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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:31 am
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Professional Musician
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Location: Green Bay, WI
Well happy belated father's day! All I got from my family was turtle cheesecake?! I should ask for the Vibe '60s bass next year :lol:

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'89 Power Jazz Bass Special-BadAssIII, EMG P/J
Project PBass-EMG PX, Schaller BM Light Tuner
'05 Aerodyne JBass
'06 Spector Legend Custom Neck Through
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Hartke TA5000 w/XL Cabs(210, 410, 115)


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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:37 pm
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hey!

Nice to hear that! I know what you mean, it's a hard bass to put down when you're in the mood for some funky fretless grooving :D

Enjoy it!


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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:57 pm
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The badass II made a serious difference! It was more punchy and brighter, sustain was better, I also replaced the strings (roto sound flat wounds)
8)

Image


Last edited by markbass4444 on Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject: Question about Squier VM Fretless Jazz Bass
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:00 pm
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I bought a Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz Bass about two months ago. It is one great guitar!

I have one issue: When I take my hands off of the strings, I get a lot of buzzing noise. I can imagine a little noise would be normal, but this seems excessive. I have not experienced this problem with my Squier Affinity P Bass.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm not sure what to do to resolve the problem.

Thanks!


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Post subject: Question about Squier VM Fretless Jazz Bass
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:11 am
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Here's a follow-up post to my problem:

I took my guitar to the Guitar Center where I bought it. A technician examined the wiring and said both volume pots and the tone pot were properly grounded and that they were grounded to the bridge. He added grounding for the input jack.

While at the store, I tested the new configuration and it seemed to be perfect. Now then, I got home and plugged into my equipment. No good. The problem still exists. I even tried using my son's amp and chord instead of my own. I also moved to different rooms with the equipment. Still no good.

I'm not sure how to proceed at this point.


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Post subject: Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz Bass
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:03 am
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By the way, I noticed when the GC technician had the wiring exposed that the way the pots are wired does not match what is shown in the wiring diagram for my guitar. Is that normal?


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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:24 pm
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How are you todd, I have the same bass Squier VMF j bass.. If it was okay in the store and it started to hum again at your house i'm thinking... is there any electrical appliances that is turned on while testing your bass? Because sometimes if you are too close to a TV screen or any electrical appliances the pickups can sometimes pick up the interference... A good shielding job might do the trick, I shielded mine with house hold aluminum foil but if you don't want to be troubled with that and if you want to reward your bass and spend a little just install noiseless pickups, that will do it and will also improve the sound of you bass :) I have a bass with noiseless pickups and it's so quiet! 0% noise even with the gain up

Fender SCN Noisless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oc5CwHc2ns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soMjc6mpGuE :o


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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:53 pm
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Thanks for the tips mark. Since I'm new to a lot of this, can you tell me how you shielded your VMF Jazz? Did it involve grounding the shielding, or not? I've found various articles about shielding online, but nothing specific to this exact guitar. I want to try the least expensive route first, but want to be sure I'm doing it right! If the shielding method doesn't work, I may take the plunge and buy new pickups. All I know is that I have to do something as the buzzing is very distracting.

Thanks!


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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 9:22 pm
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I just read on another forum where people are having the same issue with the VMF Jazz and lots of buzzing. One guy said the same thing about replacing the pickups. He replaced the Duncan Designed pickups with Fender Custom Shop '60s Jazz pickups. His buzzing problem is gone.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:37 am
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Todd, how are you man, yep I grounded the shielding both neck and bridge cavity and the control plate cavity, my grounding was different from the J bass traditional grounding diagram. I'll open up my bass and take a look how I did it (cause I forgot already lol), then I'll get back to you, BTW when you hold the strings do you still hear a hum? Because it's normal for a jazz bass to hum when you are not touching the strings... try to turn up both neck and bridge pickups, the hum should go away, both pickups should do the hum canceling effect.. just like your P bass, the humbucker pickups is doing the hum canceling effect on each other. The 60's fender custom shop pickups is actually not noiseless it still might hum, but fender is offering noiseless pickups. check out this link for more info:
one is the vintage noiseless pickups and the other is the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups

http://www.basspartsresource.com/bass_p ... azzusa.htm

Image
my shielding job looks like an abstract instead of a work of art LOL :lol:
but nobody will see it anyways after the pickguard is installed. :)


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:32 pm
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Hey there. Thanks for the info and the picture! I really appreciate it.

