Please help. OLP Stingray wiring issue. And question.

[theoctavist]

First off. The wiring looks godawful. I got it free and I ****love**** the sound of this thing but the guts look really shoddy. It is an OLP Stingray (licensed re aesthetics, neck, design **through** Ernie ball. Officially. But they (Ernie ball support) were not helpful , and OLP is now defunct).

It is (presumably) the same as the official stingray re wiring, etc. Pickup looks identical.

My question. The top pot ..is that to control the *preamp* volume when *active* mode is engaged? And to engage *active* mode, you do so via the bottom knob?(which seems to be a push/pull/twist pot, like on my Jackson spectra (also active/passive) if it *is* engaged via the bottom knob, what are the mechanics? Pull out? Twist? Push?

Next question. The top pot does not do anything. In the control cavity(pictured) there is a white wire not attached to anything , two black wires, and one red. One black wire goes to the pickup(?) The other black wire is a ground(?) Going from the back of that pot to the back of the volume pot. The red wire goes from leg(1 or 3?) To the same on the volume pot. No idea what the white wire is.

This(in theory anyway) was the *active/passive* 1 pickup stingray copy, but I have no idea where the battery box is. On most stingrays(maybe all?) The battery box is built into the body itself(routed)
On this guitar there is no body cavity or box whatsoever. Maybe the prev owner removed it altogether? (I can't imagine any company selling a guitar with a knob that doesn't work, with the battery box missing? )

Could the battery box be under the pickup /pick guard? It is not in the control cavity.

For the one pickup stingray , is there a applicable schematic I could look at? Ernie ball(understandably so) did not help me at all. Would not send me any schematic either. I'm going to redo the whole control cavity, new pots, wiring. And put the battery box where it should go.

What is that red resistor on the tone pot?

All that being said.

I absolutely ****Adore**** the sound of this bass. I have several basses and I've been searching all my life for this *sound*

So any help getting her squared away would be amazing.

The Ernie ball forum offered nothing but snark. It's all good lmao

 

[theoctavist]

Oh. One last thing.

How to remove rust from the pickup pole piece tops?

It really does sound wonderful, I'm impressed, I. Spite of the terrible qc or "mods"

 

[spatters]

I owned an OLP Stingray back in the day.
To my knowledge, all the OLP Stingrays were passive from the factory.
The controls were volume/volume/tone.
The pickup was coil tapped, and each volume controlled one side of the pickup.

Looking at the pictures, that's definitely not factory stock wiring. It's a hack job with giant solder blobs all over the place.
I don't see any indication that there's an active preamp in there, either: usually there's a potted plastic box with a lot of wires going to it, or an exposed PCB.
Maybe someone added the push-pull pot for some other function, but since it's such a mess (and I'm not a guitar tech) I can't tell what they were trying to do.

Honestly I'd just rip all that crap out, and install one of those cheap prewired 2V1T Jazz Bass harnesses off ebay, wiring each of the two pickup lead pairs to one coil of the pickup.
That's how it was wired originally, and it shouldn't cost you more than $15.

 

[theoctavist]

Thank you sir! I *really* appreciate the advice!

 

[Jim C]

How ironic! I bought an OLP last week and the tone control didn't work thanks to a PO rewire.
Here is how it's supposed to look:
Wiring Diagrams | Seymour Duncan

I used Spray 9 cleaner on the pole pieces and they look OK but not great.
I hesitate recommending steel wool as you will end up with a ton of metal particles attracted to the magnets.
If you really want to clean them, you can buy bronze wool from Mcmastercarr.com that is not magnetic.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

The OLP that I had was also passive. A volume for each coil and treble cut tone control. If someone else has been frolicking about in the wiring it’s hard to say what “improvements” might have been done. You could put the wiring back to stock, preferably with new components, and try it for a while then decide what, if anything, you want to change.

 

[theoctavist]

Thank y'all so much!

 

[theoctavist]

Ordered! Thank you again!

I owned an OLP Stingray back in the day.
To my knowledge, all the OLP Stingrays were passive from the factory.
The controls were volume/volume/tone.
The pickup was coil tapped, and each volume controlled one side of the pickup.

Looking at the pictures, that's definitely not factory stock wiring. It's a hack job with giant solder blobs all over the place.
I don't see any indication that there's an active preamp in there, either: usually there's a potted plastic box with a lot of wires going to it, or an exposed PCB.
Maybe someone added the push-pull pot for some other function, but since it's such a mess (and I'm not a guitar tech) I can't tell what they were trying to do.

Honestly I'd just rip all that crap out, and install one of those cheap prewired 2V1T Jazz Bass harnesses off ebay, wiring each of the two pickup lead pairs to one coil of the pickup.
That's how it was wired originally, and it shouldn't cost you more than $15.

 

[theoctavist]

Hey Sir, @Jim C

One more question. Can you tell me where you have your pickup height set? The stingray is the closest thing to it but i cant find any OLP original factory pickup height /neck relief/nut action etc specs and i dont know if the ernie ball specs are helpful

How ironic! I bought an OLP last week and the tone control didn't work thanks to a PO rewire.
Here is how it's supposed to look:
Wiring Diagrams | Seymour Duncan

I used Spray 9 cleaner on the pole pieces and they look OK but not great.
I hesitate recommending steel wool as you will end up with a ton of metal particles attracted to the magnets.
If you really want to clean them, you can buy bronze wool from Mcmastercarr.com that is not magnetic.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Start with the EB numbers or Fender numbers and adjust to taste from there. Most of the factory numbers are conservative and you can often do better, if you want, even with an untouched new bass.

 

[frnjplayer]

IIRC OLP made Tony Levin sig bass that was active and all the rest were passive. Yours is not one of those rare beasts. I will say I enjoyed playing a number of gigs on my OLP 5. It made wonderful noises.

 

[Jim C]

Hey Sir, @Jim C

One more question. Can you tell me where you have your pickup height set? The stingray is the closest thing to it but i cant find any OLP original factory pickup height /neck relief/nut action etc specs and i dont know if the ernie ball specs are helpful

I can check tomorrow. I actually have 2 OLP's and an 83' SR.
I know that some of the new Stingrays don't sound very good with the pup high presumably because of the neodymium magnets. I don't think I ever ever changed the height of my SR. Sounded fine when I bought it used in 86'!