Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Gretsch G2220: noisy pickups
- Thread starter Patrice B
- Start date
It’s best to shield everything. So I’d do the control and pickup cavities.
Real diehards also shield (or at least attempt to shield) the wire channels between them. I never found that necessary as long as the pickup leads were either shielded or twisted together.
Check out some articles on proper shielding if you’re new to it. I’d also suggest using shielding paint for your first attempt. It’s easier than installing copper foil. And if it’s applied correctly it works every bit as well as foil.
Torn between trying it myself or go to my luthier. Copper conductive tape was delivered today. Like you said, conductive paint would had been easier but if I take my time and do it slowly and carefully, it should be ok.
if you thin the paint too much, it'll have spots with no connectivity. I had a bass with a real patchy job done.... it pretty much wasn't shielded. paint itself cannot be conductive, the tiny parts of metal in the paint are. To be honest, I'm going to use copper as I bet it gets a better job for me as a novice. I've seen some paint shielding wonderfully done, but I dont have to learn anything new with copper foil. If you've put aluminum foil over something for the fridge, you got the idea....
Well explained. If successful and I don’t know why it wouldn’t, I’ll probably do it at least on my P51 single coil. And why not all my basses once started…
Sorry, didn’t had time to do it yet: day job, a bedbug invasion (yuk!) and a pending summer cottage sale have delayed the task.
I’ll report back for sure when it’ll be done.
I’ll report back for sure when it’ll be done.
I work with electronics, so I can affirmatively say "Yes, It works." You do have to be sure that all the shielding is connected back to the ground, and in one location as to not create ground loops.
I have a similar issue. I hadn't noticed any hum when I tried out the bass in the store (I didn't have the amp very loud), but when I plugged it in and turned it up to gig volume at home, there was about as much hum as I'd get if I had the cable plugged into my amp but not my bass.
I opened up the control cavity to check the shielding (none!), and found that if I touched the white wire coming off the output jack, I got more noise. Any idea what might be going on?
I opened up the control cavity to check the shielding (none!), and found that if I touched the white wire coming off the output jack, I got more noise. Any idea what might be going on?
There's a couple of things that could be going on, such as a ground loop when you touch the wire, etc. You become part of the circuit at the point in which you touch metal. What I would recommend, is to get a cheap multimeter from your local hardware store and start measuring things. Solder joints would be first thing I'd look at. A good joint should have no resistance across it. SO basically you put one probe before the joint, one after.
The reason I'm suggesting measuring, is that we can guess all sorts of things and lead you the wrong direction if all we're doing is reading text online. If you come back with "this joint is reading 8 ohms" then it would be easier to discuss.
I will note, that when playing normally though an amp, I'm not getting much hum. I get it when I tweak the knobs on my pedals, and compress. This leads me to believe that they are fairly quiet, but to make this bass sound it's best, we're going to need to do a proper shielding job. I just haven't done it because I'm planning on messing with wiring and pickups....
Odd. Definitely time for measuring. maybe a loose connection or something that is hard to figure out over the net.
Quite normal, like wavering your hand over a sensitive unshielded circuit. I didn’t had time yet to shield mine but I would guess it will quiet down a lot.
More weirdness: I checked it against my MIJ Jag with the bridge pickup soloed. Same hum. Switched on the neck pickup, hum gone. The Gretsch hum sounds just like 60 cycle hum in all three positions. But these are mini humbuckers, or so I'm told. Taking it to the shop now.
let us know what the issue is. If it happened on one, I'd bet at the price point this bass is at, that many others made it off the line with the same issue. I like this bass, but at $300 I'm not keeping my hopes high for QC.
A sales guy looked at it first, and the bass was quiet. Gawdamn. I asked for a tech because that was just annoying, and the tech was able to replicate the sound by cranking the gain on the amp. I watched him check continuity and wiring. Everything looked good. He noted that the pickups are very hot, and this could be part of the issue. He also suggested shielding. I went home and changed the amp settings (Fender Rumble 500c. I have the gain usually around 9:00, master around noon for playing with a band. Switched this to about 8:00/1:00), and this helped quite a bit. I'll shield it in the couple of days and see if that's the issue.
I have similar sort of sound when I crank the treble and "character" knobs while compressing on my flyrig. A few tweaks and it mostly goes away. I do generally have a much lower gain than you. Though it may be because of this issue. I really need to get to shielding several guitars at my house.
