hey nad (or other music instrument nerds) maybe you can help me???

[einride]

i bought a used bass

music store says it worked fine when they shipped it and i have no reason to doubt that

however, there might have been some SHIPPING DAMAGE~~

when it arrived yesterday, the bridge pickup barely makes a sound: it's really, really quiet. neck pickup works fine.

the wiring is two pickups, 1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way switch

if i tap the magnet pole things with a metal screwdriver it does make noise when the 3-way switch is in the bridge position, however, when i'm actually playing the strings it barely registers

all the wiring looks fine at a glance

what is likely to be wrong? i'm thinking the switch maybe?

 

[Tranquillian]

Did you turn it up to 11?

 

[NAD]

11 should help. If not, it sounds like one of the leads on the bridge pickup isn't connected, which could be at the switch or the pickup itself. I would check the solder connections at the switch and at the pickup. Could just be a bad solder joint. Also try wiggling the switch in the bridge position, if it cuts in and out, the switch probably sucks.

 

[einride]

okay well thanks, i will try to resolder all the relevant shit

cool thing is even with one of the pickups m.i.a, this bass sounds so fucking good

it's a generic black 1985 japanese whatever (aria pro II) but the pickups seem like some pretty cool shit man and it intonates and tunes well and the frets are all okay and the workmanship seems solid as hell and it's comfortable to play

 

[NAD]

Aria basses are pretty awesome. I think they now sell a $6,500 Cliff Burton signature and that is ridiculous, but still, probably pretty nice.

In my opinion bridge pickups suck on bass anyhow, I usually roll them off. It's the anti-Jaco sound. Well I do have one bass that sounds awesome with just the bridge pickup, but usually it sounds too nasal for me.

 

[ChaosLee]

I find this bass tech talk arousing.

 

[NAD]

I find this bass tech talk arousing.

It works on women* too.

*male bassists

 

[einride]

it was the switch. i fixedd it.

 

[einride]

In my opinion bridge pickups suck on bass anyhow, I usually roll them off. It's the anti-Jaco sound. Well I do have one bass that sounds awesome with just the bridge pickup, but usually it sounds too nasal for me.

and yep

now that both are working, i can confirm that the neck pickup is HEAPS better

the bridge pickup might do a decent lemmy impression through a marshall though

it's weirdly weak in output, too, or maybe it's just the neck pickup that's a real beast

 

[NAD]

Hooray! That neck pickup looks like a giant P thang, those tend to overwhelm wimpy bridge pickups. As well they should.