Bullet Bass Question

[unclej]

in the process of troubleshooting a volume problem with an old 82 fender bullet bass i discovered something puzzlin'. the bass plays but not loudly and not much on the e and a strings at all. so thinking it was out of phase i reversed a couple of wires and got a little more volume but again, not much. then i unsoldered the pups completely and put the meter on them and get no resistance whatsoever.

how is it possible to get any sound out of them when it seems that there's a break in the coil wires somewhere? and yes, i'm sure the meter is working properly.

[JoeAArthur]

in the process of troubleshooting a volume problem with an old 82 fender bullet bass i discovered something puzzlin'. the bass plays but not loudly and not much on the e and a strings at all. so thinking it was out of phase i reversed a couple of wires and got a little more volume but again, not much. then i unsoldered the pups completely and put the meter on them and get no resistance whatsoever.

how is it possible to get any sound out of them when it seems that there's a break in the coil wires somewhere? and yes, i'm sure the meter is working properly.

I assume by "no resistance" you mean infinity and not zero. Infinity would mean a break in the coil wires - zero or less than expected would represent a short of some kind within the coil.

If I remember right - the bullet bass has a split coil pickup like a precision, and those two coils are wired in series - sort of like a humbucker, especially if those coils have reverse polarity and reverse winding.

With a break in one of the coils, the coil with the break would essentially become a capacitor (definition: two conductors separated by a dielectric).

Certainly the output of the coil with the break would be reduced. However it would still capacitively pass the signal from the other coil.

[unclej]

thanks joe..and yes, i meant infinity. and yes, your correct about it being set up like a p bass. i assumed pretty much what you said, just couldn't put it into words so thanks for the education..gotta keep putting stuff into the old brain or it will atrophy at my age.