Help me put my bass guitar back together

[David King]

Not knowing what the switch is capable of is an issue. Is it a two position or a three position switch? Does it have a part number on the side? It may be marked on the side with "on-on" or "on-off-on", or "on-on-on" otherwise we can look up the part number and figure out what it did/does. I'm pretty sure a simple DPDT switch will take care of the pickup's coil cutting capabilities but for the time being let's get the pickup figured out.
Have you made any progress with the multimeter? Does the needle move when you turn the center dial to the left and touch the two probes together?

You can reuse the blue pot that still has it's shaft but not the one where the shaft got pulled out of it's case. Several of the other pots can replace the blue ones as necessary.

[linda barth]

I was kind of hop[ing that the testing would go away./ I checked the battery in the meter an dit's good. I went back to you instructions and I can't find 50 ohms. Where the meter says OHM it only has x1K. I'm attaching a photo of my meter so you can see my choices. It's kind of hard to read the red numbers at the bottom. They are (from left to right)10 50 250 500. the category is AC V

Your instructions
Set it on Ohms 50K or three clicks to the left, touch the probes together and

see if the needle goes to 0. Adjust the fine tuning until it does. Touch the

probes to the two solder eyelets at each end of each pickup and report back

what you get. We want readings possibly of around 4K or 8k Ohms. Start with

the eyelets that are connected to the black and white wires since those are

the most likely ones.

On the subject of the switches, none of the switches have an part numbers.

[David King]

Aha! I couldn't see it clearly enough in the first photo you posted so I assumed it could measure higher resistances than 1k. Unfortunately that's not going to be sensitive enough to tell us anything about the pickups. If you live near an urban center with a harbor freight store you can pickup one of their cheapo digital multimeters. http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function ... 69096.html
You can often pick one up for free via the newspaper coupons. Lots of them on ebay delivered for free if you live off the retail grid.

[linda barth]

Tell me why I'm testing it again.

Oh...what are your thoughts on whether I should refinish the wood more.

[David King]

I have a lead on a couple of fellows who might have solutions for how the pickups were connected to the switch. If that falls short you'll need to borrow a meter to figure out which wires connect to which ends of the pickups coils. Since the coil's resistance is higher than 1k ohms your meter won't be able to tell us much unfortunately.

[David King]

So one fellow came through with this photo of his bass's wiring: He going to crack it open again later to take another shot of the switch from the lug side.

[David King]

It looks like the yellow and white go to one lug on the switch and the red and purple go together to another lug.
There are a couple of yellow jumpers from the switch to the pot which we can't really trace yet.
The Mod pots are still available as a custom order from http://www.potentiometers.com/pdf/catalog70.pdf
You'd need a dual module, single shaft from either page 18 or 19. The switches look to be double pole, single throw so really any cheap push/pull 250kA pot will work for this even though they are always double pole, double throw.

[Peter Wilcox]

I was kind of hop[ing that the testing would go away./ I checked the battery in the meter an dit's good. I went back to you instructions and I can't find 50 ohms. Where the meter says OHM it only has x1K.

Your meter will work OK. Set it on the ohms x1k setting. Touch the two probes together. There should be a dial, maybe on the side, that you can turn until the needle sits on zero on the top scale. Then you can touch the probes to the leads you are testing and read the number on the top (green) scale. You multiply that number X 1000 to get the resistance in ohms. For example, if the needle goes to 10, the resistance is 10k or 10,000 ohms. It's not super accurate but it will do for checking the resistance of pickups.

[linda barth]

On using the meter: I got the needle to zero and I used this website for instructions on what to touch

http://www.ehow.com/how_7297723_test-gu ... meter.html

Nothing happened. If I should do something differently let me know.

People keep suggesting parts for me to buy. I don't think I'll be buying anything new. I'd like to use what I have. I know everyone is trying to make me a really nice bass, but I'm not even a musician. I just need to get it back together in working order. Find a diagram that works with my set up ...2 pickups...2 volume/tone controls....the input jack..,.the battery...a switch or two. I'll be very happy with that.

[Peter Wilcox]

That's not a good instructional.

To try the meter, use the pickups in bag 2. Touch one probe to one of the solder pads on the pickup, and the other probe to the other pad. The needle should deflect and settle on a value. If that pickup doesn't work (for example, it may have an open circuit), then try the other one. Alternatively, use the pot in that same bag that has only the capacitor attached to it. If you touch one meter lead to one of the outside lugs, and the other to the middle lug, you should see the needle go back and forth as you rotate the pot shaft. Of course, this is easier to do if you have 3 hands.

[linda barth]

So many of my projects require 3 hands. That's why I have the vise.

Readings on both sets of pickups was in the middle. Pots when all the way over. Posting a close up of the meter so you can see the numbers.

[Bob Gramann]

Skip over this until you work out the discussion on the meter.

Here is a picture of the inside of my Fender Squire P-Bass. The pickups appear to be wired in series. The pictures agree with the diagrams I found when I Googled "fender p bass wiring schematic." So, if you're going simple, this is it.

[Bob Gramann]

Second picture of the P-Bass.

[linda barth]

Thanks for going to all the trouble of opending your babies.

See the picture I've attached. Is that the schematic you mean? What wires from the battery and to the bridge? What would their path be ? Maybe this is all I need.

[Bob Gramann]

This schematic is functionally equivalent to my picture. Mine is the simple P-bass without any active components and thus no battery. The Schecter setup that you have been discussing appears to have a preamp--that would use the battery. All that I have provided is the standard P-bass wiring that is an alternative to the Schecter setup. You still have to choose which way to go since it appears that you have parts for either.

[Peter Wilcox]

Linda - here's my take on your situation. You have 2 possibilities - the passive components (bag 2) or the active ones (bag 1).

The active ones don't have all the parts, nor as yet a functional way to put it all together, but may in the end be the sound you are looking for.

The passive ones have all the parts you need -pickups, pots, jack, capacitor- (except for some screws) to assemble the final circuit like Bob's. However, there seems to be a problem with the physical size of the pickups (and possibly the depth of the cavities when you attach the magnets). You can pry the magnets off that brass plate (which is of the wrong configuration for your bass) and glue them to the bottom of the pickups. You can use a chisel to widen the size of the cavities. This is probably the fastest method to get a functional instrument, unless someone comes up with a schematic for wiring up the active stuff - and then you'll still need to use another pot from elsewhere, as one of those appears to be broken.

And to be clear, you don't need or use a battery for the bag 2 stuff.

[linda barth]

I only have a size problem with the pickups in bag 2. Its only a smidge, length wise. I'm sure I can carve out enough get them in. If the blue pots are a problem, why don't i use the2 pots in bag 2? No battery...that's cool. Do I need a switch? There's one in bag 5. I will still need to know how to attach to the bridger. I think that's all.

[Peter Wilcox]

How deep are the pickup cavities, and how thick is a pickup with a magnet attached to its bottom?

And again to be clear, you ONLY use the stuff in bag 2 - those pots jack, pickup and magnets, for a passive system like Bob's and your diagram. No switch or battery needed.

As for grounding the bridge/strings, take it off and see if there is a hole beneath it that leads to the pickup cavity. If so, a ground wire will go through there. If not, you can drill one.

[linda barth]

The pickups in bag 2 are actually a little shallower that the originals. I'll let you kow more later. I have to go out for a while.

[Peter Wilcox]

The pickups in bag 2 are actually a little shallower that the originals. I'll let you kow more later. I have to go out for a while.

Yes, but they are going to have the magnets attached to the bottom, making them thicker.

If the meter needle deflects to about the middle, about 4 or 5 k ohms, when testing the pickups, they are OK.