Shielded bass - tone stopped working!

[bassituation]

Hi, I decided to shield an old P&J passive bass, it's a lovely bass, but had an intermittent pickup hum and 'static' sounds when not touching the strings. All went well, I copper taped the cavities and made sure the overlap touched the foil on the back of the pickguard. Put it back together, the bass sounded great, crystal clear tone, no hum or weird sounds any more. BUT...the tone had stopped working...aagh.

Btw, the wiring is exactly like this: http://s62.photobucket.com/user/Alex_SSS/media/pj-jbass.jpg.html
but without the extra ground wires that chain to the bridge and neck pots.

Any suggestions?
Thanks.

[ahpook]

Sounds like you're grounding some of the wiring - can you pop a strip of paper or card between the pots and the bottom of the control cavity, see if that stops any odd contacts ? I'd check to see that nothing touches the sides of the cavity as well.

HtH

Edited May 25, 2016 by ahpook

[bassituation]

That is a really good suggestion, I'll get back on it tonight and report back.

[ahpook]

Cool, hope it sorts it

[gary mac]

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1464169792' post='3057070']
Sounds like you're grounding some of the wiring - can you pop a strip of paper or card between the pots and the bottom of the control cavity, see if that stops any odd contacts ? I'd check to see that nothing touches the sides of the cavity as well.

HtH
[/quote]

Had the same problem a while back after shielding one of mine. A slight tweak of the output socket, so that it wasn't touching the foil tape, sorted it.

[rmorris]

You have an output so it's not the output socket.
It might be one end of the capacitor has become disconnected - either the connection to the pot lug or the end to the pot body (screen). That would explain why the Tone pot does nothing while you are still getting a good output.

[bassituation]

Basschaters to the rescue! It was indeed one of the lugs on the jack was touching the foil, I must have turned the jack from its former position. All fixed. Happy days. Cheers for the suggestions.

[paul_5]

After shielding cavities I like to run a length of insulation tape around the pots to ensure that there aren't any shorts. It's very easy to turn a loose pot halfway through a gig and lose all output...

[rmorris]

[quote name='bassituation' timestamp='1464200143' post='3057525']
Basschaters to the rescue! It was indeed one of the lugs on the jack was touching the foil, I must have turned the jack from its former position. All fixed. Happy days. Cheers for the suggestions.
[/quote]

Was it a lug on the output jack or the Pot ?
Asking because I understood that you had a good output just with no tone action ?

[bassituation]

It was a lug on the jack socket touching the foil, I had a good output but no tone. I turned the output socket and all fine.

[MoonBassAlpha]

BassChat wins again!

[rmorris]

[quote name='bassituation' timestamp='1464258269' post='3057927']
It was a lug on the jack socket touching the foil, I had a good output but no tone. I turned the output socket and all fine.
[/quote]

Well I don't understand it but anyway it works so all seems good !

[Dad3353]

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1464440346' post='3059483']...
My thought is that simply you have found a means of remedying the issue just now, but it could fail again at any time because you haven't found the root cause.
[/quote]

I concur with our learned friend.

[rmorris]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1464445405' post='3059521']


I concur with our learned friend.
[/quote]

+1

[Grangur]

My thought would be to line the cavity with plastic to stop connections occasion the electronics coming into contact with the shielding. If won't stop the shielding working, bug it will prevent short-circuits from happening.