Faulty Jazz bass Neck Pickup/Volume pot

[Hazza2004]

Hi all!

As some of you may know, I am looking to sell a few of my basses that don't get very much use anymore, one of which is my 2023 Vintera 2 Jazz bass. I got this out of its bag today and much to my surprise when I plugged it in I was getting very little output from the neck pickup.  At this point, I was quite confused as this bass hadn't left its gig bag in probably 3 months or so.  I opened up the control cavity and everything looked as it should. This confused me even more as I had assumed that maybe a wire had come loose but this was not the case.  I can only assume that something has gone wrong within the volume pot itself or, worse, the neck pickup has decided to die on me. Does anyone know how I can properly diagnose/fix this issue?  I don't really want to buy a new volume pot only to realise that it is the pickup that is broken or vice versa as I am a student so money is a little tight (hence me selling the bass in the first place!).  Once I know what the issue is I am obviously happy to spend some money on the necessary repairs so any advice is more than welcome.

 

Thanks,

Harry

[Woodinblack]

If you have (or can get) a multimeter, put it across the centre connection of the volume pot connection to ground, change the volume from maximum to minimum. At maximum is should be less than 10k (depends on the pickup and the pot), and at minimum it should be zero. If it doesn't go to zero, the pot or the pickup isn't grounded, if it goes much over 10k the pickup wire has probably come off or the pickup is broken

[Hazza2004]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

If you have (or can get) a multimeter, put it across the centre connection of the volume pot connection to ground, change the volume from maximum to minimum. At maximum is should be less than 10k (depends on the pickup and the pot), and at minimum it should be zero. If it doesn't go to zero, the pot or the pickup isn't grounded, if it goes much over 10k the pickup wire has probably come off or the pickup is broken

 I think my dad has a multimeter in his shed so I'll wait until he's about and see if we've got one in there. Thank you for the advice!

[Hazza2004]

Hi all! 
Still haven’t been able to sort the issue as have been super busy and using my new 5 string jazz bass primarily on gigs, I opened up the bass today and I think it may be wired wrong from the factory, as I have not touched the wiring since I bought the bass from new, and it doesn’t appear to match up with any diagrams that I have seen online, I have attatched a picture so that those with a little more experience than me can have a look. Does this look right? All the diagrams I have seen suggest that both wires from the neck pickup should go to the neck pickup volume but this is not the case with my bass.   Any help would be greatly appreciated 

[Hellzero]

The wiring is totally correct, assuming there's no grounding issues as it's relying on the metal plate and that the pickups themselves are working.

 

Take that multimeter, check the pickups resistance and the grounding continuity.

 

Then come back with your findings.

[ezbass]

The earth from the neck pickup is normally wired to its pot, but the nature of the metal control plate doesn’t make this an absolute, just so long as it is earthed somewhere.

 

 

If you don’t access to a meter, disconnect the bridge pickup and wire the neck pickup to that pot to see if the problem goes away (dodgy pot) or remains (dodgy pickup/wiring).

[Hazza2004]

Hi everyone I’ve just taken some readings and it came out as 3.48 when volume was fully up and then 0.00 when down. Strangely the bass is working now, is it just a case of putting on some contact cleaner? It was working again briefly a couple of months ago before it stopped working again. 
 

all the best,

Harry

[itu]

I hate these control plates without soldered ground wires. Cheapo. 

 

If any of the screws in that plate is loose, anything can happen.