Need help with wiring Bass

[vh264]

Hi everyone, i'm new to this forum and looking for some help with wiring

I just bought an old bass and it does not have signal when i plug it in

It has 2 single coil pickups, 2 on/off switches, 1 volume knob and 1 tone knob (i think so)

I'm completely new with the inner of the instrument so i'm asking for some advice 

Like what might be the problem? What tools/components do i need?

image link: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1j75K0p-FWQj5FYWVBzdqNXqnVMbjJ0

Many thanks!!!

[unreg]

hi vh264!

Welcome to GNutz2!

It’s difficult to view the wiring using your pictures. Is it possible to either:

a.) take the photo at a higher resolution? (resolution is the amount of dots (length x width) in the image created from your camera/phone)
or
b.) reduce your original image to 600 width, and post the 600 pixel width image… instead of whatever low amount it is now?

When zooming in, your wires get lost in the current low resolution image.


No signal means possibly that your jack is missing the signal wire connection. But, I’m not certain that’s the problem due to zoom in troubles.

And obviously, your guitar’s volume knob is turned to max and your amp’s volume is set high too, right? Those two things are important for starting out.

[vh264]

Thank you!!!

I'll take better quality pictures

Yes the volume knob was turned to max. I also check the amp and the cable but those didn't have any promblems

[newey]

vh264-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Yes, we'll need better pictures. But a couple of points:

It has 2 single coil pickups, 2 on/off switches, 1 volume knob and 1 tone knob (i think so)

The lower pot is indeed a tone control. But I only see a single pickup. I also see a gray shielded cable that runs from the switches back to the body of the guitar. Where does that go?

Do you have any idea of the manufacturer of this bass? If known, we may be able to hunt up a factory wiring diagram which would be a big help.

If the goal is to have this rehabbed to be a regular player, and you're not concerned with any "vintage" values (which it probably won't have if it was a cheap bass originally), you should probably plan on replacing the two pots as a minimum as these tend to deteriorate and become "scratchy" sounding over time. Cleaning them with an electronic cleaner can help but pots are fairly cheap, so if you plan to keep this and use it, might as well replace them.

I also note that the wires seem to be bare, uninsulated wires. One quick test would be to plug it in with the pickguard off, as it is in your photos, and tap the pickup with a metal object like a screwdriver to see if you get a "thunk" through your amp. My thinking here is that perhaps one of those bare wires is contacting something it shouldn't and causing a short when the pickguard is installed and screwed down. Easy to check before we get into more involved trouble-shooting.

If more serious trouble-shooting is needed, at some point you will probably need a multimeter to test the circuitry. Do you have one or have access to one?

Looking at the wiring and the pickup (which looks like some kids science fair project), this thing screams "Soviet Era" either Russian or Eastern European manufacture. If so, information on it is likely going to be hard to find, but there are a few websites that deal with those guitars.

[ashcatlt]

newey - There actually are two pics with the second showing the other pup, though it doesn’t help much. The shielded wire comes from there, but I can’t tell exactly what’s happening when it reaches the switch. I think the “hot” wires from both pickups actually are insulated. That bare ground wire running right over the top of the V pot’s output lug worries me quite a bit, but again we need some better angles.

The way the switches appear to be wired almost looks like it wants to be that Teisco-style series thing, but it also looks like somebody messed it up, but again it’s kinda hard to say. Honestly there’s only a couple ways to wire it up with these parts, and maybe it’s best to just decide if you want them in series or parallel when combined and just make it work that way.

[newey]

Jun 6, 2024 20:31:19 GMT -5 ashcatlt said:

maybe it’s best to just decide if you want them in series or parallel when combined and just make it work that way.

That was pretty much my thought as well. Could also get a bit fancy and have the choice of either series or parallel if the switches were replaced.

I did miss the other pickup.

[vh264]

Hello!

This bass does not have factory's name or serial numbers. I bought it on facebook marketplace 

I bought it because I wanted to try some custom. And when the seller showed me soundtest vid, it still worked so I bought it.

I just took some new pictures. Hope you can help me.  

drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1j75K0p-FWQj5FYWVBzdqNXqnVMbjJ0

Thanks a lot!!!

[newey]

vh264-

Your link requires a sign in, so I can't access it. You should use the "postimage upload" button on the reply screen, or use Cloudinary after setting up a (free) account on their site. There are tutorials in our References section for both of those methods if you have troubles.

We can certainly help. It is only a question of how much rehabbing you want to do. If you want to make this into a reliable player, I'd rewire the whole shebang and, as I mentioned, replace the pots. I still think plugging it in with the pickguard off is worth a try. If you are going to reuse old components, best to test them with a meter to ensure they are functional before you rewire or reinstall them.

If the goal is just to get this working "as is", photos are probably not going to help us very much. We'd still like to see better ones, becasue it's easy to take pictures and who knows, someone might spot an obvious issue. More likely, though, we will need to walk you through troubleshooting the existing wiring. This will require a multimeter.

[unreg]

Jun 7, 2024 13:19:56 GMT -5 newey said:

vh264-

Your link requires a sign in, so I can't access it. You should use the "postimage upload" button on the reply screen, or

note: the “postimage upload” button only appears on the reply screen when accessed with a desktop/laptop (it does NOT appear on a phone).

But the “postimage upload” button works extremely well, when it is accessible. Just make sure to reduce the dimensions of each of your images to a 600 pixel width before you click that button.

[ashcatlt]

But also the Google Drive link in the OP worked fine and they really need to just go make sure the new one is set up to share with “anybody with link” and make sure they’re posting the shareable link rather than the personal link we sometimes end up with.

(Though I guess it would be nice to have it in-thread rather than having to click away to see the pics and also that whole post images thing is mostly there so the thread remains coherent years down the road when the outside hosting goes away for one reason or another. I personally have a bunch of old posts from before we added that with broken images. I should one of these days try to upload the ones that I can still even find, but I’m afraid there are at least a few which are lost forever)

[reTrEaD]

Jun 7, 2024 16:59:50 GMT -5 unreg said:

But the “postimage upload” button works extremely well, when it is accessible. Just make sure to reduce the dimensions of each of your images to a 600 pixel width before you click that button.

Absolutely do not do that. The forum will automatically set the max width of the image so it doesn't exceed the width of the page.

[vh264]

Oh my bad, I forgot to change the Drive access setting 

I tried to upload pics in the post like the tutorial but it didn't work so I put it on google drive

drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1j75K0p-FWQj5FYWVBzdqNXqnVMbjJ0

My goal is to make it work again but if it too bad then I'll try to rewire the whole thing and replace parts if needed 

[ashcatlt]

Well the tone definitely won’t work with that cap disconnected at one end, but that won’t cause silence.

Beside that seriously just snip all those wires and hook it up correctly. The hot wire from each pickup goes to the center lug of its own switch. The input lug of the V pot connects to both of the switches. Pick whichever lug makes most sense to you. Wire the V and T like anything with a master V and T (google a standard Tele scheme or something). All the ground wires go to ground. Make sure none of the ground wires touch any hot wires or lugs when you button it back up. Done.

If that doesn’t work, something is actually broken.