I got a second-hand Vantage bass and attempted to wire in a new 1/4" jack, but ended up snapping some sort of metal that extends between the bridge and pickups through the body to the first potentiometer. I have been unsuccessful in getting rid of this buzz that only goes away when I touch the end of the 1/4" instrument cable plugged into the bass, tried soldering it with another wire to connect them but to no avail. Any advice on how to get some sort of connection between the bridge/pickups to the jack so that it doesn't buzz like this?
I figure I might as well try to learn something since it would probably cost more to pay someone to repair then buy a new bass.
not sure if this would be the right forum for this type of question but thanks in advance for reading.
It sounds like you broke the string ground, a connection from the bridge or tailpiece to the sleeve tab of the output jack. Assuming this bass has a fender style bridge, you should remove the bridge and run a wire from under the bridge to ground, either the back of a pot or the sleeve tab of the jack. You need to strip the bridge end of the wire so it makes contact with the underside of the bridge.
Being challenged, I don't know how to add an image to this reply, but you can go to the Seymour Duncan site and find the standard P-Bass wiring diagram. That will give you some direction.
And make sure the output of the volume control is tied to the tip of the output jack. Not that I've ever done this the wrong way...
Awesome, I am going to give this a shot next week! Do you have any recommendation for a specific type or thickness of wire to connect to both the bridge and volume control/output jack
Here are two pictures to give a better idea (don't judge the custom knobs)
I use 22awg multi strand for this sort of thing. It does not need to be insulated but it doesn't hurt.
But you have another "challenge". The original ground wire (that you may have broken) is connected to one of the 3 bushings under the replacement bridge. There should have been a new hole drilled from under the new bridge to the control cavity. I don't see one in your picture. It might be wiser to have a professional drill this hole, as you need a long bit and it is very easy to drill through the back of the bass. Don't ask me how I know.
But I can't see what's under the bridge. Perhaps it was installed properly and you just need to replace the ground wire. You need to look under the bridge. If there is a wire there you need to replace it. If there isn't a wire there, you're back to drilling the hole and grounding the bridge. There are some alternative methods of grounding the bridge (read that "less than professional") but let's see what's under the bridge before we go there.
As part of this project, you should also remove those globs of cold solder joints from the back of the volume pot and make it "nice". I'm told there are soldering tutorials on you tube but I've never looked for them.
This is not terribly complicated work but as the plumber always tells me "it ain't the doin', its the knowin' ".
Joshua Levin-Epstein wrote:
This is not terribly complicated work but as the plumber always tells me "it ain't the doin', its the knowin' ".
Maybe time to just purchase a cheap bass to practice with? I eventually want to buy a nicer one but I am going to have to get a lot better to justify purchasing a more expensive one.
That being said it would still be cool to get this working, just not really sure if the price and time would be worth it. Not sure how vintage it is but it sounds ok.
In the meanwhile you can loosen the bridge screws and slip a bare wire under the edge of the bridge and then over to the jack. Loosen the jack's nut and wrap the bridge wire 3/4 of the way around the jack and tighten the nut down. It won't be pretty but it will tell you if we are on the right track and should make the instrument playable again.
Often what I see in these instruments is that the hot and ground wires going to the jack got reversed and need to be switched. Your buzzing should quiet as you touch the strings, if it gets louder or if adding the temporary wire kills all the sound then I'll bet that the hot wire is connected to the jack's sleeve and the the ground wire is going to the jack's tip lug.
Vantage basses are OK. They have truss rods and the woods are usually pretty nice for a budget instrument. New strings and better pickups would probably improve it considerably.
Your photo of the cavity is too blurry to see what's going on in there but I agree that it doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence.
Thanks for the suggestions, I am about to get a small allen wrench and get the saddles out of the way so I can unscrew the bridge and try the wire thing.
It was stuck but yeah I eventually get them moving and was able to get a wire under the bridge. I had some speaker wire that I found in the garage.
So the issue subsided a bit, now if my hands are on the strings or bridge there is no buzz, but if I play an open note the buzz comes back. Before, I had to actually touch the instrument cable jack to get the buzz to stop so it has improved at least. Here are pictures of everything I did, I guess the next step is to get a soldering kit and redo the internal wires, I see the hole right by the input jack (in the cavity) that goes to the bridge, and I tried to solder a wire to the broken piece of metal wire, but to no avail.
The next question is why would the pickup be noisy. A P pickup is usually very quiet so I'm guessing one half of yours is out of phase (wires are reversed).
Jay, it sounds like the volume pot is missing a ground wire. Perhaps you can take a photo of the control cavity that shows where all the wires are coming/going?
I tried soldering this a few years back and it looks pretty bad. Black and white cables are coming from the pickup, there is a blue wire with a dot of solder that I attempted to connect to the ground wire I snipped by accident. It is really hard to see, I think I am just going to resolder everything or maybe just get new pots and jack connector, then attempt to put a new ground wire in from the bridge through the little hole.
Here is a gallery of all the photos I could take as best as I could:
Jay Hammond wrote:Do you think that it would be worthwhile to just remove all the solder and re-solder cables, grounds so that it is neater and easier to keep track of?
That would be a good idea. But first I would go ahead and ground that lug and try it out, to make sure everything works. Then unsolder and clean everything and put it back together. The wiring for that is among the simplest of all. Here is a diagram: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... =std_pbass
However, the ground continuity for that one apparently is through a metal cover plate or foil on the pick guard, which yours doesn't have, so you need to solder a ground wire from one pot case to the other, like this http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... coil_pbass
Maybe I can't fix it, but I can fix it so no one can fix it
Just as an aside. For solder joint reliability one shouldn't put wires through the lug holes. It is much better lay the wire across the hole to solder it. The exception is when you wrap the wire through twice and crimp it to totally immobilize it before soldering. Then it becomes a permanent connection which is much harder i.e. virtually impossible to change later.
David King wrote:Just as an aside. For solder joint reliability one shouldn't put wires through the lug holes. It is much better lay the wire across the hole to solder it. The exception is when you wrap the wire through twice and crimp it to totally immobilize it before soldering. Then it becomes a permanent connection which is much harder i.e. virtually impossible to change later.
Interesting - I hadn't heard that before. I tin the wire, put it through the hole, and crimp it back on itself to give some mechanical stability. Then apply solder to the wire and lug until it fills the hole.
It's easy enough to get loose - just put some traction on the wire and heat the joint and it pulls right out (using stranded wire).
Maybe I can't fix it, but I can fix it so no one can fix it
Every good electrical connection starts with a solid mechanical connection. The preferred way of wiring to a pot is to go through the hole, then sideways around the whole post at least once, making a solid mechanical connection before you ever start soldering. It is somewhat more difficult, but not impossible, to unsolder this way, but the electrical connection is far better. Just laying a wire across the terminal provides little more than zero mechanical (and therefore, electrical) connection. Don't ever count on the solder to make the connection.
