My bass eats 9v's for breakfast

[Jaymz]

Ive put up with this as long as I can because its costing me a fortune. Ive got a Spector Q5 Pro, it came with EMG HZ's I got them swapped out professionally for a pair of EMG 40DC's w/ the 18v mod.

Now I only use this bass for recording and I can just leave it on its stand for....a few weeks and its drained 2 9v batterys...and no I don't leave a lead plugged in...

I assume its something to do with the jack socket being wired incorrectly...ive taken a few pics of the gubbins to see if anybody can spot a problem off the bat.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/BloodThrone/P1020275.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/BloodThrone/P1020278.jpg

 

[crillemannen]

perhaps somethings wrong with it. Buy rechargeable batteries

 

[Jaymz]

perhaps somethings wrong with it. Buy rechargeable batteries

1) Yes something is wrong otherwise I wouldn't be posting.
2) I don't think you can use rechargeable batteries.

 

[crillemannen]

ok man!! well hope you get it sorted out

 

[kev]

lmfao. Im no expert on EMG stuff, but i dont see why you couldnt use a rechargeable battery if it is sucking it that quick.

 

[Jaymz]

lmfao. Im no expert on EMG stuff, but i dont see why you couldnt use a rechargeable battery if it is sucking it that quick.

No matter what, there is an issue here that not many people have to refer to rechargeable batteries for so id prefer to get the problem solved the right way first and foremost

 

[vrtkll]

The way emg's stuff is set up it turns the battery off when the nothing is plugged into the jack. Make sure your 1/4" jack is a stereo one. If not there's your problem. If thats not its a loose ground or some other wire somewhere man. Good luck sorting it out.

 

[kev]

Oh yeh, defo, just in the mean time you could save some squids.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Silly question, but you don't leave it plugged in all the time do you?

 

[Jaymz]

Silly question, but you don't leave it plugged in all the time do you?

and no I don't leave a lead plugged in...

 

[Jaymz]

It's the jack. Active all the time. A friend had the same thing happen because he left the stock jack in when he upgraded his pickups.

Im not quite sure, I just got the parts and gave them to the tech...

 

[vrtkll]

Im not quite sure, I just got the parts and gave them to the tech...

Check and see if the jack has 3 wires on it. If it has 2 there's your drainage. It's not disconnecting the battery when its unplugged lol.

 

[Jaymz]

Check and see if the jack has 3 wires on it. If it has 2 there's your drainage. It's not disconnecting the battery when its unplugged lol.

I got 3 connections on the jack, but the middle ones connected straight to the battery harness, is that right?

 

[vrtkll]

I got 3 connections on the jack.

Double check your wires with this schematic:
http://emginc.com/content/wiringdiagrams/EMG-PJ-Models.pdf

Maybe they didn't wire it right. If it's all wired right and shit then that's weird as hell.

 

[onqel]

Have you wired it yourself? if yes, have you done it properly? Is there maybe a small amount of corrosion on the inputsocket causing a small leakage current from + to ground?
Have you tried to unclip the batterylead an put in a multimeter in series with either + or - and read off the amperes with nothing plugged in?
It could be anything

edit: sorry, didn't see the new posts while I was writing

 

[vrtkll]

I got 3 connections on the jack, but the middle ones connected straight to the battery harness, is that right?

Depends where the hot wire to the pickups is going. If you hold the jack with the connections to the left your battery should be on the top or middle one and the hot should be on the top or middle one, don't matter if its reversed. Your ground should be on the bottom.

 

[Jaymz]

I didn't do it myself, that would have been an instant fail + I don't have a multimeter.

Vrtkll, can you see any of that in the pictures in the OP?

 

[vrtkll]

I'm not too familiar with that kind of jack, lemme see if i can find where the pinouts go for it.

 

[vrtkll]

Ok, the way it looks is he's using the 2 terminals to break the ground when its unplugged. It should be breaking the positive instead. Theoretically it shouldn't matter but that might be the problem in some weird way. It looks like he did a good job, very clean and used heat shrink.

 

[plague_rider]

Its a stereo ibanez style (they use them most) input jack... i think its their wired to the wrong pins on the jack

drainage like this suggests a short somewhere...