mcnach Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 (edited) I'm sure I must have done something wrong, especially considering I wrote down the wiring a few days ago while I was very ill... Anyway, I finally went ahead to install the John East Stingray 3-band preamp into my Tribute G&L L2000... I gutted it, removing everything except the pickup switch and the series/parallel switch, and stacked the MMSR on top of that. As the pickups were already wired to a couple of switches all I had to deal with were: the hot output from the pickup switch, which I fed into the + terminal of the preamp (the pickup hot wires go to the series/parallel swith, and the output into the pickup selector switch). there was a ground cable from the series/parallel switch. Connected to a common ground ring. the - wires from each pickup were joined together and connected to the - terminal of the preamp. Each pickup has an additional shielding wire. I connected them to the common ground ring. Then I rewired the jack socket as per the MMSR's (the L2000 uses a side mounted barrel type), and joining there the common ring grounds and the ground cable from the bridge. When I tried it... I got no sound Actually, I did... but it was so low it took me a while to realise it. I turned up fully my practice amp, and what should have been really loud for the house turned to be just about as loud as a whisper. Enough to verify everything worked... the switches, the EQ, everything... just at extremely low volume. So, what did I do wrong? Any hints before I disassemble the whole thing and I start a systematic aproach building it up one bit at a time? (very slow) To summarise: negative from each pickup joined together and fed to preamp - positive(s) from each pickup fed into series/parallel switch and then into a pickup selector switch. Output fed to preamp + grounds directly to jack socket: pickup shields, bridge, and wire from series/parallel switch (originally wired to the back of a pot) Edited November 11, 2012 by mcnach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 has the preamp got a gain mini knob on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 No, and this is not the usual "it's a bit quiet compared to other basses". It's almost silent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 I cannot test it right now but... I have an idea: the cable I took to ground from the parallel/series switch... should probably go to the negative terminal in the preamp, not to the common ground. I suspect I have a "simulation of a broken pickup" with my present wiring. I hope this is it, as it'd be easy to fix! Tomorrow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1352168216' post='1859693'] I cannot test it right now but... I have an idea: the cable I took to ground from the parallel/series switch... should probably go to the negative terminal in the preamp, not to the common ground. I suspect I have a "simulation of a broken pickup" with my present wiring. I hope this is it, as it'd be easy to fix! Tomorrow... [/quote] No, it wasn't that I must have made a silly mistake somewhere... but I can't see it. So, time to remove the whole thing and start again, carefully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Are you getting power to the pre amp? Is the output jack wired correctly? Just a couple of ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 Aha! It lives!!!!!!!!!!!! I wrongly wired the - wires of the coils at the - terminal of the preamp, when they should be grounded directly and instead take a wire from the parallel/series switch to the - of the preamp (which I had grounded by mistake). It now works... and it's mighty The only question left is... what to fill the hole left by the preamp off/on/boost switch with. I'll probably just put a dummy switch there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1352317562' post='1861633'] Aha! It lives!!!!!!!!!!!! I wrongly wired the - wires of the coils at the - terminal of the preamp, when they should be grounded directly and instead take a wire from the parallel/series switch to the - of the preamp (which I had grounded by mistake). It now works... and it's mighty The only question left is... what to fill the hole left by the preamp off/on/boost switch with. I'll probably just put a dummy switch there. [/quote] An LED A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 [quote name='apa' timestamp='1352317945' post='1861644'] An LED A [/quote] no kidding, I thought about it for a minute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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