Osiris

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll whip the bridge off and check the ground cable. By the ground do you mean the earthing cable??? If so, my understanding was that all this did was to help eliminate a general electrical hum, but as I said I'm no expert and will believe almost anything I'm told!!! The circuit is not epoxy coated but it is covered with a sticky backed peice of high density foam (ala blue Peter). I'm reluctant to try and peel this off in case it does more damage than good..... What componants I can make out though are very tiny indeed so as you say trouble shooting could be a real ball ache. To be sure it is the preamp that's at fault, is it possible to rewire the bass to bypass the cicuit and run it as a passive instrument? Could it equally be a duff pickup that's behind the problem? I have been half heartedly toying with the idea of whipping the guts out of the bass and converting it to a passive model anyway (maybe lob in a pair of SD quater pounder jazz pups) but I'd like to know what the faulty componant is to be able to sell the 'working' parts with a clear conscience!! Don't get me wrong, the Bartolini pups and eq are amazing, very clean, clear and defined - it's just that I prefer the warmth and tone of passive pups so this fault could perhaps force the issue. My thoughts aside, anyone else have any wisdom to shed on this problem please?

Hi y'all, I'm new to these parts so please forgive me if this topic has already been discussed at length. My Ibanez SR500 has recently developed a regular static/electrical popping sound - sorry for being a bit vague but I'm not sure how else to describe it??? The noise it makes is a quick 'pop' or burst of static that lasts a fraction of a second and is no louder that the output from the bass itself. It does it every few minutes or so regardless of whether the bass is being played or is sat on a stand with the volume control fully open - which suggests to me that it is not a loose connection or a fault of that nature. I've systematically checked all the obvious things like a duff battery, dodgy cables etc. and have eliminated all the other components in my rig to be sure that it is definitely the bass that's the problem. The bass is fitted with a pair of Bartolini MK 1 pickups and a Bartolini MK 1 3 band eq. I recently took it in to my local repair man who thought it was a faulty battery clip (which made sense in light of the intermittent nature of the fault). The clip was replaced and the jack socket was also replaced just to be sure. This has helped reduce the regularity of the popping but the bass still does it from time to time. My guess is that it's a fault on the eq circuit, not that I'm an expert on these things!!! Anyone has this, or a similar problem before? If so if anyone can shed any light on the matter it's be greatly appreciated.