Buzz when soloing Jazz pickup in PJ configuration, normal, fixable?

[konaboy]

Hi

I have a bass with one Precision pickup and single Jazz pickup at the bridge.

When soloing the J pickup the bass buzzes (hums) and this increases as my bass gets near to my amplifier so it seems to be picking up some interference.

This problem goes away when the jazz pickup is turned down, the precision pickup has a very quiet noise floor.

I have read that a level of noise is normal when one jazz pickup is soloed. I have thought about using copper tape to shield the entire control cavity. But would this help? The precision pickup does not buzz which suggests that it isn't the electronics that are picking up interference but the actual jazz pickup itself.

So, is it worth taking the trouble to shield the cavity ?

[paradigm_shift]

A p-pickup acts like a hum bucker so cancels hum. For the jazz you've really got the option of replacing it with a noiseless/ stacked pickup. Or only using it with the p if you are worried about the noise.Its simply a trait of the pickup. Like it or not.

[konaboy]

Originally Posted by paradigm_shift

A p-pickup acts like a hum bucker so cancels hum. For the jazz you've really got the option of replacing it with a noiseless/ stacked pickup. Or only using it with the p if you are worried about the noise.Its simply a trait of the pickup. Like it or not.

Thanks! The noise is not a big problem for me. Anyway I intend to do some wiring mods so adding shielding at the same time would be a simple and cheap procedure. But I guess it wouldn't help in any case.

[line6man]

What you've described is pretty much a typical case of single coil hum.

As paradigm_shift stated, the P pickup is a humbucker. It has two coils which combine together to electrically cancel 60Hz hum. On the other hand, the J pickup is only one coil, so it cannot cancel hum.

You can use a humcancelling Jazz pickup is you want to remove the hum. I personally feel that humbucking Jazz pickups do not sound authentic, but you can look into that if you want to try one.

Shielding probably won't do much, if anything at all, but I usually recommend that a bass always be shielded either way, because it's so easy and inexpensive to do.
Go ahead and shield the bass and see if things are any quieter. If not, you will only be losing the couple of bucks you spent on copper tape...

[mcnach]

Shield it.

Properly.

The J-pickup is not hum cancelling so it'll always pick hum, but it's amazing how much difference a decent shield job will do.

But remember: it's not a humbucker, it'll always be prone to pickinh hum... it's just that you can reduce it a lot by doing a good shielding job.

[walterw]

i recommend the dimarzio ultra jazz as a replacement in P+J sets, because it looks stock, is strong enough to hang with a typical p-bass pickup, and is hum-canceling by itself.

[konaboy]

thanks all! Having read the entire Shielding Sticky and your comments I am inspired to go ahead and order a shielding kit from stewmac.

[dmusic148]

Just be very, very careful smoothing down the copper tape with your fingers- the edge can cut you badly, ask me how I know. It'll slice a nice, calloused fingertip right in two. No fun. Be careful.

[PJSShearer]

Originally Posted by walterw

i recommend the dimarzio ultra jazz as a replacement in P+J sets, because it looks stock, is strong enough to hang with a typical p-bass pickup, and is hum-canceling by itself.

+1