Problem with a Squier VM Jazz - any ideas?

[Panamonte]

A friend of mine recently bought a VM Jazz for his son. He just posted on Facebook with the following problem:

[b] Bass playing friends! A question: what makes a passive bass have really low output? Both pickups and tone wound fully up. Played okay for about 5 seconds, then faded away to hardly anything. Bad capacitor? Faulty connection inside?[/b]

He's tried it with different leads, but it doesn't make any difference. What do you reckon - dodgy jack socket connection? I would have thought that would cause intermittent cutting out of the signal rather than attenuation. Any suggestions welcome.

[KiOgon]

Armchair diagnosis must be a fault in the wiring, if your friend is near Bexhill I'd be happy to have a look at it.

Cheerz, John

[iconic]

Has he tried another amp? Not too much to go bad on a vmj?

[Panamonte]

[quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1355006930' post='1892996']
Armchair diagnosis must be a fault in the wiring, if your friend is near Bexhill I'd be happy to have a look at it.

Cheerz, John
[/quote]

Yeah - I suggested he gets his soldering iron out and gives the guts a once over. He's in Sevenoaks but ta very much for the offer.

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1355007238' post='1893000']
Has he tried another amp? Not too much to go bad on a vmj?
[/quote]

Aha - hadn't thought of that (doh!). Certainly worth checking. Cheers.

[dmccombe7]

On very rare occasion my Jazz jack-socket slackens off a bit enough so that the lead moves a bit and the volume drops off dramatically along with tone change. As soon as nut tightened up again its fine. I've checked the wiring inside and its fine.
Try tightening the nut on the socket and if still same try checking the connection inside. Might just be dirt on the inside of the socket. Other probs might be loose wire or bad soldering joint.
Unusual for the capacitor to fail but it is a possibility. Would try the simple things first though.

Dave

Edited December 9, 2012 by dmccombe7

[Musky]

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1355079095' post='1893798']
On very rare occasion my Jazz jack-socket slackens off a bit enough so that the lead moves a bit and the volume drops off dramatically along with tone change. As soon as nut tightened up again its fine. I've checked the wiring inside and its fine.
Try tightening the nut on the socket and if still same try checking the connection inside. [b]Might just be dirt on the inside of the socket.[/b] Other probs might be loose wire or bad soldering joint.
Unusual for the capacitor to fail but it is a possibility. Would try the simple things first though.

Dave
[/quote]

This would be the first thing I'd check. I had the same problem with the sound fading down on an amp and it turned out to be a dirty input socket.

[LukeFRC]

if it's new just take it back to be fixed

[dmccombe7]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1355079527' post='1893808']
if it's new just take it back to be fixed
[/quote]

the obvious i guess

Dave

[Panamonte]

Thanks for all the advice - I've passed it on. The bass is only a couple of months old so he's taking it back to the shop tomorrow.