Pickup buzz on my P bass

[evito]

Hey everyone,

I bought a used '96 MIA P bass and had it shipped to me. During the shipping, it looks like the black wire from the pickups seemed to have come apart. So I soldered it back to the pot that I believed it was origionaly soldered to (I checked what I thought was the right diagrams).

I have it all put back together and I noticed that whenever my fingers touch the metal part of the pickups, they seem to buzz pretty loud. This is a problem because my fingers brush over the pickups when I play.

So I am wondering if I soldered that wire to the wrong spot? There was a screw that seemed to act as a ground that was just attached to the body with another black wire soldered to it.

Any info would help!

[gt96g]

Take it from someone who has soddered many pickups, buzz issues are usually always related to the ground. If I remember correctly white on fender pickups are leads and blacks are the grounds. so the black wire in this case should be sottered to the top of the pot. Only my best guess very hard to judge without seeing it.

[evito]

Originally Posted by gt96g

Take it from someone who has soddered many pickups, buzz issues are usually always related to the ground. If I remember correctly white on fender pickups are leads and blacks are the grounds. so the black wire in this case should be sottered to the top of the pot. Only my best guess very hard to judge without seeing it.

Ok, that could be it then. When I soldered it, I soldered it to the bottom of the pot because it seemed like most of the wires were like that. There was 3 little "wings" for lack of a better word that were on the pot and 2 of them had wired soldered to it. Would that make a difference if I soldered it to the bottom of the pot or the wing?

[evito]

Actually it would help me a lot if someone who has a passive P bass could tell me where exactly the black wire from the pickups is soldered to.

I would greatly appreciate it!

[Bobster]

The black wire from the pickup should go to ground. This can be the back of the volume pot, or a star ground or some other central ground.

[evito]

hmm, well it seems then that I grounded it correctly as I have it on the bottom of the volume pot. What would be causing the buzz when my finger hits the metal part of the pickup then?

[Bobster]

I'd check resistance to the ground leg of the jack first.

You can get a diagram of the wiring at a lot of sites, here's one.

http://www.sonfatherguitars.com/Schematics/P-Bass.GIF

Bob

[evito]

Originally Posted by Bobster

I'd check resistance to the ground leg of the jack first.

You can get a diagram of the wiring at a lot of sites, here's one.

http://www.sonfatherguitars.com/Schematics/P-Bass.GIF

Bob

Thanks for the diagram Bob. I did solder the connection where it is telling me in the diagram so I will do a once over on the rest of the connections to see if there is an issue somewhere else. I am starting to wonder if the buzz has anything to do with the wiring. Maybe it's a faulty pickup? I am really stumped on this one.

[DavePlaysBass]

I put a piece of electrical tape over the pulls under the E and A string.

[evito]

Originally Posted by DavePlaysBass

I put a piece of electrical tape over the pulls under the E and A string.

that might work, but my fingers hit the pickups on every string pretty much and I would hate to put electrical tape on them because they are functioning improperly.

[evito]

Ok, so I checked a few more wiring diagrams and it looks like the black wire from the pickup is supposed to be soldered to the ground wire and then to the pot. I have them both soldered to the pot but in different spots. Do you think that could be why I am having the buzzing issues?