Shielding my Aerodyne J bass

[Inverness]

When my band practices at my drummer's house, I get this horrible humming noise on my Aerodyne when I'm not touching a metal part of the bass (controls excluded). I upgraded the pups to SPB-3 (QP P pup) and the STK-2 (Hot J-bucker), and that provided a nice tonal enhancement that I do enjoy, but this NOISE. This only happens when the tone is all the way open. This happens regardless of pickup volume - Aerodyne is VVT. Of similar note, I also get the humming with my MIA Fender Jazz Deluxe V. Obviously, with my two Stingrays and my Sonus with HBs, I don't get the hum.

Now, it could be his house. When I play at home on my headphones (PBDI -> ART Powermix II), there is a little noise but it is not nearly as obtrusive as when I play at my drummer's. I'm almost at the point where I unload the Aerodyne and get another mid-low 4-string for practice and college bars that doesn't have single coils.

I read up on the shielding exercise for the MM Sig Jazz bass in the Wiki, and that got me thinking. Would I be better off going through the process of shielding the whole damn thing, or am I fighting a losing battle? Has anyone else encountered this issue? Is this one of those single coil deals where I just hafta deal with it?

 

[stylonpilson]

Does your drummer have dimmer switches anywhere in his house? If so, try turning them off.

S.P.

 

[Inverness]

No. The lights are on/off. He does leave on his LCD TV when we play, which makes me wonder... Our guitarist's amp (Crate BV-120H) also makes weird beeping noises at this house.

 

[stylonpilson]

It's certainly worth turning the TV off (and I mean totally off - unplug it at the wall to be certain) to see if that makes a difference.

S.P.

 

[Turnaround]

A thorough shielding job can significantly reduce noise, but it's not a cure-all for single-coil instruments. Check the Guitar Nuts site for detailed instructions on shielding a Marcus Miller. The same principles apply to the Aerodyne.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/bass.php

 

[Inverness]

Thanks!

 

[Bongolation]

Shielding may well have zero effect on this problem. Without getting technical, shielding is very limited in the types of noisy interference it will prevent, and in my experience people are usually disappointed in their results (or wildly overestimate their shielding project as the misattributed cause of the problem's eventual solution).

Sounds like there's some nasty source of interference in that house, though.

My own efforts are more geared to cleaning up the source of the problem in the first place. I don't regard shielding instruments beyond what the factory already did as being a productive use of my time considering the large number of instruments here. Better to fix my recording environment.