Horrible Noise from a Brand New G&L 2500

[FunkHead]

I just picked the L2500 up from Stuart (Luthier in Doncaster - Highly recoommended

He fixed the problem - I now have probably one of the quietist basses on the planet - The difference is night and day

He screened the cavities with conductive self adhesive copper tape as well as screening som pickup wires, checked all the earthing and did some other voodoo I didn’t really follow tbh

Great to have the issue resolved but not without some effort and cost

I just need to learn how to play it now

Congrats! The L-2500 Pre puts out a ton of Highs. I suspect the shielding went a long way to quiet it down. The more Highs you like to play with the less you want an un-shielded L-2500 IME. They always had complaints of noise but one of my all time favorite basses.

 

[sunbeast]

Glad it's fixed but one thing bothers me. Appears he performed about a half-dozen remedial steps but I would imagine one, and only one, had maximal impact on the underlying issue. Question is which one?!?

Riis

Nothing he did was likely superfluous anyway, but I would imagine shielding is the likely culprit since they coerced from the factory with absolutely none and our modern world is full of electrical noise!

 

[gt96g]

IT'S THE DIMMERS!

I had this same problem. All of my basses were buzzing like crazy, many models that shouldn't have been. Humbuckers etc. anyway. I took a couple basses to a local GC just to test in another environment and they were dead quiet.

I had dimmers in my office/studio and rehearsal space in the basement. Had those dimmers removed and replaced with standard switches and it solved the issue.

Before you go ripping the bass apart searching for an issue that may not exist. Go to a local music store, plug the bass in and check if it's still giving you issues with no dimmers present.

 

[SteveFabulous]

Nothing he did was likely superfluous anyway, but I would imagine shielding is the likely culprit since they coerced from the factory with absolutely none and our modern world is full of electrical noise!

Shielding was the big culprit but it seemed worthwhile to throw the kitchen sink at it whilst the doc was in the house. None of my other guitars (incl an active bass) have any issues with my locational electric stuff. Why oh why did a brand new £2K premium instrument need remedial works. The battery cavity had a little paint apparently otherwise…. Anyway. It’s sorted now but no small effort

 

[cfortner]

I own a L2500 Tribute and he had a lot of hum and noise too.

When I opened the electronic cave, I found a bunch of completely unshielded 20-30 cm = 8-12 inch cables and it looked really like a ratnest.

I shortened them to an useful lenght and I got a more quiet bass.

An user in bassic.de sold some years ago a printed circuit board of the electronic incl. pots and I went to this. I got another great improvement of noise.

May be I go to shield the cavity and the cables to the pu, but I‘m not playing it so much.

The quality of electronics at G&L basses seems to need an overall improvement.

 

[chadhargis]

I have an L-2500 that is dead quiet. I bought a bunch of rechargeable batteries to use on basses, and they did not work well in the G&L. I got a lot of noise. I put a regular ole 9v alkaline battery in and it was dead quiet again.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I've done both copper foik and conductive paint. I personally prefer using copper foil. The conductive paint is pretty gross to smell when you're using it and it requires a few coats in my experience. So while the copper foil tape is maybe a bit harder to apply, it definitely takes less time when you take into account the multiple coats + dry times of the conductive paint. Pretty sure the copper tape is cheaper too. You can get a big roll of the copper tape for cheap and it'll probably last most of your life assuming you aren't applying it to new basses every month.

But the adhesive must be conductive.
I buy snail tape.

 

[SteveFabulous]

Is anyone surprised that despite emails from G&L asking me to take the brand new guitar for “repair” that they have gone completely quiet as soon as it comes to paying any contribution.

So, sorted that issue but at my cost. What a shame from such an iconic Brand

 

[Ricky Rioli]

sorted that issue but at my cost

On the spectrum of possible outcomes for a faulty G&L, that's nearer the good end

 

[sunbeast]

Unfortunately that isn’t surprising to me given what I’ve read of their customer service. Even in the early-2000s I didn’t have great experiences when buying new, but came in assuming I’d probably either keep and fix instruments at my own cost or immediately need to return them to the store where I purchased them.