Fender Jazz bass pick ups

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Listen to the band Khruangbin. She's one of the best bassists around right now and uses split coils in an SX jazz bass. Dead flatwounds. I love her tone.

she's also a super sexy black haired woman ... drooldrooldrool ... oops sorry ...

 

[BlueTalon]

I recently picked up a stock made in Mexico Fender Jazz bass. I find that the 60 cycle hum, when you only use one of the two pick ups is annoying. As a result I find myself using both pick ups wide open all the time. I realize that I could buy noiseless pickups but I’m wondering what you guys think about using just one single coil pick up without using a noiseless pickups. I guess put another way why would you keep the single coil pickups and not just go to noiseless pickups?

The hum doesn’t bother me that much, I guess...

Hum irritates the crap out of me.

This is what it all boils down to. Either hum is an acceptable price to pay to get single-coil sound, or it's not. I'm in the second group. When I'm not actually playing, I want my bass to be dead silent, and I love the tone I get from my hum-canceling J pickups. And I don't think I give up anything in tone to achieve the silence.

 

[BasEd]

Single coils shouldn't hum if they have properly earthed shielding around them (good electrically conductive paint or copper tape). They can hum even then if the pickup blend is not in the centre position (volume same on both if two volumes knobs). That hum is the 60Hz hum and is only cured by using hum cancelling pickups or active single coils such as EMG pickups which need fewer windings to give the same output as they're powered.

Personally I prefer single coils to hum cancelling in a jazz bass as they have more highs and that jazz sizzle. I replaced Dimazio Ultra J hum cancelling pickups with Nordstrand NJ4 on a Sadowsky I used to own and liked them much more. More growl. IMHO!

 

[micguy]

Single coils shouldn't hum if they have properly earthed shielding around them (good electrically conductive paint or copper tape).

This is a commonly held belief, and if you're talking about electrostatic interference (buzz), yes, you can shield them against that. For magnetic fields, however, it's wrong - a single coil will pick up a magnetic field regardless of how well it's electrostatically shielded. Anything with a power transformer close to a bass with single coils, and you have hum.

I play a lot of stuff where we get quiet (church). I can't and won't try to do that with an instrument with single coils.

 

[BasEd]

This is a commonly held belief, and if you're talking about electrostatic interference (buzz), yes, you can shield them against that. For magnetic fields, however, it's wrong - a single coil will pick up a magnetic field regardless of how well it's electrostatically shielded. Anything with a power transformer close to a bass with single coils, and you have hum.

I play a lot of stuff where we get quiet (church). I can't and won't try to do that with an instrument with single coils.

Interesting article on this here...

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[BasEd]

Sounds like the biggest issue is electrostatic that's helped by shielding. Electromagnetic is only a problem if near a motor or fluorescent lights. I suppose you can always mute the amp between songs (my foot pedal tuner mutes my bass when pressed).

 

[micguy]

Sounds like the biggest issue is electrostatic that's helped by shielding. Electromagnetic is only a problem if near a motor or fluorescent lights.

Electromagnetic interference arises because current is flowing somewhere - it's not limited to just motors or flourescent lights. Anything with a transformer, any wire (or conduit) that carries current - dimmers in your house can cause currents along conduit that'll make nice strong magnetic fields, and incandescent lights on those can cause nasty buzzy hum.

 

[BasEd]

Electromagnetic interference arises because current is flowing somewhere - it's not limited to just motors or flourescent lights. Anything with a transformer, any wire (or conduit) that carries current - dimmers in your house can cause currents along conduit that'll make nice strong magnetic fields, and incandescent lights on those can cause nasty buzzy hum.

I suppose the only solution in those environments is hum cancelling pickups.

 

[micguy]

I suppose the only solution in those environments is hum cancelling pickups.

Correct.

 

[Marty Forrer]

I shielded my cavity with copper tape and soldered all the tape joins. I shielded each pickup cavity the same and connect each to the control cavity. I also connected the shielding to the ground on the output socket. I can solo either pickup without any hum now.... brilliant. Shielding a Jazz bass requires patience and commitment to perfection, anything less is a waste of time.

 

[BasEd]

I shielded my cavity with copper tape and soldered all the tape joins. I shielded each pickup cavity the same and connect each to the control cavity. I also connected the shielding to the ground on the output socket. I can solo either pickup without any hum now.... brilliant. Shielding a Jazz bass requires patience and commitment to perfection, anything less is a waste of time.

In my experience it was the unshielded pickup cavities that were most susceptible to electrostatic hum (probably coming from me!). Apparently it's less important to shield the preamp cavity unless it's a passive bass. I was told this by a well known preamp maker. Of course, as has already be mentioned, it wouldn't protect the bass from electromagnetic hum. Only hum cancelling pickups will do this.

 

[BasEd]

In my experience it was the unshielded pickup cavities that were most susceptible to electrostatic hum (probably coming from me!). Apparently it's less important to shield the preamp cavity unless it's a passive bass. I was told this by a well known preamp maker. Of course, as has already be mentioned, it wouldn't protect the bass from electromagnetic hum. Only hum cancelling pickups will do this.

The cavities, bridge and pots also need a good earth connection to stop the bass earthing through you which will cuase the hum to become louder when touching the strings.

 

[BasEd]

It seems old Jazz basses often have no pickup cavity shielding. Shielding would be the first thing I did if buying one.

 

[Slidlow]

For complete shielding a bimetal is needed. one layer of ferrous and another of non-ferrous.

 

[Geri O]

It seems old Jazz basses often have no pickup cavity shielding. Shielding would be the first thing I did if buying one.

Not only older Fenders (Jazz basses in particular), but I've seen a few recent ones where the shielding in the cavity was non-existent or otherwise inadequate.

I ran into this with a couple of Fender Jazz basses in recent years. I've tried hum bucking-style Jazz pups and they didn't quite do it for me. And my go-to Jazz pickups are the Nordstrand Vintage 70s wind. So I did the "shield everything" treatment with copper foil. I did the cavity, underneath the pups, underneath the pick guard, any wire paths, including the little tunnel going to the bridge pup (wrap foil around a small straw, leave a little tab sticking on each end that can be soldered onto the foil on each end of the tunnel). And I solder-tacked together spots on the edges of the foil. I would have used the shielding paint, but on all the occasions when I did the procedure, I didn't have time to allow for paint to dry and the foil wasn't a problem, except a "foil cut" I suffered in one of the processes somewhere.

All the basses saw a major improvement in noise suppression. I could use one of the pups in all but the most hostile of situations (standing next to an LED fixture). It's very seldom that I use anything but both pups 100% anyway, but now I can without problems if the need arises.

All of the Fender are gone now, I have a Mike Lull M5V, which is a jazz-style bass. I've never had any noise issues with that bass, even with a single pup (except for that damn LED fixture! and it's manageable. Just turn a bit toward the center...). It appears to be thoroughly shielded with shielding paint through and through.

And I've had 5 Music Man Stingray SR5s. None of them were ever prone to noise issues, including the one I have now.

There's several suggested remedies for dealing with noise issues, but I wouldn't start trying to solve problems without a thorough shielding job on the body of the bass.

And someone above posted the 3 main types of noise and how to manage that noise. That's an excellent description that everyone should be familiar with. Actually, that should be a sticky!