Members pbass_groovin Posted November 3, 2005 Members Posted November 3, 2005 I have a '98 MIA Fender P with a SD Basslines Quarter Pounder pup. Lately whenever I'm playing I'll get a sudden loss/no volume. I know its not my amp. To resolve the problem I have to keep turning the volume knob on my bass back and forth until I get a sound. Does this mean I need new pots? Should I go with 250 or 500?
Members bikehorn Posted November 3, 2005 Members Posted November 3, 2005 maybe your pots could just use a cleaning. stock pots on P and J basses are 250K audio.
Members mrcrow Posted November 3, 2005 Members Posted November 3, 2005 Originally posted by pbass_groovin I have a '98 MIA Fender P with a SD Basslines Quarter Pounder pup. Lately whenever I'm playing I'll get a sudden loss/no volume. I know its not my amp. To resolve the problem I have to keep turning the volume knob on my bass back and forth until I get a sound. Does this mean I need new pots? Should I go with 250 or 500? it could be slack...the pot or the knobotherwise 250k
Members illidian Posted November 3, 2005 Members Posted November 3, 2005 My bass had this problem. I opened up the cavity to make sure everything was okay, and one of the wires was being crushed. After that, I hadn't had any problems until a couple gigs later. It just cut in/out for the first part of the song. Needless to say, I dropped out and it was fine by the neck song. It's been fine since that one incident as well, which was about two or three months ago.
Members pbass_groovin Posted November 3, 2005 Author Members Posted November 3, 2005 Thanks! I'm going to look under the hood and see what I can find. Could it be a weak soldering joint? How do I clean the pots?
Members takeout Posted November 3, 2005 Members Posted November 3, 2005 Originally posted by pbass_groovin Could it be a weak soldering joint?Probably. How do I clean the pots? Get a can of contact cleaner, try and find a seam or access hole on the pot where you can spray it in. Work the pot back and forth.
Members Mudbass Posted November 3, 2005 Members Posted November 3, 2005 Originally posted by pbass_groovin How do I clean the pots? Don't waste your time. Potentiometers are sealed these days and there's no way to get enough cleaner in there to do any good. When pots go bad the only permanent solution is to replace them.
Members Crescent Seven Posted November 4, 2005 Members Posted November 4, 2005 Originally posted by Mudbass Don't waste your time. Potentiometers are sealed these days and there's no way to get enough cleaner in there to do any good. When pots go bad the only permanent solution is to replace them. It's a cheap replacement, too. Incidentally, could you replace the 250k pots with 500k to boost the signal?C7
Members pbass_groovin Posted November 4, 2005 Author Members Posted November 4, 2005 I took the pickguard off. The joints look ok. I'm just gonna replace the pots. Where's a good place to get them from?
Members zenfascist Posted November 4, 2005 Members Posted November 4, 2005 I'd say Warmoth, but I have a limited amount of electronics knowledge.
Members leisui487g Posted November 4, 2005 Members Posted November 4, 2005 radioshack has pots but if i were you i would find one of those p bass eletronics upgrade kits
Members Apendecto Posted November 4, 2005 Members Posted November 4, 2005 I bought mine from Stewart MacDonald Easy replacement. I have one P with 500ks and one with 250k. Both have Quarter Pounders in them. But one has an additional J stacked humbucker in it and the other has an additional pot with a pasive distortion diode attachted to it. To make a long story short, there are too many varibles to let you know my preference in Ohmage. Here's what they have to say...***************************250K vs. 500KGenerally, 500K-ohm pots are used with humbuckers and 250Ks are used with single-coil pickups. 25K pots are used for active systems. You can use any value you like, but a 250K will give a slightly warmer tone than a 500K pot. The 250K pot bleeds off (attenuates) some of the high frequencies to ground. A 1Meg-ohm pot will attenuate even less than a 500K pot, so if you want to hear your guitar "wide open" you may want to try one.*************************** Good luck.Yo.
Members pbass_groovin Posted November 4, 2005 Author Members Posted November 4, 2005 I'll probably go with the 250s and a stewmacd kit.
Members Apendecto Posted November 4, 2005 Members Posted November 4, 2005 Watch the prices. When I re wired my P's, it was cheaper to buy the pots and the "standard wiring package" (this included the wires and a few caps) than it was to buy the P bass wiring kit. Yo.
Members Apendecto Posted November 4, 2005 Members Posted November 4, 2005 Basic Wiring Package = $4.58 Pot = $2.73 P Bass wiring kit = $15.84 Buy separatly and it costs $10.04. The only bonus is you get a piece of paper that tells you how to wire it and that's on their website and everywhere else on the internet. Yo.
Members pbass_groovin Posted November 4, 2005 Author Members Posted November 4, 2005 Thanks for the info. Very helpful
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