Professional Concerns About Geddy Lee Bass

[jd56hawk]

I have a Geddy with American Super55’s and the tone isn't so different to be noticable by an audience or even a band. For solo practice, if I listen closely, yes.

Big mistake when Fender stopped production of the Super 55s.

 

[Spidey2112]

Who is telling you to get different pickups or that it is an issue?

Exactly.

 

[SteveCS]

I a currently looking at playing in a bunch of venues professionally--
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My thought on the matter is that any "vibe" killed by the noise cancelling pups will be compensated for by the happier player not being annoyed by excessive hum.
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Hum is a bigger vibe killer.

IMHO the nuance of a true single-coil vs a J-shaped stacked humbucker will go un-noticed in a live setting whereas a whole bunch of hum will cause everyone some kind of pain. In a professional setting it would be better, IMHO, to be hum-free than getting precious over a minor subtlety only you will be aware of.

 

[Searay]

Millions of Jazz basses out there, I would not be concerned in the least.

 

[BassyBill]

To summarise - the original Jazz bass design, and also most subsequent versions of it, has two single coil pickups. Either pickup is likely to get some hum going on when working alone. This can be minimised but not completely eliminated by a competent screening job.

When both SC pickups are working together, the hum should just about cancel out if both pickups are set to similar volume.

Some non-traditional Jazz bass pickups are designed to be hum cancelling. This sounds great in theory, but they never sound quite identical to the original single coil pickups (although some do get close - for example, Nordstrand NJ4SV).

If you like the SC sound (I do!), then one way to retain it is to thoroughly shield the electrics in your bass. If the hum is still bothering you after that (it shouldn’t, if the shielding is done right), you might consider swapping out the pickups.

The Holy Grail for many would be hum cancelling pickups that can reproduce exactly the lovely single coil “open” sound. But I don’t think anybody has made a pickup that can do that to perfection, even if some, as I said, get quite close.

 

[edot3021]

This is all assuming that it is in fact the bass that seems to be the issue right? You have troubleshoot…ed, troubleshot…the rest of your signal chain? Might be that you bass is noisy, but something may be making it noisier. Don’t know how well you know any of the sound guys, but may be worth trying to work with one of them to try and isolate the issue assuming you have a clean power supply to your pedals, no ground issues, thinking about it may the bass needs shielding. Good luck.

 

[tb-player]

I a currently looking at playing in a bunch of venues professionally--yay! That said, I was told that my Mexican Geddy Lee bass may be cause interefernece with the sound system or vice/versa. I was thinking of swapping the pickups for noiseless as I love the bass, but it knda kills the vibe.

Any ideas?

Whoever is telling you this is being silly. But if it is a big concern, here are 2 things you can do.

1) Take the bass to a local guitar shop with a good guitar tech and ask them to properly ground and fully shield the control & pickup cavities of the bass, including the back of the pickguard.

2) Buy this Xvive U2 guitar wireless system and lose the guitar cable. These affordable little units are always in my gig bag. I’ve found that they help tremendously with hum/noise by breaking the physical connection with the venue’s electronics. I’ve been using them for years for this very purpose and they work like a charm. Very effective solution that is much cheaper than buying a new bass.

 

[Standalone]

Jazz basses are, obviously, played professionally worldwide. They have been since their introduction. For instance: Geddy Lee. Having both pickups at an equal volume will cancel any hum if there is an issue.

Whoever told you that it's a deal breaking level issue is simply not informed well enough to be so confident in their opinion.

That said, *if* you are playing on a stage with serious grounding issues, or have an amp with serious maintenance issues, I can imagine a P bass or a bass with humbuckers might be a better choice. Another thing to do is to upgrade the shielding; which basically means putting copper foil inside the control cavity so that it grounds to the electrical ground of the bass (i.e. the foil must contact the metal plate). Take it to a good shop that does this, and consider it a good upgrade to a good bass.

 

[Spirit of Ox]

I have two Geddy Lees and a custom built Jazz bass and never had any issues like this. Hum isn't really that noticeable when the whole band is playing. Also, the American Vintage pickups that come stock with the Geddy Lee are so good that I replaced the Custom Shop 60's with them in my other Custom J bass.
They are definitely my favorite and I've tried almost every Jazz bass pickup.

 

[rashrader]

There are lots of great options for HC Jazz Pickups these days. Read threads and educate yourself. I’m a big fan of the EMG JVX Set. Easy solderless install and dead quiet. Great tone too.

 

[Killing Floor]

What is the source of noise? Is it single coil hum or something else? While SC hum may require pickup work it’s also possible that you haven’t properly shielded and grounded the cavity. Determine the type of noise before you spend $$

 

[FullumMusic]

I a currently looking at playing in a bunch of venues professionally--yay! That said, I was told that my Mexican Geddy Lee bass may be cause interefernece with the sound system or vice/versa. I was thinking of swapping the pickups for noiseless as I love the bass, but it knda kills the vibe.

