itu

My drummer friend went to school to become a nurse. He said that he has accustomed to low wages, so working as a nurse is a bit like musician, except better workin' hours...

As you already have that EMG pre built in, would it be reasonable to try that with the new pickups before removing it completely? Are you doing lots of studio, so do you need a lo-Z output without DI-box? Then some kind of active circuitry may be in need. Noll Mixpot, i.e. an active blend for example? V/B (/T) + coil taps, maybe an override switch for pots?

Some basics: If the casing has a hole that is not designed to it, the bass response is sacrificed. In this case the blown speaker is functionally a hole, like @Bill Fitzmaurice told. The case begins to act like an open back g-word cab = no bass. If other elements and the system is otherwise functional, the only way to fix the cab is to replace the element or block the hole. The block needs to be stiff like the rest of the casing (plywood or similar). If the block is not airtight, the block is next to useless. As one element is missing, the tuning of the case and the electronics (X-over) may not work like designed.

Dirty, faulty... can be fixed if you are interested in doing quite a lot of work for a £1 part. Buy a bottle of pot cleaner spray and see, if that fixes the issue. Buying a new pot is a reasonable alternative.

@Dood has several excellent points, that I want to comment. About me and some background to my comments: I used to work in a local broadcasting company, so I learned cables the hard way (building, using, fixing...), like in studios, and cars that went round the Europe. Take a look at the surroundings there: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t_v9PE-pipOM2OJ5T8U3WrjSCS4-zQwF/view When a cable is in professional use, its lifetime is decades, when used accordingly. Your professional mileage may vary, but there are no excuses if any of your cables is in bad condition. The cables are a vital part of your equipment and your sound, if it still exists. The cable is an investment that same way as your instrument. Your instrument is worth £20 000 on stage, so your cables need to be serious. You should always have minimum of two cables at hand (after all, that g-word player has never anything decent). Leave those branded Fenders and Harley Bentons to g-word players. Yes, buy at least two decent cables instead. Neutrik BAG is a quality connector. Cordial has functional products. https://www.thomann.de/gb/cordial_cai5bk_instrumentenkabel.htm If you do not know how to coil a cable or why it is so important, go sailing to the sea in a sail boat for a month. This way you should be able to understand the reasons the soonest. Now take a two minute ride along with this guy. Repeat ad lib. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEd7ru24Vx0 A velcro is your friend and is very cheap. You can even write your name to it with a permanent marker. Remember when you tossed that 35th cable to the cable bag after last gig and you should be able to grab it now - in a hurry! "S***, it's a mess - and something broke. No spares, what?" https://www.velcro.com/products/back-to-school/900605__one-wrap-ties/?sku The strain relief and the shrink tube are there for so called normal use and "just-in-case". Not that you should be able to grasp the cable. Yes, it may have worked before, but no more! You do not see this, but the thin wires inside the housing will be cut to pieces, one by one. The last will certainly break on stage. When in use, the cable should move freely. You do not sit or stand on your instrument. If seeing the cable is hard in the dark stage or cave, buy a color coded cable. My cables are black, but also blue, red, pink, yellow... If your amp and cab still use that poor plug power cable, put a label or cable ties or anything to it to separate it from other cables (can be found by hand on a dark stage). Now get back to your cables and separate power and signal from each other. Yes, put that label to both ends of it. Now. https://cableties-direct.co.uk/products/cable-ties-mounts/ Contact @obbm or buy something reasonable from some store. Do it today.

Let's think about this thing another way around: vol + tone + bypass switch. If you set vol fully ccw (to 0), the switch becomes a killswitch, if that is in need. If the vol is set anywhere >0, you get two sounds from the bass with a flick of a switch.

Artec fully parametric eq pedal, from T-shop, around £20. A handy tool.

Your bass teacher can teach you anything you want, but it is up to you to do the work to master it! Fight resistance! You can master it if you really want.

Progressions, walking bass (two beat, four beat, walk), legato playing, reading and writing music, transcriptions, some ideas for soloing... ideas to play ergonomically, to rehearse productively... to open eyes to other music... technology stuff... anything. The most important thing to me is to listen to other bassists' playing and trying to understand, why and how they do their thing. Transcribing and scores help a lot although I am pretty slow. It is still fun.

