Active jazz bass low output

[thefyst]

So I have this mex jazz bass deluxe. It is about half the output level of the active music man at the studio.

So far I have tried

New battery
Checked continuity in the battery clip
replaced a pot that was badly soldered
replaced the jack socket
Checked string height against fenders recommendations

anyone got any other ideas?


TF

Edited February 18, 2014 by thefyst

[buckers]

Mine's also low on output, so I just use the passive amp input. Doesn't saturate the amp at all, and gives me a fighting chance!

[thefyst]

so its likely just a low output preamp?

[fingerz]

is it noticeably quiet? I mean, I've had active basses that are really 'hot', and also ones that are more inline with the output of my passive stuff. Actually, a lot of that high output stuff can cause problems with effects (particularly analogue stuff). I like active stuff that isn't really high output for this reason. You may have a gain or pickup balancing control on your preamp inside the bass, in which case you can turn this up a bit. I'd compare it to a passive bass for starters, musician basses tend to be quite lairy.

[BanditSid]

When you say you checked string height was that the string height to the pickups? It can make a big difference to the output level as I found on my Ibanez bass.

[thefyst]

Yeah that was the string height to the pickups, was to fenders jazz bass specs and then i played around with it and it didnt make too much difference.

Id say its about 90% the output of my squire VM jazz with quarter pounders in. I just expected a bit more oomph