Kes Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Hey all, Bought a bass on here about 5 months ago. (ibanez K5 - old one not the black version) with a replaced pre-amp... The bass is a beauty to play, but had a couple of issues when i bought it: #loose volume/tone pots - which were cleaned and tightened ASAP by myself #problem with the input jack - cables would cut out when moved in a certain way especially when cable was tucked behind the strap button. some cables would cut out completely some needed adjusting until they fitted - jack barrel was replaced by my friendly neighbourhood music shop. Music shop gave the bass a full new set up (action set a tad low as standard) and I gave the bass a nice new set of elixiars.. The bass travels from mine to band practice in a hard case (again bought by me). but noticed the volume pot had worked its way loose again so used the alan keys and a wrench to tighten it again, didn't test it at the time as it was 4am and I didn't do much just tighten the pot to assumed all was well. Played the bass a day or two later and found that there was no output from the bass... nothing.. battery was fine. amp/footpedal worked fine but no output at all... Bass is now back in the shop again and i'm starting to lose faith... Its a beauty to play but i'm starting to not trust the bass and thinking about changing it. but all i'd be looking for is a similar 5string ibanez from the SR range (rather than another K5). Am I just unlucky? Should I think of it like a car and when it gets starts to have a problem, it'll have more and just retire the bass and keep as an [seemingly unreliable] backup... Sorry for the rant, just venting frustration on what is an otherwise lovely bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kes Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 just thought, possibly should have gone under 'technical issues' thread. apologies, feel free to move if it makes more sense... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckstop Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I'd persevere with it. Original K5's are great basses that are getting rarer and it's just showing signs of its age. Replace the pots and from what I can tell of your post that should clear up any lingering issues you're worrying about! I was seriously close to buying one of these when one last came up for sale. For a week I kept looking at the listing trying to decide whether it'd be a good thing to buy! Lovely necks and being Yamaha, great build quality and a lovely natural woody sound. Truckstop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Sounds to me like a replace the pots issue first off. I had an issue with a "dodgy" pot on a Fender Precision. It actually gave out on me at a gig, though luckily, just as we finished the last song - mental note to always take a backup - anyway, had the pot replaced, no further issues. If CTS pots will fit, get them - they`re the nuts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kes Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Thanks for the replies guys i've been losing faith in the bass as my only other bass is a 4 string and getting on a bit aswell (but i've had it since new and was my first bass so has been through a fair bit..) will replace the pots soon and probably look at a new backup bass in the summer when cash flow is stlightly better. =] @truckstop, was quite likely the bass I bought that you were looking at =] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Did you make sure you held the back of the pot whilst you tightened the nut on the front? When I worked in music shops, I saw it so many times where people had tightened the nut without holding the pot, and just turned the pot round and round until the wires break off the back. The problems you're describing sound very symptomatic of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 If you're having trouble with the knobs working loose then paint a tiny smear of clear nail varnish on the thread of the grubscrew before you tighten it - it'll stop it from working loose but will still undo if you need it to (turning the grubscrew will fracture the nail varnish). The barrel type jack sockets always fail far more frequently than the traditional skeleton ones - doesn't matter if it's a top of the range Warwick or a bottom of the range Ibanez. Thing like having the instrument setup to allow you to play it comfortably aren't indicative of a general failure or 'wearing out' of a bass, it's just something that needs to be done. I bet I know what's happened to your missing output as well. When you tightened that volume control up using a wrench at 4am in the morning... Were you holding the back of the pot while you were using the wrench? If not you can pretty much guarantee that the pot was 'spinning' inside the body and one (or more) of the wires have snapped off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 [quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1328562171' post='1529232'] Did you make sure you held the back of the pot whilst you tightened the nut on the front? When I worked in music shops, I saw it so many times where people had tightened the nut without holding the pot, and just turned the pot round and round until the wires break off the back. The problems you're describing sound very symptomatic of this. [/quote] SNAP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 [quote name='icastle' timestamp='1328562483' post='1529243'] SNAP! [/quote] Like ships in the night...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kes Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 [quote name='icastle' timestamp='1328562483' post='1529243'] SNAP! [/quote] Nail and head. Cest la vie. I enjoy learning stuff which i just haven't known. So will know in future to take off the back and make sure the pots don't move while tightening them =] I'm gonna do some research on more detailed care for when i get my lovely bass back =] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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