razze06 Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Hello all, I've got this quite unusual Ned Callan long scale bass I bought here on BC from Bassassin. After having the neck fixed (two of the holding screws weren't...), I am now moving to the nextlittle issue: the pickup behaves strangely with the E string. The symptoms are weak response on the open E, and 5th and 7th fret harmonics just don't sound at all. It all seems to ring as it should when unplugged, but all the above happens when i plug it in. The other three strings sound just fine. The pickup is a single coil, even though the casing is massive... I have a feeling that I may be looking at two different problems here. The neck has got a zero fret, and the the nut is quite wide on the E string. I wonder if I am losing oomph with the open E because of the sideways movement that the loose nut allows. Regarding the harmonics, it could be that the pickup needs rewinding. Maybe old wires need to be replaced to recover the original response. Or maybe I should just buy a replacement pickup, and keep the original one in a drawer for when (if) I sell it. Any opinions? cheers, Marco (Jon I hope you don't mind if I use one of your pics of the bass) [attachment=39989:ned.jpg] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrcrow Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 owowwo that socket set looks like it could do a thing or two meter the polepieces to earth one at a time any earthing there means the insulation on the windings have gone usually on the outside poles..especially on jazz with narrow bobbins thats my guess... the other is that the magnetism has degraded on the pole and isnt relaying the movement to the windings sufficiently can the pup be installed the other way round just to do an A/B on your nut theory cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razze06 Posted January 12, 2010 Author Share Posted January 12, 2010 [quote name='mrcrow' post='709195' date='Jan 11 2010, 07:09 PM']owowwo that socket set looks like it could do a thing or two meter the polepieces to earth one at a time any earthing there means the insulation on the windings have gone usually on the outside poles..especially on jazz with narrow bobbins thats my guess... the other is that the magnetism has degraded on the pole and isnt relaying the movement to the windings sufficiently can the pup be installed the other way round just to do an A/B on your nut theory cheers[/quote] I'll take the bass apart this weekend and try some of the things you suggest, thanks. Installing it the other way round will answer many of my questions, i believe. IfI find that in fact one of the poles is somehow faulty, i'm going to have someone look at it, as I don't have the kit to do anything about it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevebasshead Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 If there's a long enough lead on the pickup you could try installing it the opposite way round so that the E pole is under the G string. If you then get a weak response on the G string you'll have confirmed that the fault is more than likely a weak magnet on the polepiece. You might be able to remaganetize it, search eBay for rare earth magnets (they're ridiculously powerful) and they are often for sale as small discs. Buy the size appropriate to your polepiece diameter and simply place it on the underside of the polepiece (you'll need to make sure you get the North/South orientation right). Leave it there for a couple of days and it should be fine. Actually you could probably leave it on permanently if it doesn't subsequently sound out of balance with the other 3 polepieces. Hope this helps, Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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