Miscellaneous issue

[grm45]

I recently purchased an 82 spoiler, and it is currently not working. I still hear signal, and it pops when I remove the jack. We opened it up, the input’s fine, the battery clip is great, a luthier speculated that it was a cap or resistor failure. Anybody know what I should do in order to get it repaired? Preferably without shipping to Alembic? (I am on the East coast)

[keith_h]

You don't need to ship the whole bass you can ship just the electronics to Alembic. I don't know if this is still the case but it use to be that there was no charge for the bench test and you would receive the cost of of repair before work was started.

Have you verified that the preamp board is not touching the side of the cavity? The cavity is painted with conductive paint and can cause the electronics short out if they touch each other.

[StephenR]

Not sure I understand what you mean by “I still hear signal”… Any chance you can clarify? Also suggest that you take a picture of the control cavity and add it to this thread, a visual inspection by the members here (and Mica if she sees this) may determine if there is need to ship the electronics to Alembic for evaluation. As Keith has already mentioned the positioning of the preamp board can cause issues if touching the side of the cavity. That would be a super easy “fix” that could be determined via a picture. Not saying that is the only thing that could be causing issues but a good place to start. If you have difficulty posting pictures to the forum ask for help, it can be a little tricky especially since the photo will not appear in the preview prior to hitting post. To be able to attach images the first thing you should do is click on preview after you write the text, there will be a little plus sign below for adding attachments, but after adding they will not preview until you hit post.


Meanwhile hang in there, you have come to the right place for help.

[grm45]

Thanks for the tips! I will check about the preamp touching the end, and try and send a picture. Assuming the conductive paint is the issue, is it as simple as moving the preamp a bit?

[pauldo]

Before moving anything, posting several pics would be wise.

‘Having a signal’ is hearing a pop when you remove the cable?
Battery is good?
Any sound when turning knobs whilst plugged in?

Exercise the pots, by doing full rotations.  Self cleaning they are, depending on how long and where the bass was stored prior to your purchase, up to 100 turns/ twists is not unreasonable.

[grm45]

Got it, I had it sent s local luthier currently has it, I should have pictures of the “guts” soon! Thank you guys for all the help

[grm45]

Ok, I wasn’t able to upload a picture, but I think I am going to ship to alembic. Does anyone know how I do that, or if there’s someone on the east coast associated with them? Thanks!

[JimmyJ]

Photos are a little tricky in here but we urge you to try again.  Here's how...

Write a post (I recommend composing the note first because altering it later can lead to some crazy font issues).  Next click on "Preview", then click on "Attachments and other Options".  Next click "Choose File" and navigate to your jpg file.  BUT NOTE: the maximum size per attachment is 1000kb or 1MB so you may need to reduce the size of your pictures before trying to attach them.

Give that another try if you can because photos of the electronics cavity can sometimes allow us to spot the problem.  It's extremely rare for an individual component to fail on an Alembic but it can happen.

The simple suggestions above (exercising pots and switches) are worth trying so please do those first.  If in the end you are unable to get any sound out of the bass and none of us can see anything, then as Keith suggested you could pull the entire wiring harness and ship that to Alembic.  But keep in mind that they're a small shop and a resolution could take some time.

Try the pics again.  We'd love to help you solve this and get you back to playing music!

Jimmy J

[Spoilers!]

Ok, I wasn’t able to upload a picture, but I think I am going to ship to alembic. Does anyone know how I do that, or if there’s someone on the east coast associated with them? Thanks!

Are you in the DC-Baltimore area by any chance?  There's a top-shelf repairman in my neck of the woods who did great work on my Persuader a couple of years back.

Ken