Squier Classic Vibe 52 tele bass hum

[Craig Williams]

Hi all. Just picked up a new Squier CV tele bass. Butterscotch model. Seems to have an overt amount of hum / buzz. It gets better when I ground it with my hand on the strings. Pretty much non existent until I turn the tone control up increasing treble.
My amp is a Warwick Bluecab 30...noticeable with volume around middle.

The amp turned on, volume up with the lead plugged in..... no buzz at all so I guess this is an indication problem with guitar?

Anyone have any advice or is this an issue with these guitars?

 

[kodiakblair]

All single coil P-basses will hum,it's the nature of the pickup. You can go nuts with shielding tape but will probably still get some hum. Personally I don't worry about it.

If it bothers you then you can swap the pickup for a split coil. Single coil P-basses are pretty much all I play and I tried one of these for a change. Works great

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[Craig Williams]

All single coil P-basses will hum,it's the nature of the pickup. You can go nuts with shielding tape but will probably still get some hum. Personally I don't worry about it.

If it bothers you then you can swap the pickup for a split coil. Single coil P-basses are pretty much all I play and I tried one of these for a change. Works great

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Thank you..By the way mines the natural / butterscotch model (not the whitewashed one). Ive seen varying specs on mine saying basswood, others saying pine. I know the whitewash one is pine. What about the butterscotch?

 

[kodiakblair]

Thank you..By the way mines the natural / butterscotch model (not the whitewashed one). Ive seen varying specs on mine saying basswood, others saying pine. I know the whitewash one is pine. What about the butterscotch?

Happy to try and clear things up. Us single coil p-bass folks should stick together
I've a feeling the butterscotch may be basswood. That's yet another thing I wouldn't worry about. I've 4 basswood bodies,1 ash,1 poplar and 1 pine. All sound roughly the same. Basswood gets an undeserved bad rep here on TB,funny how the fellas playing $3k basswood guitars never complain

The single biggest change to bring a Tele bass to life is strings IMO they work best with flats or tapes. Makes sense as flats/tapes were the only strings around when the Tele bass was designed.

 

[mongo2]

I swapped out my SCPB pickup for a humbucking Lace Sensor pickup for Strat. It's working very well.

 

[Rallypoint_1]

Congrats!! That’s a nice bass!! Ya, your going to get some hum from that single pu. As others have said a split single should do the trick.

I have a butterscotch and blonde and I will say that the blonde is A LOT heavier. It also has a deeper tone than the other. So, I am still not sure what wood the butter is. The specs say pine on both but I am not so sure now.

 

[Gunga Din]

Single coil hum is the price you pay for single coil tone. I love it.

Shield the cavities for a bit more taming of the sizzling shrew.

 

[Craig Williams]

Can I ask how u shield? Paint or foil?

 

[Craig Williams]

I was sitting right next to the amp before and I find now I move away as you would playing normally the hum decreases a lot. Excellent bass by the way. Nice big solid chuck of wood, one pick up. Simplicity. I had a Japanese one and not sure if AS good but very close. Have the action nice and low and sounds great.
These classic vibe guitars and basses are amazing. I have American Strat and Tele and have had CV versions of both I would have to say sound killer next to the USA guitars. Better by far. I love USA Fenders but they really seem to need 15+ years for them to mature and the wood body seasoned enough to get a nice resonation. The CV series sound and feel like a true vintage guitar straight out of the box. I don't know how they can produce them so well without taking sales away from their top end.

 

[EdBo]

I finally broke down and spent the $150 and got the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Stacked SCPB Pickup for my 50's CV. Totally different tone from the previouse 3 I've tried and no feedback or noise even with loads of gain/distortion. It actually sounds a lot like a Hot Split Coil pickup. Mine is rippin Hot at 31.2 K.
I also installed it on a push/pull pot that shunts the bottom coil out to get the regular single coil sound, a 10db bump in level and all the noise of a single coil pickup.
I understand why Sting and Dusty Hill both put this pickup in their Basses. It's BadAss for certain.
I liked the pickup so much I ordered a second one for my Slab Body Parts Tele immediately.

Something to note about the 50's CV Tele P Bass is that they put a wider spaced Pickup and Bridge on them(at least mine is) and all the replacement pickups have a narrower string spacing so if you're going to replace the pickup you'll need to put a standard Fender spaced bridge on it also. I modded a 5 screw Babicz to be string thru and added string ferules to mine.

 

[Sir Bob Haulk]

It could be a bad earth from the bridge to one of the pots. I had a hum develop on my old Washburn force 8 bass and fixed it by making a better earth. The only thing is you have to take the bridge off. You can find out if this is the problem though by pulling on the earth wire at the back which connects to the bridge, obviously if the wire comes away it's that but even if it doesn't it still might be that. No one wants to take the bridge off but it might be a solution

 

[Zoobiedood]

Awesome bass! And great pickup!