LeftyBassist.com

i was hoping someone could give me a little insight. my 83 p bass when plugged in does not have near as much output as either of my other p basses. there is not a tonal issue, just strickly volume. anyone know what this might be? bad pot? capacitor? p/ups needing to be rewound? i am clueless so anyone with any idea, please hit me back.

could be one or more of several different things ...

- do all your basses have the same pickup set installed? different pickups of the same shape can and do have different outputs depending on their windings

- are all of the pickups at the same distance from the strings? a pickup that is farther away will normally have less volume than when it is closer to the string. if all of your pickups are identical brand/model and your basses are strung with the same strings, I'd say this could be the culprit

beyond this, things are more difficult to determine. different control pots may impact the output volume, and could a dirty output jack contacts and/or a bad solder joint somewhere

take at look at the first two items here, make adjustments if needed, and drop a note back with an update. we can dig further if needed ...

all the best,

R

the other 2 p's are the hot rod p's with the p/j pup config, whereas the 83 is only running the standard p pup. if it was just a little volume difference i wouldnt be so concerned, but it is pretty significant. all basses have the factory pups. since i am hearing not fuzz and the signal sounds clean, could that rule out a bad solder or or jack? after taking a second look, the 83's pups are actually sitting closer to the string as opposed to the hot rods, which im guessing doesnt help my situation. thanks for the help as always. let me know if any of this narrows it down for you.

side note: if it is in fact pups needing rewound, would that hurt the "originality" of it?

The Hot Rod P PUPs are definitely hotter/stronger than a standard P's 'cause I remember it being one of their selling points, especially when they were describing how the J and P were better matched for output, though offhand I couldn't tell you what there readings are. (13.5k?) Nevertheless, you might want to do your own reading of the '83 P PUP to see if it's within the proper margin. The classic standard P is usually wound to 10k I believe, though if ordering from someone like Lindy Fralin you can request an under or overwind for lower or hotter output.

I just had my '73 P overhauled (installed new pots, jack, and resoldered poor connections) and also had the original PUP sent out to Lindy for a rewind to classic 60's P specs. It only cost me $55.00 for the rewind (That's per coil, as my original PUP only needed half the pickup rewound) + labor for installation, but my '73 P is kicking now.

Regarding hurting the original value, I think a professionally rewound PUP is better than an original that doesn't work right or a replacement.

http://www.fralinpickups.com/