How to shield a Mustang RI

[Winfred]

First: I am a complete novice at electronics. No skill, at all.

Okay, that's out of the way.

I have a mustang RI, about 5 years old. It buzzes when it's near my body. Doesn't buzz when I set it down away from me.

It doesn't buzz when I touch the strings, bridge, or tuning pegs.

• Rolling the tone knob off lessens the buzzing.
  
• I have shielded the pickups and jack/knobs with copper plating inside the cavities of both. I got the copper plating from an older bass, and cut it to fit the cavities of the mustang.
  
• No change.
  
• I have tested the bass with different chords and amps. No change. I get the same buzz all the time.
  

So, what else can I do to get rid of the buzz? I don't want to get rid of the bass.

Thanks!

[Cadfael]

Have you also tested the bass in different rooms (different "fuse sytems") and different locations?

I you want to keep the bass - canabis or MUCH BETTER a relaxing training might be useful! Thne buzzing remainds but you don't mind ...

The Mustang RI should have (good) S. Duncan pickups ...
Sh*t always happens - and I have heard of a Fender PU with mixed up cable colours! If your PU hums, maybe the cables have been mixed in Japan (but this is only 0.001% possibility!).

Tone knob works as it should.

A bass is supposed to produce sound - not silence!
Is the buzzing still to hear when a guitar player has put his Overdrive on?

[Winfred]

Bump please.

[gunlak]

properly shielding the cavities is the answer. i'm pretty sure the continuity of the shielding is off at one point. check it with a multimeter or by trial and error.

[astack]

Is all the shielding wired to a common ground, such that there's no voltage difference between any portion? The info in the jazz shielding tut sticky should still apply here.

Hopefully you figure something out.

[Winfred]

Originally Posted by astack

Is all the shielding wired to a common ground, such that there's no voltage difference between any portion? The info in the jazz shielding tut sticky should still apply here.

Hopefully you figure something out.

No, the shielding isn't grounded to anything. Crap! Okay, thank you so much for that.

I'm really a novice at this stuff, but your suggestion might just solve it. Thank you!

[astack]

Cool, easy fix then. Again, if you have a multimeter, see if there is any voltage diff between all the grounds. Anything that's not 0 needs attention.

[DiabolusInMusic]

Give it an actual shielding job, a plate in the back won't do spit. Line the whole cavity with foil tape and ground the cope foil inside the pickup surrounds to the foil inside the cavity.

You can source copper foil locally from stained glass supply shops.

[Winfred]

Originally Posted by DiabolusInMusic

Give it an actual shielding job, a plate in the back won't do spit. Line the whole cavity with foil tape and ground the cope foil inside the pickup surrounds to the foil inside the cavity.

You can source copper foil locally from stained glass supply shops.

By "ground it" do you mean solder it (via a wire) to a volume/tone pot?

Thanks!

[Winfred]

Hey, it worked! I followed the diagram and instructions in the sticky. I just hadn't grounded everything properly the first time. It cut the buzz by about 90%. That's awesome! Thanks so much folks.