Aria Pro II Cat Bass re-wire gone wrong - help!

[Alex Masters]

Hi,

Desperately need some help...

A bit of pot cleaning / fault finding on my old Aria Pro II Cat Bass rapidly spiraled out of control. I don't know if it had been rewired, but literally the wiring fell to pieces in my hands - every connectioin broke at the solder joint and very soon I had more wires disconected than connected.I've never seen wiring like it - steel wires just appeared to break as soon as you looked at them.

I decided that it was futile to try to repair all of the bad wires, and found a wiring diagram to make up new wiring. See the wiring diagram and my layout below.

Aria Wiring Schematics - Cat Bass by alexmastersuk, on Flickr

My layout - same orientation of components as the diagram

2018-02-05_03-22-24 by alexmastersuk, on Flickr

The wiring is complete, apart from pickup connections on the pickup selector, bridge eathing and battery connections to the tags on the top of the volume pot and the input jack - That is what I need help with as the diagram does't show where they should go.

The 'P Bass' pickup is actially wired in series and doesn't appear to be a humbucker. The 'J' pickup is a normal single coil.

The Pickup selector appears to have only three poles, with either one or other pole or both having continuity between the centre terminal and either of the pickup leads. I assume the centre tag is the 'hot' so I've soldered them in accordingly, above and below the white lead on the pickup selector switch (not connected in this photo).

Question 1: - where does the second pickup lead go to for each pickup? The bass originally had them twisted togerther, but the connection was broken to whatever they were soldered to before. should these go to the other pole on the pickup selector? this seems to have continuity with nothing other than the metal parts of the selector. should this be connected elsewhere too:? if so, why not marked on the diagram?.

Question 2: I seem to be missing some earths - bridge earth.. i know that the volume pot is usually the star earth point - should this go to the input jack sleeve?

Any advice or help gratefully recieved - I can't find a wiring diagram online for two single coil pickups and a three way selector for reference, so I'm stuck...

Thanks,
Alex

 

[fermata]

The second lead from each pickup goes to ground--the back of the v̶o̶l̶u̶m̶e̶ tone pot would be good. Twisting the leads cuts down on potential noise, so you might as well do that, like the original wiring.

 

[Alex Masters]

Thanks for that. I'll connect the second pu leads to the selector switch common lug, and run a connection to the negative signal jack lug (volume pot doesn't have a metal case).

One other question - the jack socket has four lugs, a signal hot (tip), signal cold (sleeve) and two other contacts further down the barrel of the socket. It looks as though the other two lugs are bridged when a jack is inserted. Should the preamp ground and the battery negative terminal be connected so that the current flows only when a jack is inserted?.

Also, on the circuit diagram, there are five connections two the active preamp - am I interpreting this right?

1) left top - preamp signal hot to active on/off switch
2) left bottom - preamp signal ground (signal ground - connect to signal ground on jack?)
3) right top - battery + from switch on volume control
4) right middle - ground (to jack lug bridged to battery negative when jack inserted?)
5) right bottom - pickup selector common signal hot (?)

Thanks again for any help - sorry for the noob questions.. didn't expect to be rewiring the guitar and have never tried this before

Cheers,
Alex

 

[fermata]

Thanks for that. I'll connect the second pu leads to the selector switch common lug, and run a connection to the negative signal jack lug (volume pot doesn't have a metal case).

Sorry, I meant back of the tone pot, although the ground lug on the side of the switch is fine, too.

One other question - the jack socket has four lugs, a signal hot (tip), signal cold (sleeve) and two other contacts further down the barrel of the socket. It looks as though the other two lugs are bridged when a jack is inserted. Should the preamp ground and the battery negative terminal be connected so that the current flows only when a jack is inserted?

Yes, that's a good idea!

Also, on the circuit diagram, there are five connections two the active preamp - am I interpreting this right?

1) left top - preamp signal hot to active on/off switch
2) left bottom - preamp signal ground (signal ground - connect to signal ground on jack?)
3) right top - battery + from switch on volume control
4) right middle - ground (to jack lug bridged to battery negative when jack inserted?)
5) right bottom - pickup selector common signal hot (?)

Thanks again for any help - sorry for the noob questions.. didn't expect to be rewiring the guitar and have never tried this before

Cheers,
Alex

That looks right to me. And ground is ground; the specific point of connection isn't critical, although star grounding is advocated as a way to reduce possible noise. Pick one primary point to ground most connections--the back of the tone pot, for instance (plus a couple of connections to the ground lug on the output jack, as you've indicated above). Careful you don't cook the tone pot, though; the ground lug on the switch could be a good alternative. Good luck finishing it up!

 

[Alex Masters]

Sorry, I meant back of the tone pot, although the ground lug on the side of the switch is fine, too.


Yes, that's a good idea!


That looks right to me. And ground is ground; the specific point of connection isn't critical, although star grounding is advocated as a way to reduce possible noise. Pick one primary point to ground most connections--the back of the tone pot, for instance (plus a couple of connections to the ground lug on the output jack, as you've indicated above). Careful you don't cook the tone pot, though; the ground lug on the switch could be a good alternative. Good luck finishing it up!

Thanks for your help - all connected up and working correctly..

Well, correctly apart from the noisy volume, tone and active preamp pots!. The first two are easy as the volume control is a 500k linear with switch, the active tone control is a bitmore challenging to find - two gang 500k pot with vertical through hole pins and centre detent. That's going to be tricky.

And to top it off, I think the truss rod is broken!. It was my first bass and I'm senimental, so I'll persist. My lad has picked it up, so I'm trying to resurrect it for him.

Thanks again!.

Alex