American Fender Deluxe Jazz V - Buzzzzzzzzzzzz

[girlonbass]

Hi all,

I have a brand new Fender Jazz V with active electronics that I've had, fresh off the shelf for about three weeks. Suddenly I'm noticing an excessive amount of hum.

I've tried different cables. All good quality Planet Waves cables. Tried different amps and DI'ed into my Tascam system. All is well with my active Warwick and Schecter basses. It's only the Fender that makes the noise.

It's going to be visiting the shop in the next few days. But I'm wondering if anybody else has had this problem with a new Fender Bass???

thanks,
Terri

[bassclef04]

Try touching the strings or bridge and if the hum stops then your bass needs proper shielding

[sadowskyguy]

Could be a shielding issue. I know some guys on here are taking copper shielding and filling in the walls of the control cavity. Other than that, if there are any dimmer lights near you, its gonna have some hum. My radial jdi helps fight hum, but it still has a little hum if there are many dimmers. Hope this helps,

[AHDBassist]

Check the ground wire. And like others said try shielding.

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by girlonbass

Hi all,

I have a brand new Fender Jazz V with active electronics that I've had, fresh off the shelf for about three weeks. Suddenly I'm noticing an excessive amount of hum.

Did the buzz just start or did you just start noticing it? With both pickups up full does it mostly go away? When it is buzzing, does the direction you are facing when you are holding the bass influence how loud it buzzes?

Single coil pickups like a Jazz Bass has are susceptible to picking up 60Hz RF no matter what you do with shielding, cables, etc., though shielding the electronics and pickup cavities may help. Usually one pickup is wired and wound opposite from the other so running both pickups at the same volume will give you some hum/buzz canceling.

I love the sound of single coils, but some buzzing comes with the territory.

[girlonbass]

Originally Posted by ggunn

Did the buzz just start or did you just start noticing it? With both pickups up full does it mostly go away? When it is buzzing, does the direction you are facing when you are holding the bass influence how loud it buzzes?

Single coil pickups like a Jazz Bass has are susceptible to picking up 60Hz RF no matter what you do with shielding, cables, etc., though shielding the electronics and pickup cavities may help. Usually one pickup is wired and wound opposite from the other so running both pickups at the same volume will give you some hum/buzz canceling.

I love the sound of single coils, but some buzzing comes with the territory.

I just started noticing it. And it is quite pronounced. I was recording with it the other day and could hear the buzz over the mix. Touching the strings reduces the buzz and touching the poll of the pickups makes it much louder. Single coils aside, the J-type Bartolini's in my Warwick are dead quiet. Ironically these are Fender's N3 pickups which supposed to be very quiet. Moving around the room makes no difference to the amount of buzz. Setting the pickup balance from bridge to center to neck makes not difference. Turning the volume down to zero stops the buzz. If this was a Squier I might think its par for the course but this is an American Deluxe so you'd think be getting decent quality for the dollars spent.

I'm thinking there's some cold solder problem or something that is lose that has become worse with temperature changes and such.

I was mainly wondering if this was a common problem with these basses.

But I will be taking it to the shop where I bought it. (Long & McQuade), probably tomorrow.

Will let you know.

thanks,
Terri

[Mousekillaz]

The N3's are a noiseless design, from my understanding. According to Fender they are their latest and best modern J pup's.

[guy n. cognito]

A little research is in order here. If you look at the current Fender Jazz Deluxe megathread, you'll see that this is a common issue. The cause? The Jazz Deluxe is completely unshielded and ungrounded. If the buzz goes away when you touch metal, then there is nothing wrong but the lack of shielding.

I bought a 2010 version of that bass and returned it the next day. It is completely unusable given the amount of hum.

[van_gogh_bass]

I bought one of these used from a fellow TBer as a fixer upper and immediately noticed the buzz.

Couldn't figure it out with the Fender electroincs and pickups. I like the bass and wanted a project bass to hot-rod, so I ripped the pickups and electroincs out of it and installed an Audere preamp and Nordstrand pickups. Plays like a dream now.

I understand this may not be an option for a new bass, but I seem to remember searching TB and finding that it was indeed a common problem with this bass.

[Doug Parent]

Originally Posted by guy n. cognito

A little research is in order here. If you look at the current Fender Jazz Deluxe megathread, you'll see that this is a common issue. The cause? The Jazz Deluxe is completely unshielded and ungrounded. If the buzz goes away when you touch metal, then there is nothing wrong but the lack of shielding.

I bought a 2010 version of that bass and returned it the next day. It is completely unusable given the amount of hum.

The bass is grounded, not shielded. Common ground runs everywhere. Its the preamp guts exposed inside the cavity. Rip out that, problem solved.

