pop when touching pickup poles

[markblasco]

I just finished shielding my p bass after installing a nordstrand pickup, and it is now dead quiet, even when not touching the strings. The only problem is, any time my finger touches one of the pole pieces of the pickup, I get a popping sound. Is there a way to fix this?

[WarriorJoe7]

i want to know this too. I've had this happend on several basses with mm pickups... probably because the exposed poles are so big and easy to touch.

[broadblik]

It could be your body's natural current, grounding through the pickups?

Just a guess..

[dmusic148]

Static discharge?

[SGD Lutherie]

The magnets are not grounded, so touching the poles causes a noise. If it's a pop it might be static discharge. Usually you get a buzz or hum.

[markblasco]

OK, so is there a fix for this?

[randbguy]

I had that problem too! Even with the copper shielding everywhere including the holes the pickup wires travel through to the control cavity. I was able to solve it by isolating my signal grounds from my component grounds. All the grounds from the negative pickup signal were kept on a separate line to the ring connector on the output jack. I un soldered the tab on the low side of the volume controls and ran all the component grounds on a separate line to the ring connector of the output jack. It used to seem as though it was a type of static discharge that released occasionally when you touched the strings or the pole pieces. Some said that I didn't have ground continuity with the bridge or another component, but my tester said otherwise. Isolating the grounds worked for me.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by markblasco

OK, so is there a fix for this?

If you have access to the bottoms of the magnets you can try and stick some conductive adhesive copper foil to the magnets, like the stuff they sell at StewMac, and ground it.

The other alternative is to paint some clear lacquer on the poles.

Originally Posted by randbguy

I had that problem too! Even with the copper shielding everywhere including the holes the pickup wires travel through to the control cavity. I was able to solve it by isolating my signal grounds from my component grounds. All the grounds from the negative pickup signal were kept on a separate line to the ring connector on the output jack.

Your signal grounds and the rest of the grounds are all the same. You didn't isolate them because they connected back together at the jack and the amp. Likely you just improved the wiring or something.

There is no negative pickup signal, just the common return, and that connects to ground.