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Blend knob causing buzz for one pickup but not the other

DBFIU

DBFIU

Guest
Jun 29, 2014
199
37
42
south florida
#1
I have a PJ style bass with a blend knob. I finished shielding the bass last month and it is dead silent when the neck pickup is fully active, blend turned to one side. As soon as I get the blend knob to the center detent and begin mixing the bridge pickup into the signal, it starts to buzz. Everything is shielded and grounded. I have no idea why only my bridge pickup buzzes and not my neck pickup.

If I turn the knob all the way to just my bridge pickup, it buzzes worse. Which means the buzzing gets progressively worse the more I add the bridge pickup into the signal. I did nothing different regarding the shielding to the bridge pickup cavity with respect to the other cavities. I ohm checked all cavities and grounds, I have no idea why just one pickup buzzes and not the other.

Thanks
 
#6
The Area J by Dimarzio is relatively inexpensive and is as good as any other in that position. There are other more expensive possibilities, which also sound great and different, but the Area J sounds about as good as the rest of them. I also like the Nordstrand SE model.
 
#7
To give a bit more detail to what the others have said, you want a split coil Jazz pickup. The two halves of the P pickup are wound and biased so that they humbuck. A split coil Jazz pickup is made the same way internally but you can't tell the difference from the outside, they look just like single coil Jazz pickups. Dual coil hum canceling Jazz pickups are also available but the split coil pickups sound closer to the single coil tone, minus the hum. I presume that the two pickups mentioned above are split coil designs. You may still be able to find a Fender Super 55 Jazz Bass bridge pickup if you look hard enough. Fender came out with them a while back and you didn't hear much about them for a while. Then they seemed to catch on and started to generate some good "buzz" here only to have Fender apparently discontinue them at the height of their building popularity. Odd marketing decision....
 
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#8
DBFIU said:
So there is nothing I can do about the hum for this pickup other then getting new pickups?
Click to expand...

Is the hum affected by touching the strings/metal/bridge? I am guessing it remains constant.

I am with the others here that it is probably 60hz hum. You could also add a dummy coil, but I have only heard about this procedure, so I cannot offer any kind of real assistance in that department.
 
#9
If I get a new coil for the J pickup, does it matter if it is a different manufacturer? I have the stock split coils and they sound great, I dont really need to replace them. If I have different pickups made by different companies is that considered 'weird'?
 

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