[arcieangelo]

Hi. Is there a link to the "megathread" you refer to? I often look for particular threads but can't find them. For example, when I searched the guitar forum threads for "Fender jazz bass deluxe", I get a list of any thread that ever mentioned a Fender Jazz Deluxe. I get the impression there are threads dedicated to various products (as the Jazz Deluxe) where you don't have to wade thru hundreds of threads that merely mention the product. Any help would be appreciated.

[girlonbass]

I found this thread from another TBer that has found a solution to this problem.

American Deluxe Jazz / Pbass ground hum noise problem solved

Many thanks to mikecd1 for the information.

This is my problem exactly. Today I was comparing the $1700 Deluxe to my kid's $500 Mexican Jazz. The MIM Jazz has no problem.

Will let everyone know how I make out with the dealer.

thanks,
Terri

[guy n. cognito]

Originally Posted by Doug Parent

The bass is grounded, not shielded. Common ground runs everywhere. Its the preamp guts exposed inside the cavity. Rip out that, problem solved.

Shielding has to be grounded to work properly. Ripping out the pre does nothing to rectify the problem.

[Doug Parent]

Originally Posted by guy n. cognito

Shielding has to be grounded to work properly. Ripping out the pre does nothing to rectify the problem.

Agreed re: the grounding. BTW, I shielded (and connected the shield to ground of course, and I still have some buzz although less)

I had two ADV's (05 and 06 that had a similar 18V pre amp design with exposed guts on a circuit board, I ripped the pre-amp and went passive (same pickups BTW) and the buzz went bye-bye. Just saying...that handled the problem for me and of course YMMV.

[engedi1]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread here. But here are the details with my Fender 2011 ADJ:
1. totally quite in passive mode.
2. noticeable buzz in active mode. Especially when tracking in the studio where I am usually in the control room close to the computers. My producer will often make me use passive mode which bums me out as I love the active tone of this bass.
3. touching the strings or the bass does NOTHING to the buzz.
4. Just yesterday I tried shielding the whole bass with copper foil, and I have made the buzz worse, which completely blows my mind.

I love this bass as far as neck and tone go. I want to keep the N3 pickups which I like. But I play a lot of sessions and can't handle the buzz. I didn't shield the pickups (I tried, but that made the pickups not work at all)
Do you guys think putting in a different preamp will solve the issue? I will say the buzz is worse when I solo the front pickup (active mode only) I don't this means the pickup is the fault, but that something about the preamp buzzes more when I solo the front pickup.

[23Rush2112]

Add me to the list of American Deluxe Jazz Bass V owners. I have been following the various threads about this bass and decided to take the plunge and buy one.

The bass plays great and was well built. However, like many other Amer Dlx JBass owners, my bass can be noisy. I have noticed that even set on passive there is a slight hum, which is much louder when set to active mode.

I took the guitar back to the shop and with Fender's blessings, they copper shielded under the pickguard. However, the bass is still has a noticeable hum. Below are additional factors I noticed about the JBass.

-The copper shielding was not added to the control cavity or battery compartment
-The bass is pretty quiet until I touch the strings and start playing. Once I pluck the strings, the bass noise increases.
- The bridge pickup has more hum than the neck pickup

I know this topic has been beat to death already, but I am taking the bass back to the shop and wanted to get a bit of feedback from all of you in case you've had a similar experience.

The bass plays great and I am wondering if it is possible to have the bass be a bit quieter.

[Doug Parent]

I have an answer but you aren't going to like it.
And, it's something I am going to try in these next few weeks. as I recently bought a pair of N3's for my Fiver. Go with an Aguilar OBp-3. I'd go ahead and shield the control cavity while you have it apart.

On my project, I'm going passive first. I'll add a pre-amp as needed. Good luck.

Originally Posted by 23Rush2112

Add me to the list of American Deluxe Jazz Bass V owners. I have been following the various threads about this bass and decided to take the plunge and buy one.

The bass plays great and was well built. However, like many other Amer Dlx JBass owners, my bass can be noisy. I have noticed that even set on passive there is a slight hum, which is much louder when set to active mode.

I took the guitar back to the shop and with Fender's blessings, they copper shielded under the pickguard. However, the bass is still has a noticeable hum. Below are additional factors I noticed about the JBass.

-The copper shielding was not added to the control cavity or battery compartment
-The bass is pretty quiet until I touch the strings and start playing. Once I pluck the strings, the bass noise increases.
- The bridge pickup has more hum than the neck pickup

I know this topic has been beat to death already, but I am taking the bass back to the shop and wanted to get a bit of feedback from all of you in case you've had a similar experience.

The bass plays great and I am wondering if it is possible to have the bass be a bit quieter.