I have a Squier Jazz bass - just bought a couple weeks ago. I haven't really been playing it because it is really noisy. I have had several J basses and also did some pickup swapping, so I'm familiar with the single coil noise in my room. But what is new here is that it doesn't go way when both pickups are fully on. All my other J type basses would go as silent as a P bass with both pickups on.
What I have done:
Opened things up and noticed no shielding. While I don't think that would likely be the culprit (both pickups on should cancel any common noise), I went ahead and fully shielded the electronic and pickup cavities. I carefully checked they I get near zero ohms between all the cavities. Also check ground at the bridge, output jack, all 3 pots etc. Everything looks good. Soldering looks good and normal.
I also checked that the pickup magnets are opposite polarity. My understanding is that to cancel radiated pickup noise, the coils are wound in opposite directions. The inverted noise from one cancels the non-inverted noise of the other. So to make sure the string vibration induced signal also doesn't cancel, the magnetic poles are in opposite direction, so the double inversion of one pickup matches the non-inverted signal of the other. Otherwise they would mostly cancel.
Here's what I hear. The neck pickup is low noise, significantly better after adding the shielding. The bridge pickup is very noisy and when added to the neck pickup the noise doesn't go away. It might drop off slightly at 100% both pickups. It is orientation sensitive, which is normal for single coil pickups in my music room.
So I'm trying to figure out what else I can do to troubleshoot and try to fix this. Have I done enough to rule out everything except the pickups themselves? Is it possible there is something wrong with them? Maybe some sort of internal shielding problem, or they aren't properly "matched"? Or could it be that just the bridge pickup is faulty since it is the noisier one? It seems unlikely that they are improperly wound (both same direction) because besides the noise, I get the normal scooped J bass sound with both pickups on. Besides the noise they sound normal. They are also at near equal volume when run separately.
One other thing to note: I had this same problem with another bass, exact same model. I exchanged it for this one and was disappointed to find the noise was still there. I decided to keep it, thinking that anything related to noise and electronics can be fixed, often easily.
What I have done:
Opened things up and noticed no shielding. While I don't think that would likely be the culprit (both pickups on should cancel any common noise), I went ahead and fully shielded the electronic and pickup cavities. I carefully checked they I get near zero ohms between all the cavities. Also check ground at the bridge, output jack, all 3 pots etc. Everything looks good. Soldering looks good and normal.
I also checked that the pickup magnets are opposite polarity. My understanding is that to cancel radiated pickup noise, the coils are wound in opposite directions. The inverted noise from one cancels the non-inverted noise of the other. So to make sure the string vibration induced signal also doesn't cancel, the magnetic poles are in opposite direction, so the double inversion of one pickup matches the non-inverted signal of the other. Otherwise they would mostly cancel.
Here's what I hear. The neck pickup is low noise, significantly better after adding the shielding. The bridge pickup is very noisy and when added to the neck pickup the noise doesn't go away. It might drop off slightly at 100% both pickups. It is orientation sensitive, which is normal for single coil pickups in my music room.
So I'm trying to figure out what else I can do to troubleshoot and try to fix this. Have I done enough to rule out everything except the pickups themselves? Is it possible there is something wrong with them? Maybe some sort of internal shielding problem, or they aren't properly "matched"? Or could it be that just the bridge pickup is faulty since it is the noisier one? It seems unlikely that they are improperly wound (both same direction) because besides the noise, I get the normal scooped J bass sound with both pickups on. Besides the noise they sound normal. They are also at near equal volume when run separately.
One other thing to note: I had this same problem with another bass, exact same model. I exchanged it for this one and was disappointed to find the noise was still there. I decided to keep it, thinking that anything related to noise and electronics can be fixed, often easily.
