HELP! My Bass is DEAD!!!

[mshea]

Hi. I purchased a DeArmond Pilot Pro last September, it works fine, great lovely..until last week when i plugged it up and bam...NO SIGNAL! So I plugged up the guitar and bam...SIGNAL/SOUND, all good.

I do remember the guy at guitar center saying that the Bass had a battery in it, so...i replaced the 9 volt and BAM...still no signal.

Now keep in mind. I am a poor/hard working home recording enthusiast and musician and am DREADING taking this friggin piece of SILENT wood and metal to the shop.

1) Is it expensive to repair a Bass Guitar?

2) Could it be some moron move i made? Does it REALLY work and i overlooked something?

That's all.

[Bass Freak]

Ok, now i know i dont know a lot about gutiars. i can play it, ive never taken one apart to see just whats in there. but, i know ive done some stupid things. this one time....i thought i some how had fried the pick-ups, i was playing then the power went out, it was like 1 in the morning so no sun light, the power was out for about five mins, but, in my scrambling, i some how turned down the volume nob on my bass, so when every thing started working again, i thought i killed it......so in essence. is the volume nob turned up? im not tryin to be a smart rectum, but, i thought it might help. :-)

freak

And yes, I am a typical bass player. :-D

[mshea]

Hey! That's a good one. Yeah. I checked the volume knob. It was all the way up.

To clarify their is absolutely NO SIGNAL what so ever. My little monitors do not show that a bass is plugged up to the other end of the monster cable. The guitar works on the same cord on the same plug...even on the same cord in different plugs. It's really strange.

Especially when the thing was working PERFECTLY the week before. It hasn't been kicked dropped, watered on. Just sat there staring at me until i picked it up to re-record the bass line to a tabled song i decided to fight with some more and bingo...no bass. However, i TOTALLY cheated and played out the bass line on my keyboard...doesn't sound have bad after i added about a million effects. Hmmmm? But i still miss my bass.

I guess my broke a$$ is just terrified to take it in for fear of a..."big bill" so i'm trying to do anything i can as far as at home problem solving first.

[Bass Freak]

OOOOOOO i just had an idea. you know that hole thingy, you plug the cable into? im not sure what its called, the plug? maybe thats broke. or its loose....ive watched my friend take the pick guard off of his bass, *take all the screw-off-able junk off first* and look and see if you can tell if its broke or not. well that was my idea for today.

you cheater, dont have any friends you can bum a bass from? id send you mine, but, i like it too much. ...and using a keyboard?! you could atleast get one of those pedal thingys that make the electric guitar lower, and use that, but keyboard....that cuts me deep

freak

[mshea]

Yeah, i was wondering if my plug was dead too. I think i'll take a closer look at it. Thanks!!!

Yeah...keyboard...it's not bad. I had to record it before i forgot it. Although, i made it so complicated, i'm seriously doubting my ability to play it back on the bass. whoops!!!

[Buck62]

Oh yeah, sure... you don't socialize with us until you have a problem, huh?

Just kidding!

Glad to see you're still pluggin' away with the songwriting and stuff.

Okay... here's a few possibilities...

1: One of the prongs on the input jack (where the wire connects on the inside) may have been pushed back enough to where it's not making a good connection. That's a very common thing and it's an easy fix. Just open up the back cover, plug in the cable, and check to see if both prongs are making a solid connection against the two seperate sections on the cable's connector. If not, remove the cable from the input jack and push the bent prong inward 'til you're sure it will connect properly. Don't overdo it, though... then you'll have problems getting the cable in and out of the input jack.

2: The preamp may have puked out.
Not very common or likely, but still possible.

3: The volume dial wiring/connection may have become disconected. This is also uncommon, but it happens sometimes.

An electric guitar or bass is a pretty simple, straightforward instrument. The wiring is actually quite easy to re-solder if you have a loose conection, and it'll be obvious where your problem lies (loose or broken wiring) once you remove the rear cover.
If your preamp is a goner, you'd definitely need a pro to diagnose the problem and repair or replace it.

If you can't or don't want to deal with trying to fix it, let me know and I'll hook you up with a GREAT bunch of guys at a south side guitar shop that will fix it for super cheap. If it's a real easy fix, they probably won't even charge you anything... they're THAT cool.

[DanielJohn]

some basses have 9v batteries for the pickups.
open up the back and check it out, probably have to swap it out, happened to my ibanez bass
-DAN

[skippy]

Following up on what Buck said: the most common guitar and bass problem (back in the 70s when I uesed to do this stuff a lot) was the connection to the jack itself. That is the receptacle on the axe for the plug to go into, or the "female" half of the plug-connector pair (self-explanatory, I hope). This wonderful item would work loose, and fatigue failure from repeated flexing would break the wires.

I don't know a thing about De Armond instruments. However, just about every instrument maker uses good old Switchcraft jacks that mount with a big old nut onto the pickguard or the jack plate, and wires are soldered onto lugs on the jack. The nut on the jack works loose, the jack wobbles a bit, and over time the wires break. Copper work-hardens over repeated flexing, becomes brittle, and failure is guaranteed. Make sure those jacks are _secured_ by their nuts.

Easy band-aid: resolder the wire. More permanent band-aid: use Permatex's wonderful Loc-Tite products (preferably the blue medium-strength stuff) to make sure that the securing nut *stays* secure after you torque it down. You can get it at any auto supply place, like NAPA or whatever. This is one place where racing technology can help you out.

