pickup buzzing when turned up

[IAmTheDood]

on my fender aerodyne jazz .. i have a P / J combo pickup.

when I turn the volume up on one of the pickups I get a noticeable buzz through the amp. It's the bridge side pickup volume, or the jazz pickup.

it's not the amp, happens with any amp.

whatcha think is the problem?

[Mushroo]

Hi Dood, Not sure about the Aerodyne specifically, but most J pickups, like your bridge pickup, are single-coil pickups. This means they sometimes buzz--it's the nature of the beast--and there's not much that can be done about it. You can try shielding your bass properly, or swap out a hum-canceling replacement pickup, if it is a big concern. A lot of times, I find it is slightly annoying at home, but when I am playing with a band, it gets drowned out by other sounds and is not a problem.

[Mushroo]

ps Your P pickup does not have the problem because the two halves of the P pickup are wired in reverse to form a hum canceling pickup. On a regular jazz bass, the two jazz pickups hum cancel if they are both turned up equally.

[spaz21387]

I have the same problem with my mim jazz. Im thinking the problem is the badass2 bridge being chromed and the ground doesnt make good contact with the metal. I havent bothered to take off the bridge and take a dremel to the bridge. When I pick up some solder im going to replace the pots with 500k and that should block out some of the buzzing too. Also try plugging your amp into a different outlet. It seems like different outlets seem to buzz less. So check your ground too.

[mattygbass]

the noise you are hearing is called 60 cycle hum. all singe coil pickups have it to some degree.if it really is bothering you co can swap the pickups for a hum cancelling jazz pickup. those actually split the coil in half under the plastic cover so the still look the same.

[Mushroo]

Originally Posted by spaz21387

I have the same problem with my mim jazz. Im thinking the problem is the badass2 bridge being chromed and the ground doesnt make good contact with the metal. I havent bothered to take off the bridge and take a dremel to the bridge. When I pick up some solder im going to replace the pots with 500k and that should block out some of the buzzing too. Also try plugging your amp into a different outlet. It seems like different outlets seem to buzz less. So check your ground too.

500k pots let more treble through than 250k pots, so if anything, you will hear MORE buzz.

Plugging into a different outlet and checking your ground are both excellent suggestions!

[spaz21387]

I read somewhere that the higher restance pots would block out some of the outside interference. My problem was accualy the ground. I dremeled some of the chrome off the back of my bridge and no more buzz.