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Hum from Yamaha Bass
- Thread starter Luckydog
- Start date
Thanks. For this kid, I’ll take small steps first. I dont want him to feel any negative thoughts about his own bass, so I am cautious about suggesting upgrades to him, even though they make perfect sense. I would def do that down the road though, prefaced by me saying to him that there are lots of other exciting options he could consider. If it were mine, I would handle it differently, but then again, I’ve played for many years (with the typical several year boomer break for family work etc).
Yes! Working with that sticky copper tape is tough...my "meat hooks" sound similar to yours!
In addition to the needle nose pliers for placement, I found that once I have the tape generally positioned, using the eraser end of a pencil to gently press it into the corners and smooth it out along flat surfaces seems to work well...doesn't tear the copper but makes for good adhesion.
Good luck!
Yeah Joe, me too. I tried pencil but its a little fat. I used a couple of different toothbrush handles successfully. One narrow, one wide. Ripped one small section but fixed it. For me, one of the greatest tools is a bright adjustable worklight, like for jeweler bench work. And..sigh..reading glasses.
Ok, I made a few more attempts to remove the knobs, including use of dental floss and lots of wiggling of the knob 
. Unsuccessful. I shielded the control cavity as much as possible without removing pots (I see a couple of areas I still need to patch).
and am awaiting delivery of another roll of copper tape (I didn’t have enough to finish the control cover).
I’m preparing to bond the copper tape in the pickup routs and control cavity, and need to ask a probably stupid question—
Can I strip the ends off the wire I run through the channels and simply tape down the exposed ends of the wire to the copper tape (with additional copper tape that has conductive adhesive)…..Or is soldering truly necessary?
. Unsuccessful. I shielded the control cavity as much as possible without removing pots (I see a couple of areas I still need to patch).and am awaiting delivery of another roll of copper tape (I didn’t have enough to finish the control cover).
I’m preparing to bond the copper tape in the pickup routs and control cavity, and need to ask a probably stupid question—
Can I strip the ends off the wire I run through the channels and simply tape down the exposed ends of the wire to the copper tape (with additional copper tape that has conductive adhesive)…..Or is soldering truly necessary?
Ok, I made a few more attempts to remove the knobs, including use of dental floss and lots of wiggling of the knob
View attachment 7358582
and am awaiting delivery of another roll of copper tape (I didn’t have enough to finish the control cover).
I’m preparing to bond the copper tape in the pickup routs and control cavity, and need to ask a probably stupid question—
Can I strip the ends off the wire I run through the channels and simply tape down the exposed ends of the wire to the copper tape (with additional copper tape that has conductive adhesive)…..Or is soldering truly necessary?
Soldering is the most permanent method of attaching the grounding wires. Taping them down can eventually fail. You could also crimp a ring terminal on each end of the wire and screw it down into the cavity to establish a connection.
I just reread my post and saw that I said to add a ring terminal on each end. It will obviously work to land all the pickup cavity grounds in the control cavity like that assuming the control cavity is properly shielded and grounded. You could also solder the control cavity end to the back of a potentiometer. I sometimes pigtail all the grounds together and run one wire to the output jack sleeve terminal.
Thanks Matt. I ran wires secured to the copper tape from each pickup well to the control cavity. I used a ring terminal in the control cavity connected to the copper tape with a screw. Haven’t finished the jazz pup well ground yet but plan to attach the end of that wire to same screw in control cavity as with the P pup. Do you think I need to solder any ground wires to the back of any of the pots from that terminal?
Also, I’m not sure how to handle the 1/4” input jack. Does that need a ground attached to it? If so, I.m not sure where. Here is the jack currently-
Also, I’m not sure how to handle the 1/4” input jack. Does that need a ground attached to it? If so, I.m not sure where. Here is the jack currently-
Yamaha uses a coax wire to attach the jack. The wire inside the white insulation is the signal, goes to tip. The braid between the white and red outer insulation is ground.
The screw and ring terminal is fine for a ground as long as the shielding is properly grounded. It should ground through the pots as long as the shells have a wire connected to the output jack sleeve terminal. It won’t hurt to run wire from that terminal to the output jack to make sure. On your output jack the terminal with the bare wire is the sleeve or ground connection. The one with the middle, white wire is the tip or hot terminal.
success! Thank you all for your help. Noise free now, and all cleaned up! He’ll be pleased for sure.
Uh oh, I found a new gremlin. There is a weird interaction with the volume pot and pickup selector pot. If the pickup selector (middle knob?) is set to only the bridge pup, and the volume knob is turned completely off, I still get volume from the bass. It is quite trebley, so I assume it is all coming from the bridge pup. If I turn the pickup selector knob to the precision pup with the volume knob turned off, I get no sound, which is correct. I checked inside and I don’t notice anything unusual, but what do I know. The bass did not do that before I got my grubby paws on it. And I did not remove any pots. Is there anything from the wiring pics below or some other thing that you think might cause this weird interaction?
What makes you think it's a 'pickup selector pot'?
It looks like your bass is TRBX174 and it has vol/vol/tone controls. So, each pickup has a vol pot and there is a master tone pot.
Ex- I hadn’t even thought of that. I’m unfamiliar with this bass, so just assumed (lol) that the center was a pan pot for selecting pickups. There is no model designation on the bass, I guess the model info was removed. I just now checked the bass and you are spot on. Its working perfectly. Thank you Ex!
