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Fender American Deluxe Jazz 2015 noise problem

C

Cerio

Apr 7, 2006
191
386
Spain
#1
Hi all. I've read several threads here about noise problems with third (2010-2015) version of the Fender American Deluxe Jazz. I understand that the problem could be on the pickups, on the preamp or on the electrical pots, but unfortunately I've been unable until now of finding out what is causing the problem and how to solve it.

It's not a regular problem, it appears only in 50% of the places and venues where I play, wich makes the problem more difficult to isolate and identify. It's not the typical hum of passive jazz basses, it'siterrible noise that doesn't disappear when I touch the strings, and urns the instrument into a completely unusable one.

Here's a clip:



The bass is professionally shielded, but that doesn't help a lot. I would really like keeping all the original pickups and preamp of the bass if possible, since I love how it sounds, but if I'm 100% sure that changing the pickups (for example) would solve the problem, I would just do it.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated :)
 
Last edited:
#2
Cerio said:
Hi all. I've read a several threads here about noise problems with third (2010-2015) version of the Fender American Deluxe Jazz. I understand that the problem could be on the pickups, on the preamp or on the electrical pots, but unfortunately I've been unable until now of finding out what is causing the problem and how to solve it.

It's not a regular problem, it appears only in 50% of the places where I play, wich makes things more difficult. It's a terrible noise that doesn't disappear when I touch the strings, not the regular hum of passive jazz basses.

This is exactly the noise:



The bass is professionally shielded, but that doesn't help a lot. I would really keep all the original pickups and preamp of the bass if possible, since I love how it sounds, but if I'm 100% sure that changing the pickups (for example) would solve the problem, I would just do it.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated :)
Click to expand...


I'm not in a place where I can listen to your clip but I can help with a few things. First, if putting your hands on the strings/bridge/metal does not stop the noise, your shielding is doing its job. Your bass came with humbuckers. Unless they have failed, different humbuckers will not be any more silent. One way to test if the issue is 60hz hum/single coil noise is to balance both pickups. If the noise persists with both pickup volumes balanced, the issue is not 60hz hum. If you are getting weird clipping or distorting, I would try a new battery and see how the bass performs.

The other issue with these basses is the loud pre-amp. There is a lot of white noise/hiss present. This would occur constantly unless you put the bass in passive mode. It wouldn't be something that happened in one venue and not another.
 
#3
DiabolusInMusic said:
One way to test if the issue is 60hz hum/single coil noise is to balance both pickups. If the noise persists with both pickup volumes balanced, the issue is not 60hz hum. If you are getting weird clipping or distorting, I would try a new battery and see how the bass performs.

The other issue with these basses is the loud pre-amp. There is a lot of white noise/hiss present. This would occur constantly unless you put the bass in passive mode. It wouldn't be something that happened in one venue and not another.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for your answer. The problem occurs no matter if the pickups are balanced or not, so i suppose the issue is not 60hz hum.

The problem also happens no matter if I'm using active or passive mode (altough things get worst when in passive mode), but i haven't still tested if the problem disappear when using passive mode WITH BATTERIES REMOVED.

I'll try that in the next few days (unfortunately at home there is no more at all, and i need to go to certain places to properly test the issue :dead:)
 
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#4
My first thought is that the venues you're playing aren't properly grounded.
If you have a multimeter you can check the grounding & polarity of the electrical sockets before plugging in.

These are sold in the U.S.:

41xgYJ1keXL._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg


It's a receptacle checker that lights up to indicate if the ground is good & if the polarity is correct.
 
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#5
Killed_by_Death said:
My first thought is that the venues you're playing aren't properly grounded.
If you have a multimeter you can check the grounding & polarity of the electrical sockets before plugging in.

These are sold in the U.S.:

View attachment 3103611

It's a receptacle checker that lights up to indicate if the ground is good & if the polarity is correct.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much, nice idea to test, I will probably buy that device, but the problem happens too often, and I just can't blame the venue, it's simply not a practical solution for me.

Also, I've tried other basses in "problematic" venues with 0 problems, so I suspect the problem is on the bass.
 
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#6
Cerio said:
Thanks very much, nice idea to test, I will probably buy that device, but the problem happens too often, and I just can't blame the venue, it's simply not a practical solution for me.

Also, I've tried other basses in "problematic" venues with 0 problems, so I suspect the problem is on the bass.
Click to expand...

Are you always using the same amp and cables?
 
#9
Killed_by_Death said:
This is a long-shot, but...
have you checked polarity of the pickups?

One should be in opposition to the other.
For instance, if you put a compass over the bridge pickup & it pulls the compass South, then the neck pickup should pull it North.
Click to expand...

No, I haven't, but I'm not experiencing typical polarity problems (lose of overall volume and bottom end when both pickups on fullf etc,). Do you think that this kind of noise could be caused by polarity issues?
 
#12
This may or may not be helpful: I've owned many basses with that particular preamp in it. After multiple experiments over the years, it always seemed to come down to an inadequately designed preamp that caused noise, active or passive. After dumping the stock preamp for a different make and model preamp, or putting in traditional CTS-based passive controls, the noise issues always went away.
 
#14
Killed_by_Death said:
My first thought is that the venues you're playing aren't properly grounded.
If you have a multimeter you can check the grounding & polarity of the electrical sockets before plugging in.

These are sold in the U.S.:

View attachment 3103611

It's a receptacle checker that lights up to indicate if the ground is good & if the polarity is correct.
Click to expand...

Also, I bought this device and the ground & polarity is correct in noisy places. Unfortunately, that's not the problem, in getting crazy...
 
#15
Warpeg said:
This may or may not be helpful: I've owned many basses with that particular preamp in it. After multiple experiments over the years, it always seemed to come down to an inadequately designed preamp that caused noise, active or passive. After dumping the stock preamp for a different make and model preamp, or putting in traditional CTS-based passive controls, the noise issues always went away.
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for your answer. The problem persist even when using the bass in true passive mode (with batteries removed from the instrument), so at this point I think the problem is on the pickups or on some of the other electric components, but not on the preamp.

I will bring the bass to a technician in order to examine all the electronic components of the bass...
 
#16
I had the same problems with the same bass. Read through the archives until my eyes bled! Sold the bass. Different answers, pickups, pre-amp... I just couldn't bring myself to spend $$ trouble shooting. It's an expensive bass! That neck tho, so sweet. I bought a passive USA v, been missing the active, could add a nice pre and still be in it for less than the deluxe
 
#17
Fat bob said:
I had the same problems with the same bass. Read through the archives until my eyes bled! Sold the bass. Different answers, pickups, pre-amp... I just couldn't bring myself to spend $$ trouble shooting. It's an expensive bass! That neck tho, so sweet. I bought a passive USA v, been missing the active, could add a nice pre and still be in it for less than the deluxe
Click to expand...

Did you change the pickups AND the preamp and the bass was still noisy? :bored:
 
#19
I have the exact same problem with my 2013 American jazz deluxe. I'm thinking of selling it because I've brought it to 2 technicians and if they don't hear the problem first hand, they can't know how to fix it nor would they know if it's fixed until you go to one of those venues. I do recall that when the light show came on during rehearsal that's when the bass acted up more that it became unusable. It sucks when you can't use your number one bass on half the gigs.
 

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