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Post subject: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:00 am
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I have a 2007 American standard jazz bass that I bought new in 2007. All pickups/wiring/pots are orginal, and I've never had any work done on it. Since I bought it, it's had the same issue. There is a lack of output from the neck pickup. The volume output of the neck pickup at its max is about the same as the volume of the bridge pickup up at it's bare minimum. It may also be worth mentioning that there is much more hum from the neck pickup than the bridge. It sounds like it may be a grounding issue, because with just the neck pickup on it "cracks" when I touch the strings and cracks even louder if I touch the pickup itself, which doesn't happen with the bridge. I have checked the resistance through the pickup and the pots and they all check out fine. Some of the solders look mediocre but not terrible. I was wondering if anyone has any insights as to what the problem might be?


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Post subject: Re: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:17 am
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volume pot?


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Post subject: Re: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:05 pm
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stroker vance wrote:
volume pot?


It should be good, it's reading 250k like it should be


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Post subject: Re: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:19 pm
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Assuming you have visually inspected all solder joints, but have you tried replicating the cracking noise by wiggling wiring harness while amped?

Three possible explanations.
1. Bad pickup. Have you read impedance of the pickups out of the circuit? Do that. You will have to de-solder one pickup lead connection on each pickup from the pots to do this. Often the ground is easiest. Compare the impedance of the two. If the neck pickup reads about 0.3 to 0.5k Ohms lower than the bridge pickup, don't worry that is normal. Anything over about 1K isn't.
2. Bad pot, which you've already checked.
3. Bad connection. The symptoms here scream bad connection to me and the hum does suggest an inadequate ground doesn't it?

If the pickup checks good, I'd replace the pot anyway just to be 100% sure. Check every connection including the connections on the pickup itself to the leads.

One thing I noticed odd here, a 250K pot is rarely exactly 250K and you stated yours reads 250K. 239K yes, 262K yes but very rarely exactly 250K.


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Post subject: Re: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:39 pm
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I was kind of just rounding the numbers off on the pots, in reality they're reading around 240 or so, not exactly 250.
But thanks for the insight. I'll try what you said and check the pickup and probably end up re-doing the connections


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Post subject: Re: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:50 am
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I recently had a similar issue with my Jaco fretless, .... it started with a hum on the Bridge pickup & a little crackling...... & then while playing my pickup would stop working & would only come back on by smacking it with the palm of my hand,....I brought it in to get looked at & it ended up being (from what the tech told me in his broken english) a broken or loose Pickup wire... anyway my Bridge pickup is repaired & the bass is nice & quiet with no hum.


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Post subject: Re: Neck pickup issues
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 9:55 pm
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Johnny Butt? HA!!! okay then. :shock:


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