How close is the pickup to the strings?
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Yes. I never took them out of the bridge, just the tuners, so that I could take care of the pickguard.
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That’s what I need to look at tonight. I didn’t have much time this morning because I had to get ready for work.
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Output
Did you do anything in terms of shielding the cavities? Is the shielding touching the tabs of the output jack? I had that problem on my P bass (though not a Peavey one).
Could you have worked the wires loose on the pickup?
A partially broken connection (i.e. one of the wires hanging on by a strand or two) may do this as well.
String:
Is it sitting in the nut slot properly?
Is is would properly around the tuning peg?
Could it be dead? In the sense that it’s stretched beyond its elasticity?
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@athosmr2003 As MC pointed out it sounds like a wiring problem. It seems very possible cause you mentioned the sound is so faint/ dead. Something could have come loose, snagged, short or you might have a dry joint. Playable string height and/or pickup height should not make such a large difference in the ability to catch the oscillation unless they are super weak or damaged pickups.
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I originally thought that it might be something with the wiring but it looks normal. The only time I moved the pots at all was putting them back into the pickguard. As for the nut, that was another thing I checked on as well as the saddles but they are in place as well.
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I’ll check the volume pot again to see if the wire is too loose but I’m still getting volume…it’s just not very loud. Damaged pickups COULD be a reason. I don’'t know how old they are. I’d take them to Terry at the Guitar Junkyard but I don’t know if he’s open yet, so I’ll check the circuits myself and see.
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Good news! Terry’s re-opened the Junkyard. Evidently only 1 guitar got ruined from the water pipes bursting above the store. It was a customer’s guitar but Terry had an exact duplicate already there. I’m going to drop the Peavey off tomorrow morning for him to work on and pick it up on Sunday.
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Great, let us know what the problem was!
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I THINK I know what’s going on with the Peavey…tonight I was able to tune it easily enough and looking at the strings and pickups, to me they look too high. I’ll take it to Terry tomorrow though and have him look it over. The Jackson, on the other hand, is spot on.
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More good news! Terry looked at the Peavey and was able to fix it in about 15 minutes. He ended up adjusting the saddles just a hair and raised the pickups a hair and tightened the truss rod. That was it. Said it was a great bass.
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He raised the pickups a hair and it went from no sound to loud and clear. I’m amazed. I have grounded pickups (experimenting) and never had them become inaudible. I’ll have to remember that if I ever work on a Peavey.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
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I still get amazed at how such slight adjustments can take an instrument from crap to being a joy to play.
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He did lower the saddles a bit too. Evidently, the pickups weren’t picking much string vibration. When I looked at it at work, they looked about an 1/8" lower than they had. As soon as he plugged it into his Rumble 100, it worked great.
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As long as it worked out and you can keep rocking its all good.
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1/8” is far in this realm.
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agreed. I don’t know for sure, but if he raised the pickups by 1/16 and the saddles by the same then the 1/8 came about. I’m only estimating of course, but I noticed the difference in the height above the pickups right away.
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It’s funny. Every bass I have bought new has had the pickups screwed all the way high. 100% of them sounded much better and had more sustain after I adjusted them down a few mm.
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A few years ago I got my bass back from my folks that I’d been gifted in Junior High. A Candy Apple Red Memphis P bass. Not the awesome Matsumoto 70s one. Not the slightly lesser but still awesome 80s Korean one. A plywood 90’s GC special. Now, 12 year old me didn’t know that. 12 year old me knew it looked like car paint and it was capable of loud. Good enough. Time and life and dragging it around for decades but not actually using it with any regularity meant it was a bit beat and it stayed back at my folks for a few years after being dragged from state to state and marriage to marriage. After I started playing again I decided since I had two now this one could use a paint job. If I only know that would be a multiple years process and the potential end of a friendship I would have left it alone. But that’s not how the story goes.
And now, she’s finally root beer! And the parts are leftover bits from other customization projects. A high mass bridge off my first custom Dean. Tuners left over from my SUB4 build that the amazing @T_dub just finished for me. Quarter pounders I think were new at some point. Sanded the pickguard with 1000 grit from a headlight polishing kit for contrast and to take all the pick scratches out. Should be done tomorrow. Can’t for the life of me find a piece of wire to ground to the bridge so after a trip to the Depot of Home tomorrow, I’ll shield it and shoot the finished product.
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Very very nice job. Looks awesome!
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