Wiring A Bass for Beginners

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charon17

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Ok... I was attempting to fix my cheap 10$ (purchased off of friend) washburn xb100.. The previous owner was incredibly rough with the guitar and somehow broke off the tone pot - the wiring snapped right off. I attempted a fix on the guitar by resoldering the displaced wires to the top of the pot. This all seemed to go reasonably well until I plugged her in...no sound! :(
I don't have a clue what was wrong.. the bass worked just fine with the tone disconnected, but now it won't work at all and i was really careful while I was doing the work on it.. The bass was so cheap I really don't see any reason to take it in. If that were the case I would simply by a new one, but I love this bass and want to keep it untill it's truly time for a new one. I also want to learn guitar wiring to develop my of overall guitar knowledge so I am ready and willing to listen to all and every piece of advice!


I hope and pray some noble bass wizard out there will help a rookie bass player in need.

Charon

:(
 
These kind of things are very tricky, one wrong wire and it won't work at all. I would look for a wiring diagram on the internet, if nothing else take it to a music shop. The shop in my town charges about $20 to do it. I figure that's worth it for me. Saves me work.
 
thankyou

I appreciate the canadian advice! (I'm from alberta)

That's what I'll probably do, but not with out a fight first!

thanks

charon
 
I wish I could help ya more. I have done some wiring of pickups and pots and simple repair work but I have to get it in my hands and use a voltometer etc.

I have mostly learned on my own and have used two good references:

1. EMG publishes a small little hand book on guitar pickups and wiring. I don't recall who I bought it through but I bought when I mail ordered some EMG's.

2. Tom Wheeler has an excellent book I believe its called The Guitar Players Repair Handbook with info on wiring, set up and repair.

Also your bass sounds like for the price it probably has passive tone controls wich means your tone control will only roll off the highs. Most passive basses sound best with out the highs rolled off as they get muddy.

You may want to wire it back the way it was. One of the bass tech's that write for Bassplyer Magazine recomeded a project that put a switch on the bass for recording that bypassed ALL THE POTS as all pots add resistance and degrade the sound somewhat. You would not want this for live use but for getting the purist signal it can help for recording.

Just a suggestion but you may have a good reason for wanting the tone control working
 
Charon,

I think that bass has only one pickup...correct? If so, then this Ibanzes GSR100 is the same thing. Take a look at the attached wiring diagram and see if that clears anything up for you. If you do any soldering, just be sure not to overheat anything and you will be just fine. Good luck,

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/w96001.gif

Fangar
 
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