Distortion from bass / pre

Cale

Cale

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Dec 1, 2006
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The patient:
A 2004 SS2/5 w/ 9v MEC pre and MEC pups, Black Label Mediums (.135 B).

The symptoms:
Subtle distortion from the bass when played hard. (But don't be so quick to think the pups are too close) It seems to be intermittent. Always distorts as soon as I pick it up, but then goes away after about 15 seconds (like she warms up or something)...and then sometimes comes back. Worse on E and B but present across the board.

What it's not:
It's not my amp, it's not my cab and it's not my battery. My pups are not all that close to the strings, but in my mind the intermittence of the problem excludes the pups.

Ideas?

Oh, and what's the little brown pot on the back of the pre-amp do? Is that the gain to the pre?
:?:
 
Cale said:
The patient:
A 2004 SS2/5 w/ 9v MEC pre and MEC pups, Black Label Mediums (.135 B).

The symptoms:
Subtle distortion from the bass when played hard. (But don't be so quick to think the pups are too close) It seems to be intermittent. Always distorts as soon as I pick it up, but then goes away after about 15 seconds (like she warms up or something)...and then sometimes comes back. Worse on E and B but present across the board.

What it's not:
It's not my amp, it's not my cab and it's not my battery. My pups are not all that close to the strings, but in my mind the intermittence of the problem excludes the pups.

Ideas?

Oh, and what's the little brown pot on the back of the pre-amp do? Is that the gain to the pre?
:?:
Click to expand...

It could the output jack being dirty or having a cold or loose solder point.
 
I was having a similar problem about two years ago in my Streamer Jazzman; it turns out one of the components inside had just been jarred loose, and one of my connections needed to be re-soldered. Open her up and see if you can jiggle any of the components around... if any of them are loose, or you see a tiny wire sticking out where it shouldn't... that is probably the issue.
 
Hi Cale,
Check all your eq components like Seth said but if you can,use a multimeter.Alot more accurate. :wink:
 
I wonder if its the wires leading to/from your battery. If that connection has gotten bad, it could mimick a dying battery, which is what your description reminds me of.
 
T3 said:
I wonder if its the wires leading to/from your battery. If that connection has gotten bad, it could mimick a dying battery, which is what your description reminds me of.
Click to expand...

I had this exact thing during a show - one of the wires leading from the battery to the preamp board came loose... In my case, it almost completely lost all signal, as I have active pickups... I borrowed another guitar to finish the show, as I couldn't troubleshoot the problem on stage, and I wasn't sure if it was the bass or the amp at the time...

Granted, I had been playing that bass every show, vigorously for at least 2 years and never once opened the back panel, so I can't really complain that it failed me once in 2 years :-)

back to the post however: IME it doesn't sound like a pickup height problem, but you can try adjusting the little pot in the back. sounds more like a loose connection or dust in the jack to me...
 
T3 said:
I wonder if its the wires leading to/from your battery. If that connection has gotten bad, it could mimick a dying battery, which is what your description reminds me of.
Click to expand...

+1 i had this problem and for my bass it turned out to get some faulty connections in the battory snap
 
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