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Pickup/Electronic On Fender Ultra II Jazz Bass Question

Christcr

Christcr

Supporting Member
Feb 8, 2015
1,127
2,387
Utah
#1
So, I've dealt with this problem a number of times over the years:

Touching pickup pole pieces while not touching anything else causes horrible buzzing, but if touching another metal part, the buzzing goes away. I've always gotten rid of this problem primarily by grounding the bottoms of the pole pieces with adhesive copper shielding stuck to the pole bottoms and soldered to the common ground or grounded shielding in the cavity. Problem solved. Shielding the cavity obviously helps as well.

BUT... I've only done this on passive basses. My Ultra II Jazz bass, of course, has active electronics. I pulled a pickup and the problem with grounding the pole pieces is that there is a circuit board of some sort screwed to the bottom of the pickup. The pole pieces bottoms are not exposed as usual. There are small holes that open up to where the pole pieces are, but I don't know how I would ground them other than using small wires on each pole piece. Not really practical.

For you electronics guys, any suggestions? Don't bother with telling me not to touch the poles or put tape over them or put fingernail polish on them. I want to FIX the problem, not put a band aide on it. And don't tell me that "it's supposed to be that way"; if that were the case, all basses would buzz like there is no tomorrow, and they don't. So is there any way to ground those poles (other than what I mentioned) or do something else that would correct the problem?

Or should I just go for some aftermarket pickups? I'd rather keep the stocks in there, but I'm not going to "live with" hardcore buzzing that shouldn't be happening.
 
#2
I can’t speak to grounding the pole pieces, but I’ve fully shielded 5 Jazz Ultras. Mind blowing they don’t do this on a “high end” Fender. The Ultras can be great, but every one I’ve worked on from the factory has been extremely noisy until fully shielded.
 
#4
BGroovy said:
I can’t speak to grounding the pole pieces, but I’ve fully shielded 5 Jazz Ultras. Mind blowing they don’t do this on a “high end” Fender. The Ultras can be great, but every one I’ve worked on from the factory has been extremely noisy until fully shielded.
Click to expand...
I agree 100%. My opinion is Fender should be shielding these instruments at a lot more than the Ultra product level. If mass production of anything means that the price of production of anything goes DOWN, it would seem to me that Fender SHOULD do a good job of factory shielding while the instruments are being built, and not burden shift this fix onto consumers. I would be willing to pay the extra $5 per instrument or some nominal fee spread out across a mass-production paradigm to have this problem fixed at the factory during assembly, instead of as a consumer taking it out of the box with strings on etc, and then having to disassemble to properly remedy that which by the time of receiving the instrument will cost me both more time AND more money.

But I don't run Fender, and while I've offered a number of reasonable, logical and pragmatic player/consumer-oriented changes for the company over the years hear on TB, they've never listened to me. LOL.
 
#5
Yes, it is pretty pathetic that Fender doesn't run even a minimal coat of shielding paint in the cavities. Especially considering that even cheapie $600 basses quite often are shielded.
 
#6
Christcr said:
So, I've dealt with this problem a number of times over the years:

Touching pickup pole pieces while not touching anything else causes horrible buzzing, but if touching another metal part, the buzzing goes away. I've always gotten rid of this problem primarily by grounding the bottoms of the pole pieces with adhesive copper shielding stuck to the pole bottoms and soldered to the common ground or grounded shielding in the cavity. Problem solved. Shielding the cavity obviously helps as well.

BUT... I've only done this on passive basses. My Ultra II Jazz bass, of course, has active electronics. I pulled a pickup and the problem with grounding the pole pieces is that there is a circuit board of some sort screwed to the bottom of the pickup. The pole pieces bottoms are not exposed as usual. There are small holes that open up to where the pole pieces are, but I don't know how I would ground them other than using small wires on each pole piece. Not really practical.

For you electronics guys, any suggestions? Don't bother with telling me not to touch the poles or put tape over them or put fingernail polish on them. I want to FIX the problem, not put a band aide on it. And don't tell me that "it's supposed to be that way"; if that were the case, all basses would buzz like there is no tomorrow, and they don't. So is there any way to ground those poles (other than what I mentioned) or do something else that would correct the problem?

Or should I just go for some aftermarket pickups? I'd rather keep the stocks in there, but I'm not going to "live with" hardcore buzzing that shouldn't be happening.
Click to expand...
What did you end up doing? I have a new ultra ii jazz and the issue is noticeable when im playing. I don’t anchor at the edge of the pickup - I hover on the b and e strings regularly when playing the higher strings.

Was going to try the copper tape fix but chickened out.
 
#7
jmehl82 said:
What did you end up doing? I have a new ultra ii jazz and the issue is noticeable when im playing. I don’t anchor at the edge of the pickup - I hover on the b and e strings regularly when playing the higher strings.

Was going to try the copper tape fix but chickened out.
Click to expand...
Selling the bass to a guy that was going to install all his own preferred electronics. I replaced it with another of the same model that was quiet as a mouse as far as any buzzing. None at all. I guess we can chalk that up to QC issues at Fender. They really should be catching major electronic issues like that before the instrument makes it to the shipping department. If yours is new and you can exchange it, chances are that you'll find one that doesn't have that issue. They really are very good playing and sounding basses... unless they have issues like this.
 
#8
Christcr said:
Selling the bass to a guy that was going to install all his own preferred electronics. I replaced it with another of the same model that was quiet as a mouse as far as any buzzing. None at all. I guess we can chalk that up to QC issues at Fender. They really should be catching major electronic issues like that before the instrument makes it to the shipping department. If yours is new and you can exchange it, chances are that you'll find one that doesn't have that issue. They really are very good playing and sounding basses... unless they have issues like this.
Click to expand...
Ack - mine isn’t under warranty. The new one doesn’t buzz when you touch the pickups?
 

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