Seriously: any instrument (guitar, bass, keyboard) used in situations where the output jack is exposed to a lot of flexing, bending, and mate/demate cycles, should have Loctite on the nut that holds the jack onto the pickguard or jack plate. It's easy to do in the privacy of your own home, and it's a right bitch when you *didn't* do it and the wires fail at a session- or a gig... Trust me on this.

[Osbick Bird]

BAM? What are you, Emeril?

I have a Pilot Pro, too (bought around the same time), but haven't run into this issue. I also haven't taken mine apart to look inside. A bad battery on mine sounds like crap for a while before dying, so I don't think that's it.

The output jack may be the culprit. The Pilot Pro has a special set-up that turns on the pre-amp circuit when you plug the cable into the bass. If something went wrong (wire came loose from the jack, or the little switch built into the jack broke) there it would cause the problem you are having.

It also wouldn't hurt to take that little black cover off the back and make sure no wires have pulled loose from the pots.

I'll try to remember to have a look at mine tonight and see if there's an obvious weak point.

OB

[mshea]

Thanks ALL. I WILL BE unscrewing things when i get home from work...if i am successful, i will let you know. Buck...if i am unsuccessful, i will be sending you a message.

Sorry for the disappearing act. For those who don't know, i'm finally a new homeowner!!! Life was kind of scary there for a while...financing, closing, moving, unpacking, etc. I'm finally up and running and yes...here comes Emeril...BAM! My Bass is Dead. I miss it.

I am printing this thread out so i don't forget what to look for when i'm in there.

[Bass Freak]

Now, To see if its dead or not. Poke it with a stick. Its the best way to tell if its dead or not. If you poke it, and it dosent move, its dead. wait, if i poke mine it dosent move, but mines alive....eh oh well...

freak

[Even]

Did anyone ask if you have tried other cables yet?

[VOXVENDOR]

Do everything the people above me said to do...

And your bass will work again.

This post has nothing to do with my recent penchant for post padding

[DeadPoet]

Ditto that, I hate people hijacking threads with meaningless messages to increase their post count





Herwig

[VOXVENDOR]

Stop it Herwig!!!!

[Bass Freak]

So did you get your baby working again? fill us in!

freak

[James Argo]

It won't make your dead bass alive again, but I always wash my hand clean before I play ANY of my instrument. I make sure of that. You don't wanna look at your string / fretboard filled with shit your dirty sweaty hand put. Or... wait, indeed your bass is dead because of too much shit on it already ?

[DeadPoet]

Dirt

I remember cleaning my MusicMan once, getting rid of all the dirt.. Man, it never sounded so boring clean !! It took me 3 months of heavy sweating to find my dirty sound again


Herwig

[mshea]

OK. You're gonna want to sit down for this one. I trekked to guitar center, expecting some horrid repair bill for some crazy electronic 'issue' my bass had decided to have and:

Either my bass has brand preference or i bought a dud...


It was the DAMN battery!!!

A $3.25 repair.

Although i wandered out of guitar center with $153.25 less in my bank account after stumbling across a cool pedal/effects dokickey thingy.

Fingers now raw and 3 songs and 2 days later i've found it to be VERY useful!!!

Thanks for your help all!!!

[juststartingout]

I was going to suggest that you just get an acoustic bass. No batter, no wires no falure.........But glad to hear you got it fixed.

[Bass Freak]

Although i wandered out of guitar center with $153.25 less in my bank account after stumbling across a cool pedal/effects dokickey thingy. ..........OOOO I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!! what is it? how much?! whats it do? i need something new to play with.

Man, the battery? thats cheap lol, but, its better than the whole electronics fried. well, congrats.

freak

[mshea]

OK. If you really want to know...i'll tell you. I'm the proud owner of the...(hold on...digging out receipt...can't remember what the heck it's called)

the...

DigiTech RP200 Guitar Multi Effects Pedal

The guy said it'll work on the bass too, and sure enuff...it did. Plugged it up and have been fascinated ever since. Some of the effects are pretty cheezy, but i'm sure with the knob tweeking they can be improved. It's really FUN though...you stomp on the pedal and can go from some vintage sounding stuff to thrash metal...YEAHHHHH!!! I'm a ROCK STAR NOW!!!

For more technical specifications here you go:

The RP200 combines the tones of twelve vintage and modern amps with 28 fully programmable, studio-quality effects and an expression pedal that lets you control them in real time. Up to twelve effects can be used at once, and each effect includes up to three adjustable parameters. A six-character alphanumeric display and three know-matrix based user interfaces make editing simple and straightforward. Comes ready to use with forty great factory presets, and includes forty presets for custom creations. Also includes a rhythm trainer, chromatic tuner, and has a Jam-a-Long jack. 24-bit A/D-D/A sound quality.

Oh Yeah. It sold for $149.99 not including tax, they were REALLY nice and threw an extra cable for FREE!!! YEAH!!! Nothing better than batting your eyelashes and acting helpless. Well, i guess their are better things, and it doesn't work too well with female store clerks. HA HA!!!!

[Bass Freak]

LOL i hear ya about trying to hit on the guitar center chicks. so it sounds cheezy but fun? funs all that matters. have fun, keep playin. ill have to look into one next time im down there. im looking for a multi-effect

freak