Guest Posted August 23, 2007 Posted August 23, 2007 Hola. Proud owner of a largely stock early 70s Fender Precision. Not sure what's happened, but the instrument's volume has nearly dried up. Output is very bad and very low although still present, compared to my other instruments. She's got new volume and tone pots from about two years ago, professionally installed, but the pickup is original. Any thoughts about what's going on here? Gracias.
Members Ender_rpm Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 Sounds like the pup is dying to me. Is there corrosion on the pole pieces? What kind of environment is it stored in?
Guest Posted August 23, 2007 Posted August 23, 2007 She's well treated and rarely leaves the apartment. I don't really see anything on the pole pieces, but when I think back, this bass has seen a steady roll off in volume over the last few years, and I've had her since '93. Should I just replace the pick up? I don't really care about any vintage issues, I care about functionality and I will never sell this bass.
Members takeout Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 You can have the pickup re-worked. Send it to Lindy Fralin - if it needs a rewind, he's the man; if it needs re-magnetizing, he's still the man. Cost should be reasonable.
Members hawkhuff Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 Hola. Proud owner of a largely stock early 70s Fender Precision. Not sure what's happened, but the instrument's volume has nearly dried up. Output is very bad and very low although still present, compared to my other instruments. She's got new volume and tone pots from about two years ago, professionally installed, but the pickup is original. Any thoughts about what's going on here? Gracias. Since the pickup is original, it could be the pickup has seen better days and is worn out. Try a replacement. You can get the Fender replacements or you can try these bad boys.
Members slapthefunkyfour Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 IIRC magnets can lose their magnetism over time. I thought that the time would be a lot longer than 30+ years though. That would explain the low output from the pups.
Guest Posted August 23, 2007 Posted August 23, 2007 Yeah, I've been thinking about quarter pounders for a while, to tell the truth. My other gear has pretty high output pups, and I'd like a similar grind out of the P.
Members slapthefunkyfour Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 I have the quarter pounders in my fretless. I love them. Huge output, very powerful.
Moderators ThudMaker Posted August 23, 2007 Moderators Posted August 23, 2007 I have a 1/4 pounder in my P bass. It's an excellent replacement pup.
Moderators Kindness Posted August 23, 2007 Moderators Posted August 23, 2007 I'd send the originals to Lindy for repair or buy a new set from him to use so you can keep the old ones in "stock" condition.
Members JacieFB Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 I have the Fender '62 re-issue pup in both of my P basses. It's hotter than the stock pups, but not as hot (nasally to my ear) as the QP. Nice vintage vibe and sound. 0.02
Members jackcheez Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 Does the volume pot still have smooth sounding travel from 0 to whatever the volume is ? I've heard of a lot more pots going bad than pickups.
Guest Posted August 23, 2007 Posted August 23, 2007 Does the volume pot still have smooth sounding travel from 0 to whatever the volume is ? I've heard of a lot more pots going bad than pickups. Yeah, not apparent problem with the volume pot, although the weird thing about the replacement tone pot is that as high end gets rolled off, the volume does subside.
Members Thumper Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 I'd send the originals to Lindy for repair or buy a new set from him to use so you can keep the old ones in "stock" condition. +1. The bass is worth more with rewound original pups than with replacements.
Members JacieFB Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 +1. The bass is worth more with rewound original pups than with replacements. Yeah, but if you keep the original pups... My question, is it worth more to a potential collector with the pups in 'stock' condition or in 're-wound' and working condition? I'd probably err on the side of not messing with anything that can't be exactly undone.
Members hammer744 Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 Yeah, not apparent problem with the volume pot, although the weird thing about the replacement tone pot is that as high end gets rolled off, the volume does subside. To help determine if it's the pots or the pickup, try wiring the pickup directly to the output jack, bypassing the volume and tone controls altogether - if output is still bad, probably something in the pickup. If output is good that way, there's something in the vol/tone controls that's not right.
Guest Posted August 23, 2007 Posted August 23, 2007 Hammer, interesting idea. May give that a whirl. As for the other gents, collector value means nothing to me. I got this bass when I was 22, hair metal ruled Baltimore, and she was on sale at a pawn shop for $450. Never thinking it would a collector's item, I sanded it down and painted it green. She feels great, but this is a player's bass. If I do put in replacement Pups, I'd be sure to keep the orginal.
Members justinbass Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 I'd send the originals to Lindy for repair or buy a new set from him to use so you can keep the old ones in "stock" condition.
Members hawkhuff Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 I have the Fender '62 re-issue pup in both of my P basses. It's hotter than the stock pups, but not as hot (nasally to my ear) as the QP. Nice vintage vibe and sound. 0.02 +1 A great alternative to the 1/4 pounder. However, if you want to keep the bass vintage you can get the replacements or have them re-wound as mentioned up there.
Members misterhinkydink Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 Magnets can lose a small amount of magnetism over time but not enough to cause this. Perhaps the pickups were installed improperly when the the controls were changed. It's a common mistake to get the polarity mixed up on the two pickups.
Members hawkhuff Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 Magnets can lose a small amount of magnetism over time but not enough to cause this. Perhaps the pickups were installed improperly when the the controls were changed. It's a common mistake to get the polarity mixed up on the two pickups. But there is only two wires on a P Pup, one white the other black.
Members misterhinkydink Posted August 23, 2007 Members Posted August 23, 2007 But there is only two wires on a P Pup, one white the other black. There are two individual pickups. The two are interconnected by a single wire. That's three wires.
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