soldered connection that wasn't quite hot enough to heat both pieces past the melting point of the solder, or one or both were dirty. What happens is the solder then makes a mechanical connection but doesn't actually bond to one of the objects being connected. The mechanical connection might be electrically conductive for a while, but eventually surface corrosion reduces conductivity to the point of being intermittent. In most cases this is an easy fix...simply hit the offending connection with a hot iron. Cold joints can feel loose or tight, so they can be tough to spot sometimes. Do a Google of "cold solder joint" and you'll see pictures of what good joints and cold joints look like, to help spot them. There are several different "tells" to look for, and a magnifier helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Delmont Posted May 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted May 7, 2016 A couple of additional suggestions: When you open things up to look, you can have the bass plugged in to an amp. I did. if you're lucky it'll cut out while you're wiggling and jiggling the bits around, and this'll make it far easier to pinpoint the trouble. It's possible you've got a 'cold solder joint' somewhere. They're all the same temperature. This is a soldered connection that wasn't quite hot enough to heat both pieces past the melting point of the solder, or one or both were dirty. What happens is the solder then makes a mechanical connection but doesn't actually bond to one of the objects being connected. The mechanical connection might be electrically conductive for a while, but eventually surface corrosion reduces conductivity to the point of being intermittent. In most cases this is an easy fix...simply hit the offending connection with a hot iron. Cold joints can feel loose or tight, so they can be tough to spot sometimes. Aha! Now I know! Do a Google of "cold solder joint" and you'll see pictures of what good joints and cold joints look like, to help spot them. There are several different "tells" to look for, and a magnifier helps. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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