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So your bass has a hum

#101
DiabolusInMusic said:
Yes sir. I used to run a wire to the cavity covers but I have found this process to be a time-saver and a space saver, some wire routes get pretty tight with 4 wires. I have been using the screw through copper method for the last while with great success, just ensure you have conductive adhesive. Also ensure you do not connect your shielding to the pickup, you will get no output.

If your plate is getting a ground connection and connected to the cavity, then you do not need to ground your control cavity. I ground the control cavity as a common ground and take my pickup cavity grounds from that point.

I hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Okay so I am a bit confused on shielding the pickups... You shielded the bottom of the pickup with a sort of foil cup. I know you made clearance for the magnetic poles. Not really sure that part is necessary. I would think you'd be okay with being shielded top and sides since the bottom is protected by the cavity shielding right?
 
#102
Big Hoss said:
Okay so I am a bit confused on shielding the pickups... You shielded the bottom of the pickup with a sort of foil cup. I know you made clearance for the magnetic poles. Not really sure that part is necessary. I would think you'd be okay with being shielded top and sides since the bottom is protected by the cavity shielding right?
Click to expand...

Shield the pickup covers, not the pickups themselves. You do not need to wrap the pickups. They do this during pickup construction on sealed pickups but I would not bother with it, it would be a big hassle to get it right. You're line of thinking is correct.
 
#103
My pickups appear to be sealed in epoxy. Since my tape is using non conductive adhesive, I coated the top inside, and lower inside areas of the pickup cover, and then wrapped the pickup itself as shown in my build thread. I was extra careful not to get the copper near anything that should be conducting electricity, so there should be no issues.

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I got the control cover off the bass last week and I am painfully aware the routing on the bottom isn't as clean as it should be... I need to get in there with a chisel and clean it up before applying the tape...
 
#104
@Dave Hostetler Looks good to me. Just note that if your tape is not conductive, you may need to solder a wire onto the copper for contact. I have never tried to make contact through the screw with non-conductive adhesive. While it should work, I cannot say for certain.

As far as the cavity goes, unless it is so rough the tape will rip it should be fine. This is another reason why paint is my method of choice. ;) :D
 
#105
DiabolusInMusic said:
@Dave Hostetler Looks good to me. Just note that if your tape is not conductive, you may need to solder a wire onto the copper for contact. I have never tried to make contact through the screw with non-conductive adhesive. While it should work, I cannot say for certain.

As far as the cavity goes, unless it is so rough the tape will rip it should be fine. This is another reason why paint is my method of choice. ;) :D
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honestly, you got me concerned about masking for the tape... :-).

Mind you, my instrument is not some high end 60s classic, and I SERIOUSLY doubt Fender is spending the $$ for laqcuer finishes on Affinity series basses... If I had to guess I would think it would be poly... If that's the case, yeah, I would be WAY better off going with that...

I would think the screw penetrating the adhesive, AND the foil should make sufficient contact. I will know soon enough!
 
#106
Big Hoss said:
honestly, you got me concerned about masking for the tape... :).

Mind you, my instrument is not some high end 60s classic, and I SERIOUSLY doubt Fender is spending the $$ for laqcuer finishes on Affinity series basses... If I had to guess I would think it would be poly... If that's the case, yeah, I would be WAY better off going with that...

I would think the screw penetrating the adhesive, AND the foil should make sufficient contact. I will know soon enough!
Click to expand...

Everything Squier is poly as far as I know, everything post 1972(ish) from Fender is poly outside of re-issues. If you ever buy a new nitro bass from Fender they will let you know, they provide paperwork on nitro care. Fender does offer cheaper nitro basses but they are recent additions to the line-up, they used to be reserved for more expensive basses. Fender can only spray so much nitro in a year due to the EPA, that is why it used to be reserved for money-makers/big ticket items.

In regards to the contact, I imagine you will be fine. Most people get overly worried before their first shielding job, then you realize how easy it is. Next thing you know, you are buying basses just to shield them! It's a slippery slope. :D
 
#107
DiabolusInMusic said:
Everything Squier is poly as far as I know, everything post 1972(ish) from Fender is poly outside of re-issues. If you ever buy a new nitro bass from Fender they will let you know, they provide paperwork on nitro care. Fender does offer cheaper nitro basses but they are recent additions to the line-up, they used to be reserved for more expensive basses. Fender can only spray so much nitro in a year due to the EPA, that is why it used to be reserved for money-makers/big ticket items.

