Saturday, May 20, 2006
Ted The Supreme Freakin' Bass Tech
OK, here's the thing. My bass has active pickups, which, for those of you who don't know, means that the volume controls and tone controls etc on the bass actually boost the signal, rather than cut it (as passive pickups do). This means, that unlike passive pickups, they must draw power from somewhere internally, and that means that there's a battery inside the thing somewhere.
Now, I've had the bass since about early October, and the battery it came with ran out for the first time after a few months. This resulted in normal playing for a few minutes before the signal (even if running through a clean channel) became distorted, coupled with a gradually increasing loss in signal as the battery lost what was left of its charge. Replaced the battery, all was well.
This leads me into another point. I don't like to think that I'm a complete idiot, but even the best of us slips into temporary periods of stupor from time to time. This leads me into yet another point.
See, if you're up-to-date with the wordings on this here blog, you'll know I've recently had other trouble with the bass, with it sending all sorts of crazy sounds to the amp, with a barely audible bass tone somewhere in there. But you'd think that, despite having pretty different symptoms this time around, that I would have thought to replace the battery anyway - you know, just on the outside chance that a dying battery is actually the problem - instead of just sitting around until I can get it fixed. Once again, this is only to be certain that it's not the cause.
Well, I bring this up because that is pretty much what the problem was, as I found out last night.
I was playing around with it unplugged, then I looked at the nearly full battery that has been sitting around on my desk since January, for just such an occasion, and decided to give it a shot. What the hell, right?
"STEEEEMPY! YOU EEEEDIOT!"
Now, I've had the bass since about early October, and the battery it came with ran out for the first time after a few months. This resulted in normal playing for a few minutes before the signal (even if running through a clean channel) became distorted, coupled with a gradually increasing loss in signal as the battery lost what was left of its charge. Replaced the battery, all was well.
This leads me into another point. I don't like to think that I'm a complete idiot, but even the best of us slips into temporary periods of stupor from time to time. This leads me into yet another point.
See, if you're up-to-date with the wordings on this here blog, you'll know I've recently had other trouble with the bass, with it sending all sorts of crazy sounds to the amp, with a barely audible bass tone somewhere in there. But you'd think that, despite having pretty different symptoms this time around, that I would have thought to replace the battery anyway - you know, just on the outside chance that a dying battery is actually the problem - instead of just sitting around until I can get it fixed. Once again, this is only to be certain that it's not the cause.
Well, I bring this up because that is pretty much what the problem was, as I found out last night.
I was playing around with it unplugged, then I looked at the nearly full battery that has been sitting around on my desk since January, for just such an occasion, and decided to give it a shot. What the hell, right?
"STEEEEMPY! YOU EEEEDIOT!"
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