Bump.. sorry about bringing this back from the dead, but..
Exact same problem here with a Warwick Streamer Stage 1 5 string bass after installing this pre.
OP, did you finally determine this is a pickup problem, or something else?
- The STC-3A I bought is new
- Balance knob very noisy through amp
- Extremely low output - with gain and volume cranked on the amp, and bass at max, you get a barely-audible signal
- Twisting the treble pot does what you'd expect - hissy (normal hiss) out to amp as you'd hear when maxing the treble pot on any active bass with treble control
- I'm not sure if a pickup is bad or not, but I suspect one is. The whole reason I've installed this pre is because the rear pickup output was intermittent with the previous stock MEC 3 Band Pre. Pickups are factory MEC soapbars
- Red wires from pickups joined with battery red wire and joined with red wire on the preamp itself
- White wires from neck and bridge pickups attached to their respective tab on the balance pot as shown in the diagram that comes with the preamp
- Black wire from output jack ground attached to the black battery wire
- Black wire (purple in this case) from output jack sleeve attached to the black wire on the bass/treble pot
- Bridge ground soldered to the bass/treble pot (instructions don't mention any ground, but I have another Warwick with this preamp installed from the factory, so I was able to reference that for a bridge ground location)
I tried a battery first of all. No change. Also, before I made the decision to buy this preamp, I had a tech buddy of mine at the Warwick shop check the pickup I thought was bad, and it tested good (not sure exactly what the numbers were, but he's been a tech around here for 20+ years, so I trust his work). However, if it's an intermittent problem, it could have just been behaving while he tested it.
I'm confident I've done everything correctly, but being that this is my first preamp install, it's possible I messed something up. This is one of the pre-soldered units from SD, though, so there are very few connections. Still, I verified everything that was done at the factory with the diagram.
I'd really like to know if super mario came to a resolution or not.
Either way, I can't see what else this could be other than something damaged in one or both pickups. I've had almost 30 Warwicks, and never a bad pickup, but there's a first time for everything..
I'm planning on buying a set of Nordstrands, either Fat Stacks or Dual Coils, as they drop right in to this bass. Once I do that, I'll report back with what I find. Pickup(s) are all that's left to try. The other possibility is a bad run of preamps, as the OP and I both bought ours from an Amazon retailer that could have been the same one, but I think this is very unlikely.
The end result is this bass will sound killer with this pre and Nordstrands once I get it sorted
