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American Deluxe Jazz / Pbass ground hum noise problem solved

I just did a string change on my new to me 2009 MIM Fender Jazz Deluxe V with hum. When I opened it up it had no shielding paint and there were 3 leads to the active electronics that they used an insulated crimped tubing to join the wires from the rest of the guitar to the circuit board. They all were damaged with tears in the insulation exposing the wiring. One of them actually had wire hanging out. I repaired the crappy wiring and sanded the bridge through the chrome to make a better ground. It still has a hum but not as bad. I wish I had some copper tape to shield it. i didn't feel like ordering up the tape and not playing my bass, so I sewed it back up. I am definitely going to shield it during my next string change. I was very unpleasantly surprised by the damaged insulation on the existing wiring though. This is not even close to the craftsmanship I have experienced with my other MIM Fender regular guitars. My next bass will not be a fender! The "Noiseless" stamped into the pickups is a joke!!!!
 
re: noisy pickups - first check all the lights connected to the surrounding outlets or on the same electrical circuit! After experiencing noisy pickup problems with my MIK Jazz 24, I bought copper foil and shielding paint and spent a day working on insulating all cavities. The annoying hum was not diminished.

Only afterwards did I notice I had fluorescent light bulbs in light fixtures that were in the same room. These were on the same circuit as my amp and once I replaced light bulbs with older style incandescent bulbs all hum disappeared.

Not environmentally correct but I have since stocked up on the older style bulbs.
 
Something Interesting I recently noticed. When I run both my ADJB's through my Ampeg PF800 there is no noise from the pickups, or at least very little. When I go through my 7pro the buzz is very noticeable.

I had this problem along time ago, so i know that its the basses. I just wonder why its so much more prominent with my 7Pro?
 
The problem with the lack of noise rejection through lack of shielding is that you'll only notice the problem when you are in an electrically noisy environment. In the old days before digital electronics we used to repair radio transceivers in copper lined rooms. These rooms were electrically dead quiet.

These basses have no shielding. So if you are standing out in a corn field somewhere you not going to had much chance of hum. But if you are standing next to a neon sign, the hum will drown out your playing. Real playing situations can be anywhere in between.

I took my Jazz in and had it professionally shielded. It cost mabye $60.00 It's much better now.

In my view I can't see why an instrument approaching $2000.00 wouldn't take this in to consideration.

Terri

Well welcome to the real world today. I've got a Fender MIM Jazz Deluxe V and it came with conductive paint. And truthfully I probably could had lived with it like it was. But the paint was only about half working and there always a bit of hum coming through. So eventually I just decided to go hardcore and attack it with shielding with copper foil.

And while usually it isn't necessary to shield the battery cavity or the jack cavity I went whole hog and did them all (note the tech was right about shorts if you shield the jack cavity you have to put shrink tube around the jack to keep all the tabs sticking out from shorting to the shielding).

Bottom line is the bass is now DEAD quiet no matter what hum field you are standing in. It never had single coil hum because it had "noiseless" pickups which I hated, but now it's got SCN pickups which are also noiseless and that bass is totally quiet from any hum. Yep a good and proper shield job really does work! Wonder why Fender doesn't know this?
 
i used aluminium foil and glue and that did the trick... the scn pups are not that noisy though (mia dlx jazz dot inlay).. but they have a high freq whine sometimes... but this seems more failproof.. thanks
 
Something Interesting I recently noticed. When I run both my ADJB's through my Ampeg PF800 there is no noise from the pickups, or at least very little. When I go through my 7pro the buzz is very noticeable.

I had this problem along time ago, so i know that its the basses. I just wonder why its so much more prominent with my 7Pro?


Could be that the 7 Pro has some high highs baked in that crosses the buzz frequencies.
 
Thanks to everyone on this thread and especially to MikeCD1, I was on a recording date earlier this year and ended up with wires attached to bridges and gaffered to my leg- CRAZY! and all because fender let their standards slip with shielding. Copper grounding plates and paint on its way right now and I can't thank you enough.
 
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Fantastic thread, mikecd1... thanks for this! I've been on my new passive P lately, so I had sorta back-burnered the active J-bass for about the last month or so. But this is all great information and kudos to all who have been through this with their instruments and took the time to post! I am going to look into these fixes and implement within the next few months.
 
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Recently acquired a 2013 USA Jazz Deluxe that had a slight but noticeable buzz. Copper taped all cavities and added grounding plates. Tested quieter without strings. Gave it a polish. Installed a Zero-mod thumb rest.

Started restringing and while slightly distracted by radio nonsense I apparently damaged the nut at the A string slot gliding the wrapped portion of the string through the slot. Where the string widens it got hung a bit while I kept turning the key. Now the A string is sitting lower than the others coming out of the nut. Still playable so... what? I don't know. New nut? Adjust other slots to match damage one? Try it and if it doesn't play better go with a new bone nut? That's going to be another story.

Anyway, now the buzz is gone, but I'm getting a bit of a rattle. Not sure what that is, but I'll sort it out.
 
If its noticeably lower than the other strings, probably a new nut. You could check other threads on nut repair and think I've heard of folks putting epoxy or something in the bottom of the slot to build it up, but a new nut is probably the way to go. You can buy a pre-slotted Jbass nut on ebay for 10 bucks or even get a graphtech for close to that. A luthier's bone nut last cost me about $60 installed. Good luck!
 
If its noticeably lower than the other strings, probably a new nut. You could check other threads on nut repair and think I've heard of folks putting epoxy or something in the bottom of the slot to build it up, but a new nut is probably the way to go. You can buy a pre-slotted Jbass nut on ebay for 10 bucks or even get a graphtech for close to that. A luthier's bone nut last cost me about $60 installed. Good luck!

Thank you. I've looked everywhere for a 4 string Deluxe jazz nut and only found 5 string versions. The Deluxe has binding that the nut must be notched/shaped to go over. I'm at the point of ordering a jazz nut and forming it for the binding if I can't find one already done.
 
My American Deluxe Jazz does not have neck binding so I'm guessing you have a newer one that has the block inlays? If the pic below is your bass I really think you'd be better off getting a real bone nut done. If you bought it new and the dealer likes you they might repair it free especially since it does have a lifetime warranty and you're a great customer. If you bought it used, I'd pay the bucks and have it done professionally or it won't look right. Very tricky with the binding.
 

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My American Deluxe Jazz does not have neck binding so I'm guessing you have a newer one that has the block inlays? If the pic below is your bass I really think you'd be better off getting a real bone nut done. If you bought it new and the dealer likes you they might repair it free especially since it does have a lifetime warranty and you're a great customer. If you bought it used, I'd pay the bucks and have it done professionally or it won't look right. Very tricky with the binding.

I hear you. I picked up the 2013 used. I have 4 pre slotted bone nuts on the way. If I can't get one of them perfect, I will get some skilled help. It appears the nut lays over the top of the binding so it needs very precise shaping. I will get the original out and go real slow until it's perfect. That's the plan anyway.
 
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