Ground / hum - Why and how to reduce - remove?

[Beammeup]

Fellow TB'ers,

I have some serious anoying hum on my recently purchased Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass.

I have recorded the hum sound for your ears in this attachment as I find it hard to explain in words

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=330633&d=1365625688


The noise is present with the controls turned all the way down.
It's 100% gone when I touch jack, string, tuners, bridge - you get the point... I'm thinking grounding as the issue?

But, when I turn down the P-pickup the noise is reduced drastically.


So what can be causing this and how can I reduce it?

I'm looking forward to all input and feedback.
Thanks in advance.

Best regards
Henrik

 

[enkidu25]

I just got a Fender AJB from Japan about a month ago and have experienced the same problem. My Ibanez 700 never had that problem and I never noticed it with my P bass. I took it to the local shop to have it setup and explained the problem. The tech told me it most likely had something to do with the wiring in my house. He showed me and explained to me that he had a cheap amp for tuning and sure enough there was no buzz. I know at my house if I touch the input jack or the tuners the buzz goes away. I have since gone back to playing my Ibanez since it is cheaper than rewiring the house. LOL. I don't know if the tech was right but there certainly was no buzzing in his cheap little amp. I would suggest taking it to a friends house or to a guitar shop and just plug into a few different amps.

 

[Beammeup]

I have tried it on different amps in different settings and I would say that the issue stays the same.

I'm just thinking there should some things to improve to reduce this...

 

[enkidu25]

Hopefully you can get it fixed. I have actually heard of guys wearing a grounding strap to stop hum. Seems extreme to me though. Denmark huh? Two of my favorite pedal companies are in Denmark, T Rex and TC Electronic.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I've heard of this happening. I'd say it's something in the way that bass is wired.

Does that bass have the pickup selector switch? If it does, they wire it up like Gibson does, so that when one volume is all the way off it turns off both pickups.

I usually rewire the volume controls on those basses to work like a Jazz bass.

The point of that is if you have the bass rewired the hum will probably go away, and you can also wire up the volume pots the right way.

 

[funnyfingers]

I had this same thing on my Duke and re-wiring it fixed it. Not sure really what the problem was, but that did the trick.

 

[Beammeup]

Sounds like there's hope re-wiring could reduce it.

I will post a picture later today of the control panel/wiring and it would be great to have you feedback on the existing job. There might be an obvious mistake in the current job.

I'll be back...

 

[Beammeup]

Cavity pictures - does it seem OK?