Fed-Ex transit...the waiting game

[scottpro1969]

Red side dots?

Yes sir!

[jps]

I was wondering the same. Great bass, Scott!

[scottpro1969]

A couple more pics: I tried to get a pic of the red dot markers but it really didn't come out well. Ah, oh well.




A verrrry little bit of tail lift.
The binding and mapleglo have aged beautifully!

[rickenbrother]

Sweet looking bass, Scott. I'm sure the guy who had it before you loved it and took good care of it.

[ram]

Scott, I have about as much tail lift as you show. I did the washers under the bridge. It did add a little more low end (not much, but some). Sweet looking with the black... and yes the neck is to die for!

[rickaddict]

Beautiful bass, Scott. Welcome back to the ROG.

[scottpro1969]

Instrument jack is scratchy and neck pickup isn't working right now. There must be a solder joint that came loose or something. I'm no good at that stuff. Unfortunately there are no good luthiers here in North Dakota (that I know of). The small guitar stores are complete rip-offs and I wouldn't trust them with a MIM Fender, let alone my Rick.

I'm wondering if my cheap instrument cable is responsible for the jack problem, though it doesn't do it with my other basses.

[jps]

These should be easy things that you can fix yourself, as most likely it is just dirty connections at the selector switch and jack contacts.

[rickaddict]

You can do it, Scott!

Do you have a Radio Shack close to you? They have electronics cleaner spray there:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2103700

Get a can of it!

To clean your jacks:

Unscrew pick guard and pull it off to the side so you can see the inside of the jacks

Remove one of the large jack nuts (optional)

Remove all four jack plate screws (optional)

Pull jack plate out. The one attached jack will come with it (optional)

Spray cleaner onto a Q-Tip

Work the Q-Tip around the inside of the jack including sides and all tabs

Re-assemble jacks and plate, making sure to orient jack the same direction it was when you took it off. Before you tighten the 4 screws, check it with a cable to make sure the cable will go in. (Sometimes if you accidentally spin the jack around the wrong way, the tabs will hit wood and keep the cable end from going in and out smoothly).

While you have the cleaner out and the pick guard off you may as well get the contact points on the switch too. It might be your problem with the neck pick up. I like to spray the cleaner on a small strip of cloth (maybe an inch wide) and work it in between the switch's two contact points.

While you're in there, you might want to do the pots, too:

Find the open area, near where the wires are soldered. Look in them with a flashlight if you don't know what I'm talking about. When you twist the knobs, you should be able to see parts moving inside. Spray a shot in each pot, then twist the knob back and forth to work it in. Watch out though, 'cuz the can of spray is very pressurized and if you're not careful it will get everywhere!

Re-assemble,

Rock out!

[scottpro1969]

Thanks guys,

I've got a can of Deox-It D5 that I bought from StewMac a while back.

I think I'll try what the Jeff's said. Heading off to try it now.

Thanks!

[jps]

I can evision the band now:

THE JEFFS!!!

[scottpro1969]

Well, I took the pickguard off and checked the solder joints...everything seems ok, nothing loose.

The Deoxit took care of the scratchiness, but....the pickup still isn't working.

I've got a multimeter. Where would I put the test leads to check if the pickup is still good?

Maybe it's the pickup selector switch that's bad.

Scott

[johnallg]

Scott, to check the pickup itself, measure in the ohms position on the multimeter across the gray shielded wire coming over from the pickup, center wire to shield. On this bass it will read around 8.40K ohms (8.40 on the x1000 range). I suspect that either the mono out jack (it has a built-in mono-ing switch) switch blades are bent, or they are being held from moving by the wood of the body, not allowing them to make contact and send both pickup outputs to the amp. Also, if your guitar cable has the undersized 1/4" plugs on it, that also could be the culprit, as it wouldn't have enough girth to move the switch blades all the way. Look at the mono jack and you will see the blades and it will make sense to you.