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How do they record Jazz Basses (re: 60 cycle hum)?

Jjango

Jjango

Nov 16, 2007
1,329
116
Los Angeles, CA
#1
Like many others, I really love the sound of a Jazz Bass with the bridge pickup at full volume and with the neck pickup volume rolled off just a bit.

When recording a professional album, do engineers have a way of getting rid of the 60 cycle hum? Or do they just force the bassist to use both pickups at full volume?

Sorry for the noob question, but I am going to get a home DAW, and am wondering what the standard way of dealing with this is...

Really, I suppose this applies to any single-coil pickup-equipped instrument...
 
#2
A bass that has good quality p'ups and is correctly shielded will not really hum much at all... Add to that, once you have your hands on the strings, you ground the circuit and so should eliminate the hum. I have little doubt that Jaco's original bass hummed like a fiend when he took his hands off of it...
 
#4
I once used a noisy jazz bass that belonged to the recording studio where I was tracking. I was using the opposite blend to what you describe... middle pickup full-on with the bridge pickup rolled off a bit. The result is the same.. lots of hum when you let go of the strings.

The engineer was used to recording that bass. He sat me in a particular place in the room (I know, it sounds like voodoo) where the bass was quieter. There was still a bit of noise way in the background, but I think they scrubbed the tracks clean at any quiet passages. When I was playing, or when other instruments played, the noise was so low that it was not noticeable.

You think j-basses are noisy, you should hear what guitar tracks sound like with a tele or a strat on the bridge pickup. The engineer just seems to do her/his best to keep the noise controllable with gates or by scrubbing or muting the track when there's nothing being played, and just generally works with what s/he has.
 
#6
I have 2 solutions on hand and both have worked well for me in the studio:

1. My main Jazz has DiMarzio Ultra Jazz pickups, wired in series. They sound pretty darn close to single coils IMO but are dead quiet. The series wiring gives it a lot more balls. I've used this same setup with a series/parallel switch, but the parallel setting was always too thin for me so I don't bother with it now.

2. Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger - I use this with Jazzes that have single coils in them. I won't go into depth because there are plenty of threads on TB about it, but suffice to say, it's freakin' magic.
 
#7
Sparkdog said:
2. Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger - I use this with Jazzes that have single coils in them. I won't go into depth because there are plenty of threads on TB about it, but suffice to say, it's freakin' magic.
Click to expand...
That's very interesting, Sparkdog. I was this close to buying a Hum Debugger, but then a read a bunch of posts (on TB and elsewhere) where people claimed that it made their instruments sound awful.

Maybe I should try ordering one from a retailer that has a good return policy. After all, one man's "it sounds terrible" is another man's "I can't hear any difference".
 
#8
Absolutely, buy one from Musicians Friend or Guitar Center, if you don't like it just return it.

There are plenty of tone purists who will tell you running your signal through anything will change the tone. They may very well be right, but IME any effect the Hum Debugger has on tone (and I myself cannot hear any) is so negligible that it's lost in a studio mix, and certainly could never be detected in a live setting.

On the other hand, the 60 cycle hum it kills is intolerable to me. Having a song end and hearing the angry swarm of bees my bass brought with it drives me nuts!

That little box makes a single coil Jazz workable to me.
 
#10
First you shield the bass.

When the two pickups are at equal volume they act as a humbucker. When you change the volume balance you let noise through.

If the noise goes away when you touch the strings, the noise is from your body and the bass acting like a giant capacitor. When you touch the strings you are grounding your body through the strings to the bridge, to the shielding.

I eliminate the noise using a grounding strap. I made my own and installed jacks in all of my basses so I can just put the wrist strap on and plug it into the bass.
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Anti-Static-Wrist-Adjustable-Grounding/dp/B00004Z5D1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1287442330&sr=8-1

I use a GFI on my power strip to avoid electrocution just in case. If you plug into a faulty ground and would get zapped by the strings, or metal plates, or the bridge, you can't let go when you're strapped to the bass so a GFI will cut the circuit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XU5MEG/ref=oss_product

GroundStrap1.jpg

GroundStrap2.jpg


An anti-static strap will not work because there is a resistor in the snap end. I drill through the center of the snap end and solder a wire into the middle of the snap.
GroundStrap5.jpg


I put a little foam in the center of the plug snap to keep pressure on the metal to metal connection when snapped to the wrist strap.
GroundStrap4.jpg


Then I splice the wire into the existing wire (bypassing the resistor).
You could just clip the alligator clip on a string by the tuner and you're done!

GroundStrap3.jpg


I put a 2.5mm plug on mine and 2.5mm jacks in my basses.
GroundStrap6.jpg

GroundStrap11.jpg

GroundStrap10.jpg

GroundStrap8.jpg

GroundStrap7.jpg

GroundStrap9.jpg



Here it is on my Jaguar:
GroundStrap13.jpg

GroundStrap12.jpg



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#12
You did all that work when a piece of wire wrapped around the jack (sleeve) and tucked into your waist (touching skin) would have worked. ;) Old trick. Some people solder a washer to the end of the wire that is to touch skin. Look ma! No wrist band!
 
#14
Craig_S said:
You did all that work when a piece of wire wrapped around the jack (sleeve) and tucked into your waist (touching skin) would have worked. ;) Old trick. Some people solder a washer to the end of the wire that is to touch skin. Look ma! No wrist band!
Click to expand...

Ha, I just liked the clean approach. I could have just clipped the alligator clip on a string above the nut.:)

I know this is an "old trick" but it seems like most people don't know about it. :hmm:
 
#16
SnakeKappele said:
Ha, I just liked the clean approach. I could have just clipped the alligator clip on a string above the nut.:)

I know this is an "old trick" but it seems like most people don't know about it. :hmm:
Click to expand...
I just wouldn't want anything attached to my wrist. I don't even wear my wedding band, when I play, because it bothers me.

You're right. A lot of people don't know about it or don't bother with it.
 
#18
I have found that, 9 times out of 10, you can turn yourself while holding the bass and drastically eliminate hum. This may not always work in a club situation if you wind up facing away from the audience, though ;) My '59 P bass was affected so badly by light dimmers in clubs that I eventually abandoned it. This was in 1975 because the local guitar tech told me he couldn't do anything about it. I think he was just lazy.
 
#20
I do some work in a studio where often get to play the owners beautiful '64 Jazz bass, there is one spot in the studio where the bass is dead quiet but anywhere else it is a noise monster. I use some alligator clips attached to wire for grounding, not as elegant as SnakeKappele's solution but just as effective.
 

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