Very low output from bridge pickup

[Lifer]

P bass pickup in neck position, soap bar at the bridge.  Vol/vol/tone.

 

Neck pickup sounds glorious and volume works as it should.

 

Bridge pickup has very low output and volume seems to be on or nothing,  but it’s so low it’s difficult to tell.

 

Couple of wires from the bridge pickup (white and green at the top of the photo) aren’t connected to anything and sleeved off.

 

I have a multimeter but don’t know what I’d be looking for!

 

Neck volume - bridge volume - tone

 

[Hellzero]

What's the brand and type of that bridge pickup?

[Hellzero]

White and green are connected together and isolated because your pickup is working as a humbucker typically wired in series, but you can wire it in parallel if you want, hence the 4 wires plus earth "plain" wire.

[Lifer]

12 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

What's the brand and type of that bridge pickup?

It’s a Dunable Soapbar Humbucker.

[Lifer]

17 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

White and green are connected together and isolated because your pickup is working as a humbucker typically wired in series, but you can wire it in parallel if you want, hence the 4 wires plus earth "plain" wire.

Does that mean I can get a push/pull pot and coil split?

[Hellzero]

20 minutes ago, Lifer said:

Does that mean I can get a push/pull pot and coil split?

Yep.

[Hellzero]

If it's this, it's been wired totally out of phase explaining the thin sound: https://dunableguitars.com/pages/pickups

 

[Hellzero]

Wire it as explained below, and everything will work properly:

 

[Lifer]

Yes that’s the brand, should have looked there first sorry!

 

Thank you bud, will dig the soldering iron out and have a crack, stay tuned for more obvious questions 😂

[Lifer]

Just checking I’ve got this right before I start.

 

Red and white should be soldered together and isolated rather than green and white.

 

Green should be soldered to the back of the pot.

 

Black should be soldered where red is now.

Bit disappointing there’s this much work to do on a brand new bass!

[Lifer]

Plot thickens, I know someone who got the same bass on the same day and although they’ve got other problems the electronics are fine and seem to be wired the same as mine.

[tauzero]

Email Dunable and ask their advice.

[Lifer]

Waiting their response 🤞

 

Such a shame I’m chuffed to bits with the rest of it.

[tauzero]

I know it's easy to project one's own experiences but it might be a manufacturing issue with the pickup - if one magnet has been put in the wrong way round, you'd get that. Happened to me with a Cort Space, which has split magnets and I can only assume that one magnet was put in the wrong way round - the consequence was that with the blend set to both pickups equal, the B, E, and A strings were very thin and nasal, the D and G sounded fine.

[Lifer]

A bit of testing this morning with a plan to swap some leads around later to solve the problem.  Both volume pots read the same resistance on the meter so it’s not a duff pot. Looking at the back of the pup is it worth swapping the red and white wires on the pot to see if they’ve been wired wrong, or would there be no output if that were the case?

[Hellzero]

Your pickup is indeed wired out of phase, so wire it integrally the way Dunable says (not only the red and white) then it should read a high kOhms value and sound the right way.

[Lifer]

After rehearsal last night, a) this thing sounds incredible even with just the P pickup b)I think it’s just a duff pot as when wiggled/pressure applied there is signal.  When I was measuring with the multimeter the bass was lying on its front on a cushion so there would have been pressure being applied to the pot.  I will solder in a spare I have exactly as is wired not to test.

[Lifer]

Update to say Dunable have got back to me, checked the wiring in the photo and confirmed it’s correct, did a bit of trouble shooting and have offered to help find a tech and cover the cost of repair so much happier on that front 😊

[Lifer]

Update for closure -

 

tech fixed it and Dunable sent me the money to cover the cost.  Sounded awesome but I wasn’t happy so spent some time and money shielding everything, replaced pots with CTS (which meant enlarging the holes in the body - thanks to this vid for the great tip on doing that easily without damaging the finish

) and complete rewire.  Much happier now and inspired me to rewire the budget tele I have for demos, and started making my own patch leads 😊

[Doctor J]

What was the fix for the pickup problem?

[Lifer]

There was nothing wrong with the pickup in the end.  Shorts and cold joints in the controls so any movement meant intermittent cutting out and volume changes.