Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Troubleshooting => Topic started by: dslapster64 on August 06, 2022, 07:30:55 PM
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Good evening all, so I have a problem with my ‘83 Series1 rear pick up being very low volume. I have tried adjusting the controls at the back of the bass, but for some reason it is still not changing. I recently had the pickup selector moved and I am wondering if one of the connecters were moved to the wrong connector. Does anyone know the differences between the connectors for the bridge, dummy and neck pickups? I know their numbers are different but what do they mean?
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First, it looks like the connectors are all plugged in upside down. See here:
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=265.0
First thing to do is to invert all of these connectors. There are usually markings for which pickup goes where and you should find them on the other side. If it's not obvious, send another picture and we'll help figure it out
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Thanks for the reply Mica, and welcome back. I didn’t see any markers indicating what goes where. I will need to know which one goes where .here is a pic. No number on the brown connectors match anything on the black units. Where would I find the markings?
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You will want to plug them in with the fangs pointing up as Mica’s link show.
Looking at your photo left to right the connectors should be neck, hum cancel, bridge.
1. Determine which one is the hum canceling one, which will go in the middle position
Maybe using two wires at a time alternate plugging into the left and center positions with the neck volume on.
Once you determine which is the canceling wire, leave it plugged in the center and mark it X
Then with the neck volume on and bridge volume off, tap the pickups with a screwdriver to determine which one you have plugged into the neck connector. When you determine that you have the neck pickup connected to the neck pins, mark it with N.
Then connect the remaining wire to the bridge pins and test it by turning off the neck volume and turning on the bridge volume and tapping the bridge pickup with a screwdriver. If the tapping indicates it is the bridge pickup, mark it with a B.
Then adjust the volume trim pot screws on the back of the cover plate. Then you are done.
That’s how I might start trouble shooting this.
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I guess you could also try tugging on the opposite end of a wire to see which connector end moves, indicating which pickup it goes with.
Then plug them in fangs up, left to right: neck, hum cancel, bridge, and mark them accordingly after testing with the volume controls.
That might be a lot easier. :)
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Excellent . I will do this today. thank you so much.