A request for help with a bass problem from Kohanmike and others.

JohnRC

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Hi Mike
I have a bit of a situation you might have had experience with in your changing the electronics on some of your basses.

I have a slightly used Aiersi solid body bass. I suspect it is from the same factory in China that most of the others come from. I like it a lot because it has a good sound, plays well and is very comfortable to hold.

But it is using up 9v batterys quickly. The last one died after less than 2 weeks of playing. My Gold Tone solid body battery has lasted for months.

I opened up the bass to see if I could see any loose wires. When I plugged it in to the amp and moved wires around there was a lot of static which seemed to come when I touched the braided wire to the pickup. I could not feel any warm spots that might indicate a loose wire. But that does not mean they are all soldered well.

I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.
Thanks,
John
 
I'm not Kohanmike, but maybe this is an obvious question - are you removing the cable from the jack in the uke when you are not playing it?

If not, you should be, since the insertion of the cable's plug is what usually turns the preamp on, and then is using up the power stored in the battery. This is with most of the active preamp/pickup units sold in the past 5 years or so, whether they are using a 9v battery, a CR2032 coin cel, or even with the Mi-Si pickup that has a recharging capacitor inside to hold the power for the preamp.

Maybe try and see the battery life, with the cable unplugged when not using it, if you are not doing so already.

Also your actual playing time (measured in hours) when plugged in will dictate the battery life, more than any arbitrary number of days or weeks, since when plugged in an playing is when your cable should be plugged in and pulling power from the battery...and not when you are not actually playing and plugged in.

However, Kohanmike will likely give you the best info on the bass ukes since he has quite a collection...
 
I was going to say exactly what Joe said. I got tired of remembering to pull the cable whenever I put down the bass, so I had my repair guy, Eric's Guitar in Van Nuys, CA, replace the bass pot with a pull/push on/off rotate for bass switch on all my active basses. That works great, but not long ago I played bass for a recital and forgot about the switch that was done a couple days before and couldn't figure out why it wasn't playing. I had to borrow a bass from the guitar store where the recital was taking place. On my way home I remembered about the on/off switch. You know I'll never forget that again.

The static you're hearing is probably not a problem as long it doesn't have static when you're actually playing.


9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 33)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video
 
Hi Guys

Yes, I am unplugging the patch cable. This I have learned from other threads.
I get the time usage but it seems like a week and a half is pretty short.
I talked to one electronics guy who said that sometimes the patch cable recepticle can be faulty and stay “on” even when the plug has been taken out. I will check that.
 
I had a guitar shop owner/luthier look at the wiring and he made some changes and wrapped one part. I will now see if anything changes.

In the meantime it appears that the Piezo pickup is dying. They are not listed on the Kala site. Where are they available from? Are some better than others or are they all the same?
I am willing to bet that no one in Canada will have one.
 
One thing I would try is to examine the wiring for solder joints that do not look right (they call them cold solder joints) and maybe poke around with a volt meter to see if I could find voltage "leaking" even though the cable is unplugged.

My homebrew bass uke will use zero battery juice over months of not being plugged in. BTW, is it easy to remove the battery? If so just take it out between uses.

Good Luck!
 
...it appears that the Piezo pickup is dying. They are not listed on the Kala site. Where are they available from? Are some better than others or are they all the same? I am willing to bet that no one in Canada will have one.

I've only been able to get those kind of pickups from Rondomusic.com for their Hadean bass ukes, which could very well be the same one Aiersi uses. Get in touch with Aiersi see if they have any, they post here on UU.

I've had problems with those kind of pickups where the volume balance string to string is uneven. I learned online to fix that by taking apart the saddle assembly, then cutting apart the four sections so they put pressure separately on the individual pickup element inside that assembly.


9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 33)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video
 
Hi Mike

I remember you or someone else doing an explanation of the bridge modification but I have not been able to find it. Did you post it or was it someone else? Can you remember where it was in TalkBass?
 
Hi Mike

I remember you or someone else doing an explanation of the bridge modification but I have not been able to find it. Did you post it or was it someone else? Can you remember where it was in TalkBass?

It's fairly simple; remove the saddle assembly, pull off the two end caps that hold together the parts, slide out the saddle itself, I then used an Xacto thin blade saw on each indent, being careful to keep them in order, then slide the pieces back on the pickup base and replace the black end caps.


9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 33)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video
 
Hi Mike
Yes, you are right, it is very simple. It did not take long at all. Now to see how it is with a couple of hours of playing tomorrow with two other guys.
Thanks for you help. I will post again after I play tomorrow.
John
 
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