Really noisy stingray

[funkybassinator]

There was a similar thread a few weeks back, but I wasn't able to find it. Anyway...

My Stingray 4 has been very noisy as of late. When I touch the strings or some other conductive, related component, the humming is greatly diminished, but still there (which makes me think grounding issue). Now here's the interesting thing. It's a piezo moddel, with a blend for the piezo pups. When the piezo pups are fully on, the hum disappears. Can anyone diagnose where the problem is here? Oh, and it also changes depending on where I am/what position I am in, just like average single coil hum.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[funkybassinator]

actually, playing with it more, it seems to be related to the wiring in my basement.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

actually, playing with it more, it seems to be related to the wiring in my basement.

That's often the case with these buzzing problems.

 

[David Jayne]

When the piezo pups are fully on, the hum disappears.

Sounds like garden-variety EMI(airborne noise). Piezos won't pick it up.

 

[FromTheBassMent]

Magnetic pickups are succeptible to 60-cycle hum (the noise generated by most household AC wiring)... piezos react to pressure, not to magnetic vibrations, so they are not.

EBMM basses are notoriously silent, but my Sterling HH hums in my apartment. This is undoubtedly because my 75-year-old abode has no grounding at all. When I set up in a situation where the grounding is adequate, I have no noise problems.

Since a lot of clubs in New England are in old buildings with crap wiring, I keep an ElectroHarmonix Hum Debugger in my gig bag. For $100 it kills every 60-cycle noise situation I've ever encountered, and any loss of high-end tone (slight if at all) is easily remedied with some judicious EQing. It's the one "pedal" I would never gig without.

 

[funkybassinator]

Ok, thanks for all the responses. The reason I say it's related to the wiring is that it does weird things like increase when I touch the metal box of a q-tron plugged into a separate (but on the same circuit) outlet, without even going through it.

EDIT: I never really notice it anywhere other than at home. So I guess there we go.