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Need Help - Audere / Nordstrand Noise.

BobKos

BobKos

Apr 13, 2007
2,988
4,093
#1
Hi All:

I recently picked up a used Warmoth parts bass off eBay. Actually, used is an overstatement. Everything on this bass looks brand new. It's a really nice instrument in the Jazz Bass pattern. In the electronics department, there is a pair of Nordstrand NJ4SV pups attached to an Audere JZ3 / Tone preamp.

The problem is that I'm getting alot of noise from this bass. If I leave the Z-mode switch in the neutral middle position, things are relatively quiet. If I switch to the Low Z position, I get a grainy hissing noise. If I switch to Hi Z, I get a 60 cycle hum noise.

The cavity is shielded with aluminum foil - done by previous owner.

I tested the battery on a reliable tester and it seems fine.

I can get the noise to go stronger or weaker bu aiming the pickups ai different directions. I can never really get it to clear out completely.

I have other active instruments that are dead quiet on my amp, so I am at least for now ignoring that possibility.

I pulled the pre and checked all wiring hookups. I found a loose wire for the bridge pickup at the preamp. Tightening it up didn't help.

I am wondering if anybody has ever had noise issues with either the Audere, the Nordstrands, or only in combination. By their design, I would assume that these products would be quiet and should also be quiet when combined.

Please share any advice regarding this situation.

Thanks,
Bob
 
#2
It's important that you don't wire the cavity shield grounds to where the pickups attach to the Audere. There's a gray/white wire that should be attached to the cavity shields and string grounds. The pickups connect to the green connector. If the pickups have copper foil tape for shielding, this must connect to the gray/white wire, and not to the common connection on the green connector! Pickups have two wires, hot and common. The shield needs to be disconnected from the common if it is.

If that all checks out, check for other miswiring. Sounds like a hot and ground connection is swapped somewhere. Maybe the common side of the pickups, with shield, is wired into the hot terminal in the green connector.

Follow the instructions here:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

You can see the copper foil grounding strip on the bottom of the Nordstrand NJ4SV:

b-nj4se_frontal.jpg


That has to be disconnected from the common wire and attached to a new wire that connects to the gray/white wire.
 
#3
Interesting...

I have 2 basses with NJ4's and 1 bass with Big Singles all using Auderes (all single coils of course) and only one hums a little if I favor one of the pickups.

It does sound like a mis-wiring.

Let us know and post your results.
 
#4
I have checked the wiring. It is as it should be.

I may have mis-diagnosed this. I have several active basses. Two are quiet when plugged in. The Audere is noisy as described above. I plugged in yet another active bass and it historically has been quiet. It suffers 60 cycle hum now. I'm thinking I need to work back towards cable / amp. The amp is a Markbass which has been really good with regards to noise, so I'm reluctant to blame it. But I need to change directions for a minute to see where this goes.

Thanks for the help to this point and for the nice pictures. I now fully understand the grey wires on the Nordstrands.
 
#5
I got the exact same problem with a pair of Nordstrand DC and Audere 4-band 3ZB preamp in my Watson. I also find the combination to have a very very low output. It need at least 10dB more boost than my Smith or Fender basses. The combination of noise and more boost is not the greatest. So did you find a solution?
 
#6
BASBLOGGEN.se said:
I got the exact same problem with a pair of Nordstrand DC and Audere 4-band 3ZB preamp in my Watson. I also find the combination to have a very very low output. It need at least 10dB more boost than my Smith or Fender basses. The combination of noise and more boost is not the greatest. So did you find a solution?
Click to expand...

Did you turn up the gain on the internal pots?
I have the gain set up pretty even on both and to be honest I did not have to turn it up to much to match the gain on some Modulus Q5s using 9volt Bart pres with Bart pickups set up from the factory.
 
#7
basswave said:
Did you turn up the gain on the internal pots?
I have the gain set up pretty even on both and to be honest I did not have to turn it up to much to match the gain on some Modulus Q5s using 9volt Bart pres with Bart pickups set up from the factory.
Click to expand...

No, I don't think there is a general volume pot on the pre. There are 4 internal pots:

From Audere's homepage:
What are the 4 adjustment pots on the module?
The two closest to the wires, the top edge of the module, are the High Z-mode capacitance adjustments. These adjustments modify the location of the resonant frequency peak of the pickups. More information is available on the Impedance page and on the High Z page.

The two on the lower edge of the module, away from the wires, are the Low Z-mode gain adjustment. This adjusts the loudness of the pickups in this mode, more information is on the Low Z page.
 

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