No Sound From A String on bridge pickup

[Delberthot]

I have a strange one and a first for me in 31 years of playing: I have a jazz bass and on the A string of the bridge pickup there is no sound. There is something but it sounds like an extreme envelope filter, as in the really squashed sound.

When I touch the pickup with a screwdriver the poles on the A only don't seem to be magnetic, the others appear normal.

Is this a replacement job or can anything be done to salvage it?

[ikay]

That's an unusual one! If the A string pole pieces are no longer magnetic then that would do it, but how that could happen is a bit of a mystery. Sounds like a replacement job to me.

Or you could try and re-magnetize the dead poles with a rare earth magnet - https://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=100572

Edited June 24, 2018 by ikay

[mybass]

As an experiment some years ago I once tried pushing a pole piece upwards to be closer to a string to try and gain more volume off that string but the pole piece stopped responding and lost volume. Luckily pushing it back down regained volume so I could only assume maybe I earthed out that pole piece?

[Delberthot]

2 hours ago, ikay said:

That's an unusual one! If the A string pole pieces are no longer magnetic then that would do it, but how that could happen is a bit of a mystery. Sounds like a replacement job to me.

Or you could try and re-magnetize the dead poles with a rare earth magnet - https://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=100572

Thanks for this, I've ordered one and am going to give it a try before I change it

[Reggaebass]

Hi I bought a fender jazz bass last year at a slightly reduced price because the guy told me the bridge pickup didn’t work on only the A string. I put it into pmt for a set up and expecting a new pickup. The engineer there said the pole piece had been put in upside down in the factory  charged me £35 all in problem solved 

[Delberthot]

I managed to find a couple of rare earth magnets I already had in the house and put them on the poles about 5pm last night. I've just checked them and there does seem to be a bit of magnetism in the poles now so I'm going to leave them on the for the rest of the day and see how they are tonight

[BigRedX]

Are the pole pieces on this pickup actually supposed to magnetic or should they be attached to a magnetic base plate?

[Delberthot]

After a couple of days with these magnets attached and checking every so often the result is that they've done exactly nothing

I've decided to replace both pickups and get myself a new wiring loom while I'm at it as one of the volumes is a touch scratchy.

BTW there was no magnet attached underneath so assume that the poles themselves are magnetic

I've gone for a '62 neck pickup and '75 bridge pickup - both are Fender parts

 

[BreadBin]

To go completely dead suggests an open circuit to me.

[BigRedX]

22 hours ago, BreadBin said:

To go completely dead suggests an open circuit to me.

On one string only?

[BreadBin]

Yes, on that magnet.

[ikay]

Surely open circuit on a single coil would kill the whole pickup not just one string?

Edited June 27, 2018 by ikay

[BreadBin]

It's OK, I don't know what I am talking about! 

 

[geoffbyrne]

I had this kind of thing a while back.  It turned out the young owner had taken a string from an acoustic bass & put it on his electric.  Put a standard electric string on and all worked fine.

 

G.

[Delberthot]

no such luck I'm afraid - brand new set of D'addario XLs were put on it. TBH I didn't think to make sure that the pickups were working before changing the strings. I've never had a faulty pickup before - faulty preamp but never a faulty pickup

[mybass]

https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Trade_Secrets/Conquering_an_UNDEAD_Strat_pickup.html?lac_guid=05dffce6-e67a-e811-80de-ecb1d775572a&utm_campaign=ts0308&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=ts0308_C_20180628

 

might be something of interest for you about dead pickups here...