BOD2

If your gear is ok then it sounds like it might be picking up something. Perhaps something generated by someone else's equipment close by. Sometimes you can use the bass like a direction-finding attenna - turn it around to see if the noise is stronger when you're facing one particular direction then move around to see if you can locate where the noise is loudest. It can also be the cables - check where they are running and move them away from other equipment (especially power supplies). Just moving the cables while you can hear the noise will sometimes narrow it down. Has anyone else in the band started using new equipment lately ?

Fast worker ! Provided there is nothing attached to either side of the edges of that PCB, it should be ok to trim it. Excess copper is sometimes used as a heatsink on PCBs but there has to be something soldered to it for this to work. You'd need to be careful not to stress the wires or flex the PCB while trimming it though.

Hmmm.... all the earths are "common" so it shouldn't actually make any difference at what point you attach the black wire. As long as it's a good earthe connection it shouldn't matter. What does this device do ? Does it take the output signal of the bass and the input it into a processor of some sort ? If that's the case then yes, the earth can be taken from anywhere.

They're also called "spade connectors". The "crimp" part comes in because crimping is the method for attaching a wire to the connector. You want to be a little careful here. If those spade connectors touch each other when the amp is switched on it will short out the amp power section. Not good !

Not quite sure what you're needing to do here. Is it just to attach a cable across the output of the bass before the output jack ? (not at all familiar with V-bass kit). Your jack has 3 contacts rather than two because it's an active bass and the third contact is used as a means of switching in the battery whenever a jack is inserted. The wire from the preamp to the jack will be the battery power, which connects to the battery when a jack is inserted. It's going to be messy but looking at your diagram of the jack with contacts at 6, 9 and 12 o-clock - I would say the white wire goes to the 6 o-clock contact (hot) and the black wire goes to the 9 o-clock contact (which is tricky because it already has three wires). What you could do is solder a small ring connector to a wire. Solder that wire to the 9 o-clock jack contact then solder all the wires that were there, plus the new one, to the ring. Cover the connector with insulating tape.

The centre contact on a mini toggle should be connected to the "hot" wire from a pickup. One side of each mini toggle should be connected to a wire which eventually goes to the volume control. The other side of each mini toggle should be connected to a wire that goes to ground. When you switch the toggle one way the centre contact (pickup) connects to the volume control (the pickup is ON) when you switch the toggle the other way the centre contact (pickup) connectes to ground (the pickup is OFF). That's all the toggle switches do. It looks like you might be missing the wire that connects the toggle switches to the side pin on the volume pot (there should be two wires connected to this point - one to the switches and the other to the tone pot). Also, note that the third pin on the volume pot is soldered to the shell of the volume pot - this pin is grounded. It's not immediately obvious from the wiring diagram but is common practice in guitar wiring. Bend it back until it touches the pot shell then solder it there. Make sure that only one leg of the tone capacitor touches the back of the tone pot. The one that's attached to the centre pin of the pot must not touch the pot shell - use some insulating tape to prevent this from happening.

[quote name='V4lve' post='632333' date='Oct 21 2009, 01:12 PM']..... (may have also been to do with me testing it while it was lying on top of my amp?)[/quote] That's quite possible. The transformers in the amp generate large electromagnetic fields that could have been swamping the pickups at such close proximity.

Run - Snow Patrol Just love those big long slides....

Try another E-string before you do anything else. It's not uncommon for problems on one string only to be caused by a bad string.

A Strat bridge is balanced between the string tension at one side and the tremolo spring tension at the other side. Your bridge has too much string tension so it's moved up away from the body. This can happen if you use heavier strings and the bridge has been setup for light ones. For fine adjustments, take off the backplate and locate the two screws that hold the spring claw of the tremolo. If you screws these IN to the body this will increase the spring tension and pull the bridge down towards the body (you'll need to retune as you do this, since the strings will go sharp). For coarse adjustments, add an additional spring to the rear. You can fit up to 5 springs. The most common setup is 3 springs, although very light gauge strings will only need 2 springs. Between changing the number of springs and adjusting the spring claw you should be able to fix the problem. A standard "floating bridge" Strat adjustment (where you can pull the trem arm up as well as push it down) is to have the back of the bridge plate about 1/8 inch off the body. If you don't use the trem arm then the simplest fix is to put 5 springs on the back and leave it at that. You can add a block of wood (as Eric Clapton does) but this isn't necessary.

As long as the valve is the same type then it's a straight swap. Electroharmonix should be good enough. When removing the valve you might have to "wiggle" it slightly from side to side to release it. Don't wiggle too much, though. When replacing the valve, note that the base is "keyed" - it can only fit one way. There is usually a "missing pin" on the valve bottom that matches up to a blank on the base - make sure these line up. You shouldn't have to force the valve in. Provided it's lined up correctly a firm push will seat it ok.

Had to Google that myself ! There's some information about them here [url="http://www.offsetguitars.com/jaguar_restoration/page2.htm"]http://www.offsetguitars.com/jaguar_restoration/page2.htm[/url] It seems they are small triangles of aluminum soldered onto the brass shielding plates and sort of "embedded" into the wood of the body cavity to keep the brass plates in place. Does your bass have these Glazier plates ?

If the component setup (i.e. pickups and pots) are standard then might it not be better just to rewire it to "standard" spec ? Grounding can often look different because you can connect a ground wire to any grounded metal part (e.g. a pot shell, or the metal control plate, or a shielded cavity) and it will have the same electrical effect. Could it also be that someone has modified the wiring at some point as well ?

