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Post subject: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:33 am
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I talked with a friend of mine that suggested I try reversing the polarity of the pickups. Has anyone tried this... :?:


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:36 am
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I did notice when I rewired the bass, when I had the pickups side by side the hot wires were on opposite sides... front pickup hot wire on the left rear pickup hot wire on right..


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:43 pm
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when I had the pickups side by side one was opposite from the other. I wired it like the picture shows and everything changed.. with all the pods turned all the way up the buzz is gone but when you turn one down the buzz comes back... but not as bad... it's way better.. so whats doing that..??

Image


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:55 pm
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Single coil pickups are going to hum. Ask any Strat player. That is why some use noise gate pedals. By shielding you get rid of lots of the RFI hum, but you'll never get rid of 100% of it. All you can do is minimize it and lower the noise floor.

This is especially true when standing too close to an AC power source or, heaven forbid, a CRT monitor. I had a Fender single coil bass one time that would actually pick up the Georgia State Patrol car two-way radios if they were transmitting anywhere within about a mile. I could hear them clear as a bell. They had huge linear amps in their trunks I'm guessing and were overmodulated so they were splattering all over the radio spectrum.

When both pickups are balanced in load the hum goes away because the two pickups are working together to effectively produce a humbucker effect.

Some people opt to install NOISELESS pickups, which essentially are split coil pickups and find that they have cured the hum problem. However they sound an awful lot like P-Bass pickups, however since they are wound to a lower impedance than actual P-Bass pickups they are somewhat brighter than P-Bass pickups. Yet they don't sound quite like Jazz pickups either.

No single coil guitar, bass, steel guitar, or Mandolin pickup is ever going to be 100% RFI free. It is just the nature of them. If you want the J-Tone or the first generation single coil P-Bass tone then you find ways to minimize it best you can. Even the vintage J-Basses have this issue. It isn't anything new or unique to your instrument.


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 7:35 pm
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I understand what your saying.. but this thing is buzzing like crazy... well, until I swapped the polarity on one of the pickups and now I'm thinking it has some funny sounds going on... but when both volumes are wide open there is no noise at all..

It's my buddies bass and he is a guitar player not a bass player, I'm going to ask him about buying some different pickups.. he wants it to do some recording.. no way he could of used it to record the way is was..

Could the pickups have been out of phase from the factory??


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:54 pm
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Probably not wired incorrectly form the factory. But anything is possible. I would think it would have been caught. Sometimes pickups are just noisy. If I was going to record with a Jazz I'd have to do a full shielding job and probably put on NOISELESS model pickups.


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:21 am
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I'm not sure if the OP has done this---- if my bass is just buzzing and humming all the time and it's driving me nuts and no matter what I do doesn't work-- I'd take the bass over to the music store and plug it in there in any kind of amp and see what it sounds like there. OR I'd take it to a qualified repair guy and turn it over to him to make a diagnosis so I could get to the bottom of it. That's just me though.


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Post subject: Re: Jazz bass buzzzzz II
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:18 am
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Good advice from Stoker.


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