I had a feel, that the builder(s) is a seasoned worker. Seams felt tight and good, so the woodwork was as it should be, very good. For the price in my country, I might say that they were solid performers. As I am into lighter instruments (rather 6 than 10 lbs), they were not my cup of tea.

If you remove pots and caps from the signal path, the signal gets slightly louder, and the frequency response gets a bit wider. This is the reason people talk about harshness. I have a bass with just a pickup wired to the output jack. I do the adjustments in the pedalboard and/or amp. Works like a dream - for me. The thing to have pots in the instrument has a lot to do with being able to do some sound tweaking quickly. Two switches for vol and tone would be a very fast option. (Carbon track pots are of low quality (noisy, unreliable...), but no one is interested in them, if the adjustments are needed. A higher quality conductive plastic pot - like blue Bourns - costs some more, but not that much.)

I have played few in a shop. One beauty was very dark, so a good looking one, but the weight was enormous. If weight is an issue, I would check that first. These Mayonnaises are certainly a good shot: looks, workmanship, quality, but the weight raises some discussion.

Put the board into two, upper and lower part. Needs some wires but maybe doable?

Stan the man - School days and that 1st solo (brown cover). It isn't my playing, but showed the variety of possibilities. Level42 helped me to find several instrument details like different string gauges. All records, where bassist is that magical ingredient that makes the arrangement work. Take the bass away and the song is lifeless. All players that play only the right notes in right places. They don't need to play every note but are able to simplify.

If an extra bright sound is in order, install a DPDT switch (can be rotary, too) that overrides the tone (and volumes). It can take the place of that fourth pot.

As long as they are magnetic, you may say that the pickup itself is passive. But there are active pickups, like Lightwave.

As I have an MG, two Vigiers, and two Status necks, I would say that every one works well. Steinberger had so strange neck profile (close to a double bass), that I never bought one. I did try two Zon Legacy Elites, too, but the MG won the first prize at that time (1995). I was about to buy a Vigier Passion II 5-string, but around a fortnight before I had gathered the money, that Vigier had gone. And a five string was a must at that time. Around 1990 - 1995 while studying bass I had a chance to play lots of fine instruments, like Pensa-Suhr, MVPedulla, Tobias Signature 5, MG BassStar fretless 4, Sadowsky, Spectors, JayDee, Alembic, two Ken Smiths, Status, four Vigiers, four Wals... oh dear, those were the days. And Bond had that strange graphite guitar. Congrats, you will get a tool that sounds kool.

So is stainless steel. I have soldered both materials with success. I do have some professional experience because of my previous work. I do prefer Cu to Al. Cu is easier - and better looking material.

If you have your own workshop, things show up in different light. Then you are able to cut the costs. Usually the components and tools tend to cost some more, than the Joe Average thought before starting the project.

No, I meant that covering the conductive surface with a non-conductive material prevents issues with components touching the ground.

Put oil to the soldering surfaces and you can solder Al. Check videos from youtube. If there are issues with grounding, it can be easily covered with a tape or any non-conductive material like thin cardboard.

@obbmas far as I have learned from here, produces excellent hand made pro stuff. Probably equals or surpasses my suggestions.

BYO is the most expensive way. Hands down. £100 is next to nothing: check some component prices and add them together. You will be amazed. It is like building a car from spare parts. @pedwrote a nice article:

Try these: https://m.thomann.de/gb/guitar_cables.html?keyFeature_11507=3%2C00+m|6%2C00+m&keyFeature_47036=Jack&keyFeature_52381=Jack&manufacturers=Cordial|Sommer+Cable With these you can not go totally wrong. If the manufacturer is something like "Fender", or "Harley Benton" your cable will be the weakest link of your sound.

The DC connector from that unit has broken from the PCBA. Open the unit, check the solderings and fix, if needed. At least you can opt one very common issue out. Put the cable to the connector when the unit is open. Push, turn and pull a bit to see if the solderings have failed. Modern factories use tiny amounts of tin and bigger parts are prone to brake.