Any ideas?

I feel like whoever told you that had just enough knowledge to be dangerously incorrect. I'm really not sure what they mean by saying the bass will "interfere" with the PA, or the PA will "interfere" with the bass. There's nothing special about a Geddy Lee Jazz Bass that will send radio waves out to the PA system and screw things up. Usually interference comes from unshielded instruments and cables pickup up really strong radio waves in the area. You'll be playing music, and then randomly you'll hear the radio from a taxi or cop or truck in the area blasted through the PA or amplifier.

What i think, and what most others in the thread have mentioned already is, that person was referring to the fact that Jazz Bass pickups are single coil pickups, and single coil pickups have a tendency to hum. If you want to dig deeper into it, it's called 60 Cycle Hum, or 60Hz hum, and it's caused because our electrical circuits in the USA are Alternating Current 120volts at 60Hz (the current alternates + and - 60 times a second), and our instruments are unbalanced (not grounded like a Mic with XLR cables). Other types of pickups like Split P or Humbuckers are wound in a way to cancel out that hum... they literally "buck the hum."

Anyway, like others have said, don't worry about it. Jazz Basses with single coil pickups have been around for decades and have been used onstage with minimal issue that whole time.

There are ways to minimize 60Hz Hum:
- Proper shielding on the pickup cavity and control cavity
- Turn both pickups up to full volume. The closer you get to 100% on both pickups the less hum. Different power sources are different, so on some you might get away with running one pickup at 100% and the other at a lower volume at some venues, and on others you might need to go 100% on both. Just see how much hum you're getting at the venue and adjust.
- All the audio equipment should be running on the same circuit (i know you have no control over how a venue set up its electrical system, but you can try different outlets around the stage if you're getting too much hum. You can also try running a power strip and making sure all the bands amps and electronics and anything you plug in are in that same power strip.)
- Never plug audio equipment and lighting equipment into the same circuit or outlet.
- Never put audio cables and power cables near each other. If you do have to put them near each other, never run them parallel along each other. Instead try to get them to cross at a 90 degree angle.
- Lastly, you can get humbucking J style pickups, but this option costs the most money and they will sound slightly different from traditional single-coil J pickups. So if you want that traditional J sound, this option is only if you're desperate.

And sometimes it'll just hum a bit and it's mildly annoying and you deal with it and then you and the rest of the band plays it's loud and covers up the hum for the most part.

 

[Citizen Nara]

Gigged and recorded for years with it and never had any problems. Actually it is the only piece of gear I deeply regret selling.

 

[smurfco]

Sounds like the sound guy is worried about invisible airwaves crackling with life

 

[ga_edwards]

A carefully set noise gate may help, but I agree with getting the bass properly shielded. I watched a LowEnd Lobster video performing this very task to a noisy Charvel recently. Applying copper shielding tape is an easy job, and the grounding solution looks pretty easy too, even if you're an amateur with a soldering iron like me.

(1) Charvel San Dimas ProMod IV - Buzz Off! How to fix the noise issues! - LowEndLobster Fresh Look - YouTube

 

[Artman]

I'd have professional concerns about whoever told you that a Jazz Bass could cause "interference with the sound system, or vice versa".

 

[6-3-2]

I'd look into shielding the bass with copper foil. There's lots of good guides on YouTube. It's not that hard and it makes a noticeable difference. Copper foil is cheap too.

 

[MobileHolmes]

Jazz basse have played several million gigs just fine. That said, my main bass has Nordstrand hum
Cancelling J pickups in it, and it sounds really good

 

[sawzalot]

If the sound person thinks a Geddy Jazz could interfere with the sound system, they are simply wrong. If that is true, then every sound engineer working for Geddy, Marcus Miller, Jaco, Joe Osborne, Duck Dunn, Steve Bailey, Adam Clayton, Larry Graham, John Paul Jones, Darryl Jones, and countless others would have told them to use a different bass. It's simply arguably one of the top two most popular bass designs in the history of bass. Use both pickups turned all the way up and it will cancel 60hz hum. Use either pickup soloed and you'll get hum, but it's pretty much lost in the mix when it's loud and just turn down your volume when you're not playing.

 

[Crackle]

I had my Kiesel Vader built with two single coil pickups. My band was on an outdoor show and the hum was terrible due to a nearby power line. I rolled the pan knob from full neck pickup to center detent (both pickups equal). Hum resolved instantly and sounded beautiful. Jazz Bass is no different, although you have two volume knobs instead of a pan knob.