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Bass is making a buzzy, hissy noise

I was playing my bass a few days ago and everything was all fine and what not, but then randomly instead of the notes coming out of the amp, there was a buzzing noise. atfirst i thought it was the cable, so i tried an old cable, but it still didn't work. then i thought it was the amp, so i plugged into my guitar amp, but still, the buzzing continued. i'm guessing it has something to do with the input jack, so i unscrewed it, but honestly, i don't know what i'm looking at or for. any ideas?

i'm pretty sure, it's the input jack now; here's a picture: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
is there supposed to be a wire connecting to the other metal thing? and if so, how would i go about fixing this?
 
well, i looked and i can't see any loose wires; however, the slightly bigger wire that the white wire comes out of appears to have some 'fraying'. could this be were the missing wire was? here's another picture:
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it kind of looks like, to the left of the white wire, a wire just ripped off. is that the wire i'm missing? and if so, how would i go about fixing this?
 
the frayed bit is the ground, more than likely. If there's enough fray left to twist together into a solder-able wire, do that and then solder it to the lug that has no wire.

If there's not enough, you'll need to unsolder the white signal wire, strip back an inch or so of the cable, twist the shield (outer wire, might be braided or spiral wrapped), strip a quarter inch or so of the signal wire, then solder the wires to their appropriate locations.

It's really easy to do. If you run into trouble it's under a $20 repair at a guitar shop. If you take it to a shop though, insist on having the tech show you how to do the repair, as it's a pretty common repair every bassist should be able to do.
 
i don't know how you'd do that or if it's even possible to do it on my bass. it's a rogue lx200b, btw.
There's always a way to get in! Chances are it's got a back plate. It'll just look like a screwed on bit of plastic or something. Just unscrew that, take it off and grab a few snaps. As the above said, the chances are they used dual core cable for that earth. So, that frayed wire is going to be your earth. If for some reason you can't do Newfuture said, you may have to attach a new cable to where the original earth was, and run it to the jack.

Either that or just get a guitar tech in a store to fix it for you and learn how to do it your self! I had to do it the "hard" way, but passive bass electronics are very basic and easy to understand
 
yes. the bare silver wire wrapped around the inner white one, just under the blue plastic jacket. you can carefully "skin" the blue plastic back to expose enough of the bare silver wire to add a piece to it to reach the output jack, or run a separate grounding wire from the back of one of the pots to the lug on the jack, as was mentioned. i'd go with an extension from the frayed silver wire though, just to keep it simple, making sure no bare wire from your extension piece can touch any other components/electronic contacts.
 
yes. the bare silver wire wrapped around the inner white one, just under the blue plastic jacket. you can carefully "skin" the blue plastic back to expose enough of the bare silver wire to add a piece to it to reach the output jack, or run a separate grounding wire from the back of one of the pots to the lug on the jack, as was mentioned. i'd go with an extension from the frayed silver wire though, just to keep it simple, making sure no bare wire from your extension piece can touch any other components/electronic contacts.
well, i stripped back the blue wire and there's a bunch of little silvery things, which i guess created the fray, is that about right? now, where can i get an extension for the frayed wire and how would i connect it to the frayed wire?
 
The fray is the ground wire,
Twist the fray into a single strand...GENTLY.... and solder the end onto the tab on your output jack

ORRRR.....get a new piece of wire
solder one end to the pot top where the old frayed part is still soldered on
and the other to the output jack tab...no more problem