Ampeg BA112 Buzz?

[rjgonzales]

I purchased a new Ampeg BA112 today along with a Live Wire Advantage instrument cable. I am getting an significant buzz from both of my basses... a Squier CV Jazz and Squier P-bass with a Jazz pick up.

Details

Buzz is present both through the speaker and with headphones.

Buzz goes away when I touch either the strings or the cable jack.

Buzz goes away if I turn jazz pick-up down on either bass.

I do not have another cable to test.

Is this a cable problem, amp problem, or completely normal?

I am very new to bass and bass amplification, and don't know what is normal and/or acceptable

Thanks in advance

 

[Schecter4]

Buzz goes away when I touch either the strings or the cable jack.

That's the important part. Single coil pickups are noisy,and from my experience one of the distinctive things about Squier's is the lack of shielding.

You can get some copper shielding tape tape that will do a lot of good (http://www.stewmac.com)
but you also need to do some soldering as well. It sounds like you need a ground between your bridge and output jack.

 

[rjgonzales]

Thanks for the quick response. Not quite the answer I was expecting, but very helpful either way. Is this even worth fixing? My CV is still returnable as it's not yet 30 days old. I'm wondering if i should just exchange this for something of better quality.

 

[jbassbob]

Well, as you are new to bass, make sure you aren't cranking the treble on the bass and the amp. That will produce a lot of buzz. Also, on the jazz bass, if you have the volume knobs set much different from each other, that will produce a buzz. They are hum canceling when set at the same setting each and because they are single coil pickups, will hum when set differently.

 

[Schecter4]

I'm wondering if i should just exchange this for something of better quality.

Some of the Squier's are pretty nice instruments for the money, but they are fair copies of the originals which are pretty simple animals.

The shielding and grounding issues are pretty trivial to improve. Do a search on 'shielding tape' and 'grounding bridge' and you'll get plenty of instructions.

The noise in a single coil J-pickup comes with the territory. MIA Fender models with a single coil J-pickup will produce a hum unless the pickup is balanced by an out-of-phase twin.

 

[rjgonzales]

jbassbob, This immediately fixed my problem.

Schecter4, I will absolutely do some searching, as I see this as more of a permanent fix.

Thanks guys!