I had my control plate open last night while trying to figure this out. I found that the wiring almost matches the diagram that Squier has posted on their site for the VMF Jazz. The differences I see are that in the diagram the pots are grounded together and the bridge is grounded to the tone pot. My guitar does not have grounding between pots and the bridge is grounded to one of the volume pots. I've included pictures. Tell me if I'm reading the diagram incorrectly.

Image

Image


In order to answer your question about my hands on the strings, let me clarify that I hear humming and buzzing. With my other bass, I only hearing a little humming. With this bass, I hear humming and lots of buzzing.

So yes, when I place my hands on the strings, the humming is dampened slightly. When I put my hand on the bridge, the buzzing goes away. However, I also noticed that this only works if I have the guitar up against my body. If I simply have the guitar laying on a flat surface, touching the bridge makes no difference.

I've read many posts that talk about turning both volume pots up to the same level. On my guitar it doesn't have any effect on the buzzing.

What's interesting is that when I take my guitar to Guitar Center and play through their amps, I don't hear the buzzing. My son has a Squier Starcaster, which has three single-coil pickups. He plugged into my amp last night and he too experienced the buzzing. He takes guitar lessons at a local studio. He said that his guitar does not make any buzzing noise when he's plugged into the instructor's amps.

I'm beginning to suspect that I've got multiple issues. Perhaps my amp and/or my house's wiring is the culprit. I'm thinking about taking my gear to the guitar instructor's studio and testing for the buzzing there.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:34 pm
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Wow.. it must be something.. I have never encountered anything like that before but here's my grounding setup,... this works for my bass, I only get a light hum when the volume pots are not on the same level and when the tone is all the way up. This how I play may bass

neck pickup: 0%
bridge pickup: 100%
tone: 30%
I don't get any hum with this setup.

I dont have the original squier control plate anymore my bass is using a MIM fender control plate.. it should be the same
Image

also check out this video! it might be the problem that you have..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zk6Kbg6p78


Last edited by markbass4444 on Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:00 pm
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I checked out the video and followed the tests. It appears that my pickups are correct in their polarity. That was a cool thing to check... I didn't realize that could be a problem.

I like the diagram you provided. It would appear that it matches exactly the diagram that came from Squier that I attached earlier (minus the grounding directly between pots). As you may have been able to tell from the picture of my wiring, both my neck and bridge pickups are grounded together on the neck volume pot, and the bridge is grounded on the bridge volume pot. I may try to re-solder my wiring such that it matches the Squier diagram and thus your diagram.

Again, thanks for the advice.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:34 pm
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Actually, does it matter where the pickups and bridge are grounded? Would moving the grounding wires to the locations outlined by Squier make any difference? I only want to do it if it has the potential of making a difference.

What a fiasco! :?


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:59 pm
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hey Todd, I came up with my grounding setup from trial and error, what happened was somehow when I grounded all 3 cavities together the neck pickup didn't work and I really didn't know why as in no sound! So I had to find a different ground for the bridge pickup cavity and then ta-dah! it worked! good bye annoying noisy hum! I guess I just got lucky.... :o what are you using for sheilding? I used Elmers glue and aluminum foil... fiasco..:lol: After all your hard work and research I'm sure you will enjoy playing your newly shielded noise free Fretless Jazz :) If that stubborn hum is still there Noiseless pickups is the only solution that I can think of..


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