diff --git a/js/bam/bamUtils.js b/js/bam/bamUtils.js
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/js/bam/bamUtils.js
+++ b/js/bam/bamUtils.js
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ var igv = (function (igv) {
                 } else {
                     qualArray = [];
                     for (j = 0; j < lseq; ++j) {
-                        qualArray.push(ba[p + j] - 33);
+                        qualArray.push(ba[p + j]);
                     }
                 }
                 p += lseq;
fix base quality parsing bug for bams