Jazz bass wiring/grounding

Royale with Cheese

I remember reading somebody had the same problem on here a while back, but I can't find the thread.

Swapped out the stock pickups on my Highway One Jazz Bass for Dimarzio Model J's last night. Followed the instructions exactly and everything was fine. Plugged in and it had all worked, but after a few minutes I realised that when I take all my fingers off the strings I get hum/buzz. I'm guessing it's not grounded properly but having looked at all the connections it seems to be fine.

Anybody got any idea where I went wrong? Or even remember the thread I'm talking about?

Doctor J

You may have a bad solder join.

Best thing to do is et a Jazz bass wiring schematic and make sure everything is as it should be. If you still get the buzzing, undo your soldering and try again.

Eoin Madsen

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Plugged in and it had all worked, but after a few minutes I realised that when I take all my fingers off the strings I get hum/buzz. I'm guessing it's not grounded properly but having looked at all the connections it seems to be fine.

I had this problem when I changed pickups on my brother's Mex Jazz a few years ago. I resoldered and resoldered and star grounded and shielded etc but never fixed it completely. On closer inspection, I later found that, to one degree or another, I have this problem with every single electric guitar/bass in every amp/preamp that I've (personally) played in my house. The only common elements that I can attribute it to are the ground wiring of the house, or an electrical/magnetic field coming from me.

Patricide

Do you have a dimmer switch in your house? Its terrible for creating hum.

Royale with Cheese

Well I don't expect passive pickups to be 100% silent, just not to get worse when I take my fingers off the strings. We've no dimmer switch in the house, and it didn't happen with the old pickups. It doesn't happen with my other bass either, although that has active pickups.

Gonna look at it tomorrow, and just resolder the whole thing if I can't find a fault with where I've wired everything.

On a side note, the pickups sounds great. Would definitely recommend them. Makes a huge difference.

Patricide

If that doesnt work you can always try somthing like shielding tape. Its bronze plated tape that reduces hum significantly or else follow these shielding guides, There meant to reduce hum also!

first one here:http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/tele.php (yea its a tele guide but same principals)

Second one here:http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronics/Shielding/i-3789.html

Shielding tape can be bought here:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding/Conductive_Copper_Tape.html.

hope that helps.