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12-13-2006, 08:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Mansfield, Ohio | | | Pickup/grounding noise?
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I just received a Nordstrand SC4 bass. It's a great, almost perfect bass. The passive Nordstrand single coil Jazz-style pickups sound amazing, other than a noise issue: everytime you touch the pickups with your fingers, a noticeable "grounding noise" is emitted. For some background, these pickups are completely covered (no exposed pole pieces) with wood covers. When I touch the wood on the pickups, I hear a buzzing with the normal sound of the bass. It is fine when you do not touch the pickups. This bass also has the Aguilar OBP-3 preamp in it (active). I do not understand how touching unfinished wood can cause a buzzing sound. Any ideas? Any solutions?
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12-13-2006, 09:51 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas | | Quote:
Originally Posted by noisevayne  I just received a Nordstrand SC4 bass. It's a great, almost perfect bass. The passive Nordstrand single coil Jazz-style pickups sound amazing, other than a noise issue: everytime you touch the pickups with your fingers, a noticeable "grounding noise" is emitted. For some background, these pickups are completely covered (no exposed pole pieces) with wood covers. When I touch the wood on the pickups, I hear a buzzing with the normal sound of the bass. It is fine when you do not touch the pickups. This bass also has the Aguilar OBP-3 preamp in it (active). I do not understand how touching unfinished wood can cause a buzzing sound. Any ideas? Any solutions? |
Wood is a very poor conductor not a non conductor. Also,
Just getting your fingers (body acts as an antenna for noise) near the single coil pickups induces some hum. |
12-14-2006, 01:01 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Mansfield, Ohio | | | None of my other basses, single coil or otherwise, do this. The only basses that did this is the past were my Fender P-Bass Deluxes and my old G&L L-2000. My Spectors, Musicmans, Warwicks, and Rics never do this. Is it a shielding problem of some sort?
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12-14-2006, 04:35 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: London, UK | | | You're both right. LoveThatBass is correct about the induced hum, and I think your shielding suspicions are correct, too. Your observations about your other basses make the point nicely:
The Spector Legend 4 uses a fully shielded EMG Hz P-J pickup set.
The Musicman Stingray has a Humbucker.
The 4003 Hi-Gains (although susceptible to general mains buzz) are properly shielded.
The Warwick Thumb NT uses MEC active pickups (I think??).
Seeing as the bass is brand new, I'd raise a query about this with Nordstrand. For that kind of money, you don't expect your pickups to hum when touched.
Last edited by Espidog : 12-14-2006 at 04:40 AM.
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12-14-2006, 03:26 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Mansfield, Ohio | | | I've also noticed that the pickups do not buzz all of the times. It hums at home and at certain other places, but not in others. This maybe has to do with the electric in the buildings/interference?
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12-15-2006, 01:45 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: London, UK | | | Definitely. Being mostly made of water, your body is acting as an antenna, soaking up the rich soup of electromagnetic fields we all live with these days.
Another question: does the hum/buzz problem go away if you also touch the strings/metalwork of the guitar while touching the wooden case of the pickup? If your metalwork is properly grounded, it should. |
12-15-2006, 11:50 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Mansfield, Ohio | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Espidog Definitely. Being mostly made of water, your body is acting as an antenna, soaking up the rich soup of electromagnetic fields we all live with these days.
Another question: does the hum/buzz problem go away if you also touch the strings/metalwork of the guitar while touching the wooden case of the pickup? If your metalwork is properly grounded, it should. | Yes. If I touch the pickups while touching the strings or other metal hardware, the buzzing stops. Is there any way to fix the buzzing?
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