Single Coil Noise!

without any hum cancellation via an opposing coil, it's what single coils do. a gate might help -a little.

 

Yup. You get really good at rolling the volume down when you’re not playing.

 

The good news is that if it's silent from touching the strings, proper shielding will help a lot!

 

Dummy coil! Active or passive bass? My sense is that for active basses, adding a small dummy coil with lots of turns can work well (kills hum, doesn’t change the tone).

On a passive bass, such a dummy coil would change the sound. The solution is to wind a large coil (large in diameter) but with fewer turns. It kills hum and minimally changes the sound. Commercially available from Suhr (possibly others), but seems easy to make on your own. The only problem is finding a place for it - it has to be on the same plane (and ideally close to) the pickups. Under the pickguard seems the simplest... Or in a back routed cavity (a large control cavity could work).

 

Don't wave your hands in the air like you just don't care.

Word up

 

Your issue stops when you touch the strings/bridge/metal - your getting RF interference and your bass requires shielding.

60hz (single coil noise) would persist when you touch the strings/bridge. It would only lessen when you balance the pickups.

 

Rotate your body and bass until the 60 cycle noise stops. Then freeze! Stay there! Don't move!

 

Putting in a dummy-coil would be a waste of time if touching the strings takes away the noise.

It's not just radio-frequency, it's EMI:

(Radio-Frequency Interference) RFI vs. EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference)