Noise with Aguilar AG 4P-60

[somabass]

Hello this is my first post here, hope someone can help me.
I have changed the Fender pickups of my fretless bass to Aguilar AG 4P-60s.
The thing is that with the original pickups the bass was silent but with the Aguilar i have this noise when i turn either the volume pot or the tone pot, (i have enclosed an audio sample ). Otherwise the bass is noiseless. The bass has all cavities shielded and grounded. I have shielded and grounded the back of the Aguilar pickups and the pots are new too, but the noise is still there.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Cesar

 

[Yahboy]

I have similar noise while I turn the tone knob (CTS pot)up or down on my pbass , but not problem with volume knobs.

My cheap Squier fretless pbass are free from this problem, stock pot are cheap Alpha pot.

 

[somabass]

I have similar noise while I turn the tone knob (CTS pot)up or down on my pbass , but not problem with volume knobs.

My cheap Squier fretless pbass are free from this problem, stock pot are cheap Alpha pot.

I have found that the problem disapears when i touch the cable plug or the bridge.

 

[40Hz]

If the noise disappears when you touch something it’s usually a grounding issue. Check your wiring and make sure there’s a solid ground connection between your pots, bridge, and cavity shielding to the ring connection on the jack.

If the control wiring checks out ok, look to see if you reversed the leads on the pickup you just installed. You may have soldered it in backwards. The black wire on that pickup is the ground lead and should be soldered to the casing of the volume pot.

I’m not sure what you mean by “grounded the back of the Aguilar pickups.” The only thing that needs to be grounded on an AG-4P-60 is the black wire. The white wire is the hot lead.

Wiring uses standard pbass wiring layout:

 

[somabass]

Hi thanks for answering.

I’m not sure what you mean by “grounded the back of the Aguilar pickups.” The only thing that needs to be grounded on an AG-4P-60 is the black wire. The white wire is the hot lead.

I meant the back of the pickup poles, i shielded and connected to ground that copper shield. I read elsewhere in this forum that that could help. But it did not.

I have triple checked everything and the wiring is exactly as Aguilar's diagram that i have enclosed.
But i have noticed that your diagram is different from the one from Aguilar.
Do you think that could be the problem?

Thanks,

If the noise disappears when you touch something it’s usually a grounding issue. Check your wiring and make sure there’s a solid ground connection between your pots, bridge, and cavity shielding to the ring connection on the jack.

If the control wiring checks out ok, look to see if you reversed the leads on the pickup you just installed. You may have soldered it in backwards. The black wire on that pickup is the ground lead and should be soldered to the casing of the volume pot.

I’m not sure what you mean by “grounded the back of the Aguilar pickups.” The only thing that needs to be grounded on an AG-4P-60 is the black wire. The white wire is the hot lead.

Wiring uses standard pbass wiring layout:

View attachment 3215342

 

[40Hz]

Hi thanks for answering.

I’m not sure what you mean by “grounded the back of the Aguilar pickups.” The only thing that needs to be grounded on an AG-4P-60 is the black wire. The white wire is the hot lead.

I meant the back of the pickup poles, i shielded and connected to ground that copper shield. I read elsewhere in this forum that that could help. But it did not.

I’m not sure you need or want that plate with the Aguilar pickups. Fender used that with their vintage pickups to increase their punch. The Aguilar has a fuller range and uses a somewhat stronger magnet. So it may be picking up something from that being there. You could try removing it.

Minor note - check to make sure a pickup mounting screw didn’t ding a wire when you installed the pickups. Or a wire attached to the pickup got frayed or yanked during installation. I’ve done that before.

I have triple checked everything and the wiring is exactly as Aguilar's diagram that i have enclosed.
But i have noticed that your diagram is different from the one from Aguilar.
Do you think that could be the problem?

That shouldn’t matter. There’s a variety of ways to physically wire it that are electrically equivalent. You used the version where the capacitor straddles the two pots. It doesn’t matter. You should be just fine. The purists argue it’s easier for the capacitor to get damaged if a pot becomes loose. But I’ve never seen it actually happen in the 40+ years I’ve been playing. So while it’s probably better not to have the capacitor wired between the two pots, in practice it’s seldom a real issue. I wouldn’t worry about it.

So ok…if it’s not the aforementioned plate causing an issue then we’re down to the possibility of a defective pickup or pot.

Have you bounced it off Aguilar’s tech support people yet?

 

[somabass]

I’m not sure you need or want that plate with the Aguilar pickups. Fender used that with their vintage pickups to increase their punch. The Aguilar has a fuller range and uses a somewhat stronger magnet. So it may be picking up something from that being there. You could try removing it.

Minor note - check to make sure a pickup mounting screw didn’t ding a wire when you installed the pickups. Or a wire attached to the pickup got frayed or yanked during installation. I’ve done that before.



That shouldn’t matter. There’s a variety of ways to physically wire it that are electrically equivalent. You used the version where the capacitor straddles the two pots. It doesn’t matter. You should be just fine. The purists argue it’s easier for the capacitor to get damaged if a pot becomes loose. But I’ve never seen it actually happen in the 40+ years I’ve been playing. So while it’s probably better not to have the capacitor wired between the two pots, in practice it’s seldom a real issue. I wouldn’t worry about it.

So ok…if it’s not the aforementioned plate causing an issue then we’re down to the possibility of a defective pickup or pot.

Have you bounced it off Aguilar’s tech support people yet?

40Hz i have tried with and without the shield on the pickups pole and the same problem.
The only thing thats left for me to try is changing the pots ( although these are new ) and see what happens.
I have tried with Aguilar tech support and they say it can not be the pickups.....so.

Thanks a lot for your help, really appreciate it.

 

[40Hz]

40Hz i have tried with and without the shield on the pickups pole and the same problem.
The only thing thats left for me to try is changing the pots ( although these are new ) and see what happens.
I have tried with Aguilar tech support and they say it can not be the pickups.....so.

Thanks a lot for your help, really appreciate it.

Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.

Keep us posted. We’ll get to the bottom of it. There’s not too much that can go sideways on a PB.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Something isn’t grounded properly. Post a pic of the wiring.

 

[somabass]

Hi,
Here are a couple of pictures. Everything as in the Aguilar diagram except i added the shielding of the poles at the bottom of the pickups and connected to ground in the volume pot. I have tried with and without this shielding and its the same.

 

[sheltjo6]

You may have a cold solder joint. Based on the photos you posted, I see some residue flux on the tone pot for the bridge wire. You can try reflowing the solder and see if that eliminates the noise.

 

[somabass]

You may have a cold solder joint. Based on the photos you posted, I see some residue flux on the tone pot for the bridge wire. You can try reflowing the solder and see if that eliminates the noise.

Thanks sheltjo6 will try that.