Rickenbacker 4003 Buzz Kill

[ustabawannab]

I have a CRT in my practice area that was giving my Ricky fits, especially after I replaced the Bridge Pup cover with a Pickguardian cover.
I shielded both cavities, and the bottom of the cover and killed 80% of the buzzzzzz. All the shield grounds are connected together along with the bridge ground. No loops.

Click on the thumbnail for bigger pics. Click on the picture again for full size.

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[jojo99]

CRT's and Ricky's...both eagerly awaiting the 19th century

 

[RickenBoogie]

CRT's and Ricky's...both eagerly awaiting the 19th century

Awww, c'mon. Dude, the Ric bass is a classic, like the Precision. And a real tone monster, 20th century tecnology at it's finest.

 

[12bass]

If we are going to criticize the Rickenbacker design for being archaic....... Given that the 4001/4003 has two single-coil pickups, they could have at least designed them to hum-cancel.

 

[Ric5]

If you play a bass with single coil pickups in a place with a crt or fluorescent light and it buzzes too much then get a noise gate.

 

[Espidog]

Nice looking job there. Been thinking of doing the same to mine. One question: did it work?

 

[12bass]

Forgot to mention in my previous post that I applied copper shielding to both the pickup cavities as well as the bottom of the pickguard on my 4001 (using star grounding). I think it helped somewhat, but there is still audible single-coil buzz under certain situations.... just the nature of the pickups if they are not designed to cancel hum.

 

[Espidog]

When I'm at home, my hi-gain bridge pup picks up a weird noise that sounds like someone playing a high-pitched dischord on a Hammond organ with vibrato. I think it's coming from mobile phone masts, but I'm not sure. It's not a big problem, as it's really at a very low level. Strange, though.

I think I'm going to do the cavity shielding trick on my baby, too.

 

[Rickenmonster]

Flipped the magnet on the bridge pickup and reversed the wires. Now my Rick is as quiet as my Jazz bass.