The best advice would be - 1. Check/replace the battery 2. Open the control cavity and squirt a little cleaner (e.g. Super Servisol) into the open part of all the pots - use the "drinking straw" attachment on the cleaner to accurately spray it inside the pots. 3. Spray some cleaner on a jack plug and insert this into the input jack on the guitar, then turn the jack plug around to spread the cleaner over the jack contacts. That will cure most simple problems.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='585633' date='Aug 31 2009, 10:06 AM']I didn't know that!!!!!!! Or maybe I've forgotten (I'm old )!! Any Youtube? G.[/quote] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWQVHRy83I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWQVHRy83I[/url]

This.... [url="http://www.hendrixguitars.com/Lh707.htm"]http://www.hendrixguitars.com/Lh707.htm[/url] Even though I'm not left handed, lol

Take the cover off the amp, locate the noisy pot, and use the "straw attachment" to spray a little Servisol inside the pot. More info here .. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=56464&hl=servisol"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...amp;hl=servisol[/url]

As has been said before, the Line Out (or DI out) from a guitar amp seldom sounds good for distorted sounds. A lot of the warm tone you hear in a distorted guitar comes from the speaker and the Line Out bypasses the speaker so you end up with something completely different. Mic'ing up the speaker is the best option if you can play loud enough in the studio space to get a good sound. Experiment with "close mic'ing" with the mic a few inches from the speaker cone, then move the mic to different locations relative to the speaker and listen to the effect that has on the tone (i.e. in front of the centre of the speaker, then off to one side). It's also common to use two mics at the same time into independent channels then mix these two signals to get the guitar sound - one close mic and another several feet away, or even at the rear of an open cabinet. With a Line 6 amp (and maybe the guuitarist;'s new FX uinit) you can use the same techniques but you should also be able to take a "Line Out" that has "speaker cabinet modelling" applied to it. This simlates the effect of the speaker on the Line out signal and can sometimes be useful, especially if you have to record at lower volumes or can't use a mic in front of the cab for some reason. Finally, if it's a "classic rock" type sound you're looking for (rather than a death metal sound) then try reducing the amount of distortion on the amp and bring up the middle. Those original AC/DC-type sounds are often not as dirty as you might think, and reducing the distortion allows the tone of the guitar through.

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='576771' date='Aug 21 2009, 03:25 PM']..... it has no thru socket but if you need to send the monitor/iPod to another source you could easily use a simple splitter adaptor like this (since a thru socket would likely just be wired up directly to the input it achieves the exact same thing):[/quote] That looks good. Depending on your monitor system, you might be able to take a "link output" from one of the floor monitors rather than fitting this device between the monitor mixer and monitor itself. That way you wouldn't need a "monitor output" on the box.

You could already do this with a suitable off-the-shelf mixer, that has 2 "AUX" outputs on it. Bass -> channel 1 of mixer Monitor mix -> channel 2 of mixer Setup "Main mix" of bass/monitor mix and this will appear at the headphone socket with an independent volume control. Setup AUX1 so that only channel 1 (bass) is input, then this signal will appear at the AUX1 output with an independent volume control. Setup AUX2 so that only channel 2 (monitor mix) is input, then this will appear at the AUX2 output with independent volume control. Possible problems - the AUX1 signal might be too "hot" to input into a bass amp. The solution would be either to use a DI box and spilt the bass signal before the amp/mixer or to feed the mixer from the "DI out" or "FX send" on the amp. This might actually be preferrable as it minimise interference with the bass signal going into your amp. What you need is a mixer with two "AUX" channels. This one would do it, but there will be others too. [url="http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/1204.aspx"]http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/1204.aspx[/url]

I understand now. The Behringer DI800 can accept balanced inputs on TRS jacks. There's a "link" connector (also a TRS jack) on the front panel that allows you to send the input signal to another source, as well as the XLR output on the rear. [url="http://www.behringerdownload.de/DI800/DI800_ENG_Rev_B.pdf"]http://www.behringerdownload.de/DI800/DI800_ENG_Rev_B.pdf[/url] But you still have the problem of converting the mics from XLR to TRS jacks. How many different IEM mixes do you require ? Would a mixer with several different AUX paths offer a solution or is it all getting too complex !

[quote name='tayste_2000' post='576429' date='Aug 21 2009, 10:15 AM']Yeah I looked at those but it doesn't have XLR in[/quote] A DI box generally converts unbalanced signals on mono jacks to balanced signals on XLRs. What are you connecting up that needs to be DI'd that already has an XLR out ? (not being cheeky, just trying to be helpful and checking if there's another solution)

Yes. As long as the voltage (4.5 V) and the polarity of the connectors match, then the only remaining issue is the power required by the FX device and the power that the PSU can provide. In this case the PX4B requires 500mA and the Sony PSU can provide up to 700mA. The PX4B will only draw the current that it needs so as long as the PSU can provide more than is required then there will be no problem. However.... ideally the PSU should be a "regulated" type for best results - I don't know if the Sony one will be or not. The other issue you can sometimes have with "standard" PSUs is that they can add noise. It won't cause any damage if the PSU is not regulated, though, so you can safely try it out and see if it works ok. If it sounds good then it works !

I suppose if you have a look at this [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=jazz_bass_blend"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...jazz_bass_blend[/url] and cross reference it with the other MM diagrams and the colour coding on your own pickup, then you might be able to do something. Search this site for "Blend Pots" as well, as there seems to be issues with some blend pots not doing what they should.

You'll lose the separate control of the two coils in the pickup but this diagram will give you a master volume and master tone... [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=musicman_passive"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...usicman_passive[/url] It's possible the pickup wire colours might be different to the diagram so compare it with the following diagram (whihc should be what you have already) to identify which wires go where - [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=musicman_passive_2v_1t"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...n_passive_2v_1t[/url]