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Remedy for a noisy bass (for the passive electronics whizzes out there)


Phantasm

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Ok, I've got a passive bass, P/J configuration, with a single volume and a single tone knob. There's also a switch to choose P, J, or P+J.

 

I love the sound of the bass, just there's some groundy-type buzzing and stuff going on when I play it. (Pardon me here if this is normal, it's been a whole lot of years since I've owned a relatively inexpensive passive-only bass.) When I touch the strings, the buzz improves.

 

So how do I remedy this problem? The bass works great, just has a noise floor that I'd like to reduce.

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Posted

 

Ok, I've got a passive bass, P/J configuration, with a single volume and a single tone knob. There's also a switch to choose P, J, or P+J.


I love the sound of the bass, just there's some groundy-type buzzing and stuff going on when I play it. (Pardon me here if this is normal, it's been a whole lot of years since I've owned a relatively inexpensive passive-only bass.) When I touch the strings, the buzz improves.


So how do I remedy this problem? The bass works great, just has a noise floor that I'd like to reduce.

 

 

has it always done this?

does it stop when you touch the strings?

are the electronics properly shielded?

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Posted

 

has it always done this?

does it stop when you touch the strings?

are the electronics properly shielded?

 

 

Well, I just got the bass today and it's from 1989, so I don't know if it always was a little noisy. It has been since I picked it up from the post office today.

 

It is greatly reduced when I touch the strings.

 

When I open the back cavity, the only foil I see is on the cavity cover plate.

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Put some aluminum foil tape across the pickguard where the tone/volume/inputs are. That may help. If the bass has no pickguard, put the tape on the inside cavity where the tone/volume/inputs are mounted.

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It is a shielding issue. Tell us what the bass is or post a picture and we can give you good advice how to shield it.

 

 

Ok, I'll take a picture tonight and post it.

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+1 on the shielding. I had a bass do the exact same thing so I took all of the electronics out of it and covered all of the cavities with copper shielding tape, and grounded everything. It doesn't make a sound now.

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you might want to make a little ground wire that connects the bridge to the pots. if you touch the stirngs and it almost stops that is the ground that is needed. the shielding will cover the rest of the hum that you still hear after that.

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