In regards to the contact, I imagine you will be fine. Most people get overly worried before their first shielding job, then you realize how easy it is. Next thing you know, you are buying basses just to shield them! It's a slippery slope. :D
Click to expand...

I'm a woodworker too... probably why I dig so hard to understand how it all works, and get busy tinkering and modding... We have a slippery slope there, it's called wood turning... Lathe work is extremely addictive, and expensive even for a cheapie...
 
#108
The screw-through-copper-tape method will prived a good conductive connection, regardless if the adhesive is conductive or not.

That said, copper tape with conductive adhesive is so easy to get and inexpensive (on ebay, at least), there's no real reason to prefer tape with non-cunductive adhesive.
 
#109
Okay, my conductive coating is out for delivery. Last minute sanity check...

My pickup shielding is described previously, the pickup, and control cavities will be fully coated with 3 coats of the conductive paint. How to connect them though?

My thought is, why not connect them via conductive coating through the wiring bores? Electrical path speaking, Pickup cover foil to pickup foil, to lower pickup foil / screw holes. Screws through foil to pickup cavity, contact between screws and foil, and screws and conductive coating, conductive coating fully through wire bores, insuring coating fully coats end to end, connecting to conductive coating in control cavity. Control cavity route conductive coating to extend just over the edges, to just around the screw holes, insuring conductivity between the control cavity and control cover to ground... Or...

Pickup cavities --> Wire routes --> Control Cavity --> Control cover --> Ground.

Does this sound about right? I'd rather not run an extra wire through the wire channel if possible. Since the tape I got seems to have non conductive adhesive, I am not really sure how to get a ground attached to run through there anyway...
 
#110
You should be fine. If your paint is making good connectivity through the routes then the wires would not be needed. Just take out your multimeter and ensure you have a good connection between the cavities before re-assembling. The proper way to connect the wires would be to add a groundscrew and connect the wires to that, the copper tape just saves space and time. I actually saw pics where a fellow had wrapped aluminum tape around a wire so connection was being made on the non-adhesive side, this would work too.
 
#111
DiabolusInMusic said:
You should be fine. If your paint is making good connectivity through the routes then the wires would not be needed. Just take out your multimeter and ensure you have a good connection between the cavities before re-assembling. The proper way to connect the wires would be to add a groundscrew and connect the wires to that, the copper tape just saves space and time. I actually saw pics where a fellow had wrapped aluminum tape around a wire so connection was being made on the non-adhesive side, this would work too.
Click to expand...

I was actually trying to avoid the ground screw / crowding the route if possible. In my mind it just seems like a cleaner way to do this, less crowding of the routes and channels. And yes, multimeter testing is the way to go to insure conductivity!
 
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#112
Okay I got the job done, and I am not sure i did it right.

As you may recall, I replaced the OE pickups with Squier Duncan Designed Jazz pickups that I got on the classifieds. And something isn't right.

The bridge pickup is VERY muted, and VERY scratchy.

I somewhat suspect either I got a bad pickup, or I damaged the bridge pickup volume pot when I did the soldering... The pot was a bit hard to turn at first, and being how new it is, I am leaning toward maybe I did something wrong to it...

How would I test this?

Oh, FWIW, I found a good method to get the conductive coating thoroughly through the wire channels on a Jazz bass... Coat one end of a Q tip with the stuff and just glide it through... Worked like a charm for me!

For what it's worth, the neck pickup sounds absolutely fantastic, even with the known good cable out of the path... No excess noise at all...
 
#113
Big Hoss said:
Okay I got the job done, and I am not sure i did it right.

As you may recall, I replaced the OE pickups with Squier Duncan Designed Jazz pickups that I got on the classifieds. And something isn't right.

The bridge pickup is VERY muted, and VERY scratchy.

I somewhat suspect either I got a bad pickup, or I damaged the bridge pickup volume pot when I did the soldering... The pot was a bit hard to turn at first, and being how new it is, I am leaning toward maybe I did something wrong to it...

How would I test this?

Oh, FWIW, I found a good method to get the conductive coating thoroughly through the wire channels on a Jazz bass... Coat one end of a Q tip with the stuff and just glide it through... Worked like a charm for me!

