Noisey MM - Shield it or take it back?

[mandoman]

Hi Guys,

Bought a Fender Marcus Miller 4 weeks ago - I love it, but it's
got some horrible ground noise - ie, the kind of noise that
goes away when you touch the strings. Granted, I have crappy
2-prong AC in my house, none of my other instruments make this noise.

So do you think shielding the cavity will cure this problem?
Or should I take it back and get something different? I've
only got a couple of more days till my 30 day return is up,
so I need to decide soon.

The only other instrument in my price range that I'm interested in is maybe a
standard MIA Fender Jazz, but I'm not confident that
will be much better. Of course I'd love a Sad. Metro MV4 which
I'm positive will be better, but I can't afford that. Sigh.

I want to keep the MM, but I absolutely must get rid of the
ground noise.

Thanks,
Mandoman

[Doctor J]

Do your other instruments have humbuckers? Does the hum go away with both pickups on full?

[mandoman]

Yes, the other instrument have HB's, but I can split the coils and put them in single coil mode - still quiet.

The noise does not go away when both pickups are on full. The noise
isn't too bad in passive mode with the vol. up 50%, over 50% vol. and in active mode, or with tone controls up, noise-o-rama.

[mandoman]

So I decided to keep the bass. After recently playing out,
I decided the buzz wasn't loud enough to notice in a live setting.

In the studio, the buzz is only bad when I take my hand
off the strings. Since I play with a pick, this can be bothersome
when I play open strings.

Solution. Since I rest my palm on the pickup cover when I play,
I connected a wire between the bridge and the pickup cover.
This has the effect of always touching the strings when I play,
so I don't get any static when I play the open notes.

Eventually I'll change the pickups to HB's and shield the bass.
I believe most of the noise derives from the cheap ass preamp,
so that may need to be upgraded to a bartolini, sadowsky,
or j-retro pre. Or, alternatively, just trade the MM in at that
point to a lakland or sadowsky.

For now, the bass is great. Though a little on the heavy side
(10.5lbs) and the afformentioned noise, it's really fun to play
and sounds great.