Help: trouble with SMB-4D + STC-3M3

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x18999

New member
Hello, I'm new to the forums and I have a help request.

It happens that I had the music man style pickups and that preamp installed on a bass, and it was working just fine. Then I had a really busy month so I didn't play the bass for like 1 month. I just had time again to play so I plugged the bass in the amp and all I got is a horrible buzz-like sound. I took the bass to the Luthier who installed the pick up and preamp, he checked the system and said that visually there was nothing wrong, he changed the battery connector (I already tried several batteries with no change), but the problem is still there. He connected the pickup to a volume pot and a mono jack to (for a passive check) and the pickup was working just fine, so the problem seems to be in the preamp system.

Any ideas? What could I do?

Thanks in advance.
 
Re: Help: trouble with SMB-4D + STC-3M3

welcome to the forum!!

i would call tech support at duncan and see what they have to say. it sounds like the preamp has a bad connection.
 
Re: Help: trouble with SMB-4D + STC-3M3

Thanks, I'll try to contact SD.

What my Luthier said is that the problem could be that the electrolytic condensers on the preamp have "dried", but that's just a guess. Anyone ever heard of it? Could a problem like this be fixed by just taking out those condenser and soldering new ones?

Fact is I really want to save that preamp, but I might be ending up spending about half the preamp price in trying to to that. Trying because he said there's no guarantee that it's gonna work right away.
 
Re: Help: trouble with SMB-4D + STC-3M3

it is possible that one of the componants on the board went bad. any good electronics tech should be able to fix it for you but i have no idea what that will cost down there.
 
Re: Help: trouble with SMB-4D + STC-3M3

I contacted Seymour Duncan customer service and after giving them a description of my problem the guy who was helping me said that they were going to give me another circuit board... Oh, I was so shocked, never even imagined it...

That's the very definition of customer service

So, for the folks out there, buy Seymour Duncan stuff without second thoughts about support from the company, I doubt some other manufacturer can beat that kind of service.
 
Re: Help: trouble with SMB-4D + STC-3M3

sweet man, glad they are taking care of you
 
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