Hi Y'all. I have an ongoing problem - exacerbated by the fact that I have let it go and tried on and off to deal with it. First off, the PUP. I'm not sure what it is. The picture shows a bar style Alembic PUP in my fretted custom Benedict 5-string. It has a filter and volume, and a switching input jack and is held into the routed cavity by the standard two screws on top and two underneath that have the threaded sleeves embedded into the body.
About three years ago it started cutting out on me. It would work OK for about 4 songs into a set, then... nothing. I was able to set the bass aside and forget the problem for a long time because I am playing mostly upright anyway. But every once in a while I'd pick it up and even with a new battery, I'd have the same problem.
So I finally rolled up to the guy here in MN who made the bass for me and told him the trouble. It took him some time but he finally contacted Mica and was sent - what I am told - was a small part that plugs (onto?) the preamp, and that tends to burn out if you inadverently put the battery in the wrong way. My battery holder is one of that type that hinges open from the back of the bass and battery slides in and out. There is no clip involved.
So anyway, I get the bass back and it worked for a few minutes, then started grumbling... A sound very similar to bad preamp tubes in an old tube amp. It was also very microphonic in other ways too. I could tap the battery holder and get a loud chunk sound from the amp. Wiggling the PUP made noise too. All issues the bass/electronics never had in its previous life. It was built in 97 BTW.
As it looked to me that the problem was beyond my luthier's capability, I contacted Mica and she was very cool. However, I was not. I promised her pictures and more input on the problem, but decided first to try to open things up and see if I could find the problem. I discovered that the ground line from the bridge was not connected, but that was about it other than that I thought that my guy had done a fairly sloppy job of soldering and wiring.
I re-soldered some stuff like the battery connections and the obvious one from the bridge, put it all back together and YES! it worked. Smooth, fat, punchy and clean again. Until I took it out on a gig... About five songs into a set, it started grumbling again and then got intermittent and then cut out completely. I'm at my wits end.
We have good guitar guys in town that know electronics. The guys at Willie's American Guitars in St. Paul come to mind. But is this truly a problem that would warrant contacting Mica again and just saying please send me an RA number? I'm wondering if the forum thinks that would be best? Just how complex is that system anyway? For what it's worth, I think if I sent the PUP, filter, volume and input jack assembly off to the factory, they could at least wire it up so it does not look like a kindergartener did it. I guess I'd rather not send the whole bass, but I will if that's what it takes to get the problem solved. Thanks in advance for any feedback!
