Sporadic Crackling and Distortion Sound

[wisconsindeadd]

Last night at a gig I had some sporadic crackling nasty distortion sound coming from my bass. It would come and go. At times it would come in the form of notes not coming out fully, other times just sounding terribly distorted. I couldn't figure out what was the issue. Eventually I switched to my passive backup bass and all was well. They are new Alembic AXY pickups with a pickup blend pot, filter, filter switch and master volume. I installed these back in December and they have mostly worked fine. I did have this same issue once at practice but though that perhaps it was a PA related issue. I don't think so now. I used a brand new battery, tested the voltage and confirmed it was in good condition. All of the wiring seems fine. Connections are good. I'm playing it now this morning and I can't get it to make the noise and everything seems fine.

Does this raise any flags to anyone? Make you think of something? I have no idea what the issue could be or how to resolve it given that it comes and goes.

[elwoodblue]

Maybe a close to breaking solder joint?
Try tapping every little thing with a chopstick to see if you can reproduce the problem.


(...and of course; exercise  the knobs and jack contacts well)

[pauldo]

Sorry I don’t recall if you have a Series bass or not.

My first thought is possibly cable?  Were you using the same 1/4” cable with your Alembic and the passive bass?

[rv_bass]

That distortion and loss of volume sounds like it is battery related (thats what happens right before the battery goes dead). Could it be the wiring and connectors associated with the battery?

[wisconsindeadd]

Sorry I don’t recall if you have a Series bass or not.

My first thought is possibly cable?  Were you using the same 1/4” cable with your Alembic and the passive bass?

Yea same cable. No issue with that. I have AXY Pickups, not Series.

That distortion and loss of volume sounds like it is battery related (thats what happens right before the battery goes dead). Could it be the wiring and connectors associated with the battery?

Hmm. Not a bad idea. The connection that mounts onto the 9V is very strong and secure. I thought that may be an issue. I will check out some of the soldered joints.

[jazzyvee]

It's not a series bass due to his mention of AXY pickups.
I recall having a similar sort of thing with my standard Europa bass some years back and it was due to the jack socket. A member here sent me a free replacement which solved the problem.
Another thing that I have experienced with that sort of cutting out sound is Planet Waves cables with moulded jack leads as they don't go far enough into the jack socket on the bass to click reliably into the instrument and result in intermittent connections as you move. This of course may not be what your issue is.
Also you could make sure none of the electronics bits inside are shorting out on the silver cavity paint.

[edwardofhuncote]

This is on your Alembicized Starfire, right?


Definitely check the battery first. Make sure the pots and/or jack haven't worked loose from the shielding while you're in there. Make sure none of the little boards are not shorting out against each other or the shielding. Wiggle some stuff. This is going to be something simple. 

*Jazzy beat me to it.

[wisconsindeadd]

It's not a series bass due to his mention of AXY pickups.
I recall having a similar sort of thing with my standard Europa bass some years back and it was due to the jack socket. A member here sent me a free replacement which solved the problem.
Another thing that I have experienced with that sort of cutting out sound is Planet Waves cables with moulded jack leads as they don't go far enough into the jack socket on the bass to click reliably into the instrument and result in intermittent connections as you move. This of course may not be what your issue is.
Also you could make sure none of the electronics bits inside are shorting out on the silver cavity paint.

This is my alembicized starfire. I have copper foil in the insides. But you're suggesting that I check for where connections may be grounding on the copper foil?

This is on your Alembicized Starfire, right?


Definitely check the battery first. Make sure the pots and/or jack haven't worked loose from the shielding while you're in there. Make sure none of the little boards are not shorting out against each other or the shielding. Wiggle some stuff. This is going to be something simple. 

*Jazzy beat me to it.

Yup, my starfire. Thanks for the tips.

[wisconsindeadd]

Well I opened her up and started looking for anything and everything. I found that when I wiggled the three wires (red yellow and black) that go from the blend pot to the filter pot the signal would cut in and out. This would cause some scratching/distortion and cutting in and out, but its tough to compare as I can't really play it and agitate the wires at the same time. I pulled the housing and pulled out the wires just to try to exercise them. So after putting it back together it worked fine, then the problem came up again, I exercised the connection and then it was back to working out. So I'm not totally sure if it is actually fixed or what may be going on. I didn't see any obvious issues with the wires or the gold plated connections. Hmm...

[KR]

If you have a soldering iron... since you have identified where the problem is, maybe touching the solder points on the suspected wire with your iron to assure a good attachment. Also, check that the solder lugs of the pots in question aren't too close and contacting each other or any shielding.