favor from a Precision owner please

BassMan99 · #1 01-05-2008, 12:42 PM

I have a 76 fretless P. Have not played it in years, although 20 years ago I played it often.
I have a new gig where I want to play it again and it sounds great except. It buzzes when I touch the pickup pole pieces. I do have nylon tape wound strings on it. If I touch the bridge when touching the pup pole piece the buzz is not as loud but still there.
Can the owner of a P please tell me if there P buzz's like this as well?
I took the original pickup out and then put it back in years ago. Wondering if I messed something up.

Thanks in advance.

iamoldschool · #2 01-05-2008, 12:47 PM

My P does not buzz at all. Dead quiet. You may have a couple of wires getting together, or the ground coming loose. Wouldn't hurt to pull the pup out to check. Have some copper tape on hand when you start, though.

BillMason · #3 01-05-2008, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassMan99

I have a 76 fretless P. Have not played it in years, although 20 years ago I played it often.
I have a new gig where I want to play it again and it sounds great except. It buzzes when I touch the pickup pole pieces. I do have nylon tape wound strings on it. If I touch the bridge when touching the pup pole piece the buzz is not as loud but still there.
Can the owner of a P please tell me if there P buzz's like this as well?
I took the original pickup out and then put it back in years ago. Wondering if I messed something up.

Thanks in advance.

It's the grounding - take the pickguard off and check to see that the wire running from under your bridge is attached to your input jack. If it is, take your bridge off, and there should be a wire coming out of the wood to lay flat against the body and make contact with the bridge. If it isn't there, it likely needs to be yanked up so that it is.

mozarwasagenius · #4 01-05-2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassMan99

I have a 76 fretless P. Have not played it in years, although 20 years ago I played it often.
I have a new gig where I want to play it again and it sounds great except. It buzzes when I touch the pickup pole pieces. I do have nylon tape wound strings on it. If I touch the bridge when touching the pup pole piece the buzz is not as loud but still there.
Can the owner of a P please tell me if there P buzz's like this as well?
I took the original pickup out and then put it back in years ago. Wondering if I messed something up.

Thanks in advance.

My P bass always would buzz with the original pickups (it is a 1984 Precision). It had no shielding. Touching the pole pieces was the worst. The grounding was fine, the shielding was the problem. With Seymour Duncan active pickups (which were shielded well) the buzz was gone. With another non-shielded pickup ( a Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder) it buzzed just the same as the original pickup. I ended up shielding the cavity of the bass *and* the inside of the pickup cover of the SD 1/4 pounder with copper tape and used shielded wire for the routing to the controls. The bass is dead silent now. I don't know if one has to go to the extreme I did but I have never been happier with the silence

.

I suggest you go here http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/bass_elec.htm and order the copper tape and the pbass shielding plate. The shielding plate may solve it alone, if it doesn't try my method with the copper tape. If you aren't handy with a soldering iron you could take it to a local shop.

mozar

BassMan99 · #5 01-05-2008, 01:08 PM

wow you guys are fast. I am going to open it up today. Just thought I would ask. This one has the grounding plate under the pups. I had a Badas$ bridhe on it for a while and took that off as well. I am going to check the wire under there. Thansk for all the suggestions.
Again its only buzzing when I touch the pickup pole pieces. And this is a concern cause I do touch some when playing.
BTW: I am very happy with how it sounds. Lots of muah. More than I remembered. Maybe my technique is better.

Thanks again.

BassMan99 · #6 01-05-2008, 01:14 PM

with the after market pup I have taken out

Darkstrike · #7 01-05-2008, 01:23 PM

Worst comes to worst, tape some electrical tape to the top of the pickup.

meev992 · #8 01-05-2008, 01:25 PM

nylon tape prevents grounding, correct? Y/N ?

(also a p-bass owner with nylon tapes)

BassMan99 · #9 01-05-2008, 01:26 PM

meev yeah thats why I mentioned that. could that be part of problem using the tape wounds. There is no metallic part of string touching the bridge.

BassMan99 · #10 01-05-2008, 01:27 PM

maybe I should try a different pair of string ( and check under the bridge) before I open it up.

Darkstrike · #11 01-05-2008, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassMan99

meev yeah thats why I mentioned that. could that be part of problem using the tape wounds. There is no metallic part of string touching the bridge.

The ball end would still be touching the problem is that your fingers wouldnt be, if that was the problem it would hum all he time, another fix Ive heard on here is to coat the pole pieces in clear nail varnish, stops all hum when touching them.

seanm · #12 01-05-2008, 01:41 PM

I had the same problem with tape wounds. Like meev992, I put electrical tape over the exposed pole pieces to solve the problem. The black tape doesn't show up to the audience and kinda looks cool.

meev992 · #13 01-05-2008, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassMan99

maybe I should try a different pair of string ( and check under the bridge) before I open it up.

on my 24 fret washburn, I have EMGs...I didn't know it at the time, but the combination of Fender 9120's and EMG's was perfect, as the pups are inherently dead-quiet.

BassMan99 · #14 01-05-2008, 02:34 PM

darkstrike. that makes sense about the ball end of string. Of course.... the tape over poles maybe is a way to go. Or take the tapewounds off. i am liking how they sound though.

Darkstrike · #15 01-05-2008, 02:41 PM

Mabye try nail varnish first, In the shielding thread, everyone who coated the poles in varnish could touch the poles with no noise.

mozarwasagenius · #16 01-05-2008, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Mabye try nail varnish first, In the shielding thread, everyone who coated the poles in varnish could touch the poles with no noise.

I forgot to mention in my shielding description that I grounded the pole pieces. I did this via the copper shield on the inside of the pickup contacting the pole pieces which I scraped the wax off of. I have zero hum/buzz when I touch them now.

Another cheap solution is to buy one the pickup covers from the company I pointed to earlier that covers the pole pieces.