On my bass, when the pickups are at different volumw levels, I get a huge 60HZ buzz. The farther apart the volume levels are from each other the loder the buzz. If there both full up, theres no noise, they sound fine. Is this normal for those pups? If not, any idea what it may be? (A ground issue?)
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A question for you Fender Standard Jazz Bass V owners???
- Thread starter jetmech727
- Start date
the pickups are single coils, and single coils do hum. When you have the volume's set at equal levels the two single coils become like one humbucker, hence no hum. If you really can't stand the noise then you might want to consider putting humbucking pickups in your bass.
putting in a preamp won't cure the hum, the hum is generated by the pickups. single coils sound great, but it's up to you if you're willing to live with the noise. There are lots of humbuckers made to fit jazz basses, if you only want to get rid of the noise I'd start there. That said, I prefer the flexibility that adding a preamp gives me when combined with humbucking pickups.
As said before that's normal for the single coil pickups on that bass. Humbucking pickups would "fix" the hum, but the bass will sound different. I personally love the sound of the passive single coils on my Jazz V.
What you're proposing is a radical change to the instrument and a very large investment ($2-300 I would guess including parts and installation). If you don't absolutely love the wood of the bass, I'd advise don't do it. If you want an active bass with humbuckers, maybe it's time to sell the passive Jazz Bass with single coils and buy a bass designed from the ground up to work like you want (perhaps a Jazz Deluxe). Fenders have very good resale value, and any mods you put on will detract from, not add to, the resale on that instrument. I say sell it and buy something you will like more.
Personally I wouldn't even dream of changing a thing on my passive USA Jazz V. The thing sounds incredible, the pickups Fender uses are fantastic, and any tone shaping I want to do I can use my amp and fingers for.
Personally I wouldn't even dream of changing a thing on my passive USA Jazz V. The thing sounds incredible, the pickups Fender uses are fantastic, and any tone shaping I want to do I can use my amp and fingers for.
I like to mod things. Kind of gives it a personal touch I guess. I know it's alot of money, but then it would be kind of a one off so to speak. Is what I'm doing going to kill the Bass? I know I have no way of knowing what it will sound like afterwards. It's a bit of a gamble I guess. Just off hand, what would this guitar fetch on the market anyway? It's a 1998 and Perfect condition. Still has plastic on the pick guard.
jetmech727 said:
This is quite normal. Other friends here explained the electronic reason.
I've almost always been playing passive bass equipped with single coils, and this experience showed me that the best way to get a solid tone from a passive bass is crank it up on all controls. Then play with the EQ on the amp.
Doing this suppresses the fuss of cycle hum.
Cheers,
JL
IMO that is hands down the best reason to mod a bass. I've modded quite a few in my day and it is kind of fun seeing how different changes affect things. Actually my modding experience is why I'm so anti-modding now.
I've never had the modded version come out better than the original.
