RockBass Service Notice

Some RockBasses were recently shipped from Dana B. Goods with a minor wiring miscue. Basically, the wires leading to the jack on the bass were wired in such a way that the battery running the active electronics was always on, causing the battery to drain very quickly. The basses with this problem play and sound fine, but they eat batteries like your drummer at the green room buffet table. The basses which potentially have this problem were shipped to dealers between September 10 and November 9, 2006. There are 5 models involved: Corvette Basic 4-string in blue or white, Corvette Basic 5-string in black, Corvette Classic 4-string, and Corvette Classic 4-string Fretless.

Luckily the fix is very easy, it will take longer for your soldering iron to heat up than to fix it. Any one with any knowledge of soldering should be able to switch the wires in less than a minute once the iron is hot.On the affected basses, the Black lead from the battery and the ground (shield) wire are reversed on the output jack. There are three solder lugs on the jack: Short, Medium, and Long. The white signal wire always goes to the short lug. The black battery lead goes to the medium lug. The shield (the outer conductor on the white signal wire) goes to the long lug. The miswired basses have the black and shield wires reversed. Below you will see two photos –one showing the bad wiring and one showing the correct wiring.

 

"Sorry about the burnt wires in the photos. We had a terrible time getting a good photo. We soldered and unsoldered the wires so many times we melted everything in sight."

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but there are two very easy ways to tell if you have a miswired RockBass:

1) The black wire from the battery is going to the "long" terminal on the output jack

2) Your bass is dead and you have to put a new battery in every time you want to play it.

You can also look on the back of your headstock and see if the serial number looks like this:

If your serial number looks like this (RB SN X-xxxxxx S-06 burned into the back of the headstock, where "X" is F, G or H) then you should check the wiring.

If you determine that you own one of these instruments you have two choices:

1) Contact the music store where you bought the RockBass and they will handle the repair at no charge to them or you . (Have them contact their RockBass rep for details.)

2) If you are handy with a soldering iron you can simply reverse the wires as described above.

 

Warwick apologizes for this error and we are working hard to make sure all of the basses are repaired as soon as possible. If you own one of the mis-wired basses, live in the USA, and have had it repaired, please print out this Consumer Service Voucher to pick out a free gift. If you are a USA service center and you have completed work on one of these Rockbasses, please print out this Service Center Voucher to get reimbursed. THIS PROGRAM HAS ENDED.

If you have any questions regarding this service notice please email Tyler Krupsky at DBGTech@danabgoods.com .