Help! Weird issue with SBMM Stingray 4 preamp.

[goncalotbh]

Hi everybody!
Owned my ray 4 for about 4/5 years and never had issues with it.
A few days back sound died just as if the battery had died and needed to be reaplced, so that's what I did.
Worked fine that day but two days later when I was going to practice again the sound was super low, sounded like if i hadn't changed the battery.
Spent a whole day troubleshooting, checked wiring and found a loose ground wire that should be connected to the jack and a loose power wire on the battery connector, soldered both things thinking it would for sure fix the issue but not really, the problem's still happening.
Obviously checked if it was the battery, cable and amp, it wasn't.
Wiring seems correct (found a diagram online) and this has never happened before.
Could it be a fried preamp? How likely would that be?

 

[goncalotbh]

pics for reference:
1st pic you can see the loose black cable coming from bass knob, soldered it to third jack terminal

2nd pic is just overall wiring


don't have the pic of the loose power wire on the back but soldered it to the connector terminal and isolated it with some tape

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Hi everybody!
Owned my ray 4 for about 4/5 years and never had issues with it.
A few days back sound died just as if the battery had died and needed to be reaplced, so that's what I did.
Worked fine that day but two days later when I was going to practice again the sound was super low, sounded like if i hadn't changed the battery.
Spent a whole day troubleshooting, checked wiring and found a loose ground wire that should be connected to the jack and a loose power wire on the battery connector, soldered both things thinking it would for sure fix the issue but not really, the problem's still happening.
Obviously checked if it was the battery, cable and amp, it wasn't.
Wiring seems correct (found a diagram online) and this has never happened before.
Could it be a fried preamp? How likely would that be?

.
Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Did you check the battery strength again after the resoldering? It could be that your batteries are being drained. The output jack has a switching mechanism that turns the battery off when removing the guitar lead. I'm assuming that the red lead, from the preamp, is the positive side of the battery but could be wrong. If correct, it should be connected to one of the connectors on the rear of the jack. I can see the red lead from the preamp but can't make out where it goes to.

It's important to remove the battery and sort out the correct order of connection to the jack, otherwise you could damage your preamp. In that regard I suggest you contact SBMM (email below) to check that you have the correct wiring schematic:
[email protected]

 

[goncalotbh]

.
Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Did you check the battery strength again after the resoldering? It could be that your batteries are being drained. The output jack has a switching mechanism that turns the battery off when removing the guitar lead. I'm assuming that the red lead, from the preamp, is the positive side of the battery but could be wrong. If correct, it should be connected to one of the connectors on the rear of the jack. I can see the red lead from the preamp but can't make out where it goes to.

It's important to remove the battery and sort out the correct order of connection to the jack, otherwise you could damage your preamp. In that regard I suggest you contact SBMM (email below) to check that you have the correct wiring schematic:
[email protected]

Yeah, the batteries are fine and have not been drained.
I am pretty sure I did the wiring right as there was only one end of the jack without a connection and one loose wire, the schematic I saw had the exact same wiring as my preamp so yeah i'm certain it is right.

 

[goncalotbh]

.
Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Did you check the battery strength again after the resoldering? It could be that your batteries are being drained. The output jack has a switching mechanism that turns the battery off when removing the guitar lead. I'm assuming that the red lead, from the preamp, is the positive side of the battery but could be wrong. If correct, it should be connected to one of the connectors on the rear of the jack. I can see the red lead from the preamp but can't make out where it goes to.

It's important to remove the battery and sort out the correct order of connection to the jack, otherwise you could damage your preamp. In that regard I suggest you contact SBMM (email below) to check that you have the correct wiring schematic:
[email protected]

Forgot to mention that the bass sounds a little weird with the battery connected, it's not 100% the same as it would be with an empty battery since slaps on the E string produce a large pop that is not normal (like a string touching the pickups evn though none is) and super hard plucks on the E and A string sometimes make a little bit of the "regular" sound pass through.
So now I'm thinking it's either the jack that is somehow bad or the pickup itself.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Forgot to mention that the bass sounds a little weird with the battery connected, it's not 100% the same as it would be with an empty battery since slaps on the E string produce a large pop that is not normal (like a string touching the pickups evn though none is) and super hard plucks on the E and A string sometimes make a little bit of the "regular" sound pass through.
So now I'm thinking it's either the jack that is somehow bad or the pickup itself.

SBMM is the next step. I believe they have a good Customer Service. Let us know what eventuates.