For what it's worth, the neck pickup sounds absolutely fantastic, even with the known good cable out of the path... No excess noise at all...
Click to expand...

The bridge pickup has low output and it is "scratchy"? Like turning a dirty pot? Does the scratching happen if you let it just sit there or do you need to turn the pot to make it scratch? How are your soldering connections, are they nice and shiny?

I am thinking the issue lies within your pot or the connections more than the pickup. You can always test the pickup on your multi-meter but I would suspect it to be fine.
 
#116
I have heard stuff about regular pots, and mini pots... The pots in this bass aren't tiny, really aside from the shafts, they are roughly the same size as the ones in my Ibanezes...

Like I mentioned, something felt funny about the bridge pickup after I soldered it, it was not impossible to move, but certainly rougher than it should have been... Like maybe solder got inside the pot or something?

I'm thinking possibly CTS pots, and somebody more skilled to solder them in is in order...
 
#117
Big Hoss said:
I have heard stuff about regular pots, and mini pots... The pots in this bass aren't tiny, really aside from the shafts, they are roughly the same size as the ones in my Ibanezes...

Like I mentioned, something felt funny about the bridge pickup after I soldered it, it was not impossible to move, but certainly rougher than it should have been... Like maybe solder got inside the pot or something?

I'm thinking possibly CTS pots, and somebody more skilled to solder them in is in order...
Click to expand...

It is an Affinity, right? Those used to use mini pots, I do not know if they still do. The whole pot would be smaller, not just the shaft.

Did you solder your ground on the pot? If so, it is very possible you over-heated the pot. While this is common manufacturing process, it isn't recommended. It's your bass but I would still recommend learning this yourself. Pots are cheap, for the cost of 30 minutes of shop time you would be able to put in at least two new entire sets of CTS pots.
 
#118
DiabolusInMusic said:
It is an Affinity, right? Those used to use mini pots, I do not know if they still do. The whole pot would be smaller, not just the shaft.

Did you solder your ground on the pot? If so, it is very possible you over-heated the pot. While this is common manufacturing process, it isn't recommended. It's your bass but I would still recommend learning this yourself. Pots are cheap, for the cost of 30 minutes of shop time you would be able to put in at least two new entire sets of CTS pots.
Click to expand...

Part of the purpose behind choosing an Affinity (aside from that oh so smooth fast neck) is that it was cheap to mod and I wouldn't worry too much if I broke it... It is a learning platform for me...

Yes, I soldered to the pot itself in the stock location.

How would I go about soldering the ground leads from the pickups then? In the OE configuration, both leads go to the bridge pot, and all pots are grounded to each other... The hot lead solders to the center pin on the pots...

One option I guess is to clamp the grounds in place (temporarily) to keep them from moving, and then load the iron with solder, and touch / transfer the solder to the pots / wires quickly, less than 2 seconds or so to make the joint, then move on to the hot leads...

I have a sneaking suspicion that the current Affinity line may be different from earlier models. I have seen mid 2000s Affinity Jazzes, and the tuners, and pots look different. Mine has open back tuners with the big key ends, the others have small key ends with closed backs, and my pots look to be about 1/3 larger than the older Affinity pots. Those older ones the pot itself wasn't much if any larger diameter than the jack. Mine is considerably larger than the jack itself.
 
#119
Admittedly, I solder to the pots all the time (insert shame emoticon here). You can heat them for more than 2 seconds, they are not quite that fragile, but you do need to be quick. If you have a crappy iron then you are far more likely to toast a pot. The "proper" way is to run a common ground for the bridge, pickups and shielding and then send that to the jack, connecting it all. I would send the negatives to the grounding screw in the paint and send that to the jack.

Those are definitely not minis. Full size pots would be an upgrade for Affinitys, so that may be the case. I think mini-pots get too much flack. I wouldn't go out and use them out of choice but I have never seen the point in changing them if they are working fine.

I feel I should add that my jazz is wired actually like yours is, with everything grounded on the bridge pot. I am dropping in new pots in the next week or so, trying out some 500Ks. I will probably clean up the job since I would have to actually add the giant glob of solder to the pot, not use the existing glob, so I do not have any good excuses for doing it.
 

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