Strange Sheilding Question

[unbridled]

Thought I'd update this.

I tried many different kinds of metal shields (except lead), both against my body and the backs of my guitars, and they all seemed to act as antennas and amplified the noise. My Doctor told me it is indeed radio signals I am hearing.

Out of frustration, I taped my remote control above my pump, and it decreased it a great amount, as long as I kept the remote on.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I think it was addressed in one of the earlier suggestions, but did you connect the shield to the basses ground?

 

[unbridled]

I think it was addressed in one of the earlier suggestions, but did you connect the shield to the basses ground?

Yes.

I'm getting used to it. I swing my bass to the side between songs and try to have some space between my body and the lower part of my bass if I have to sit. I can also let my bass hang from my strap and twist it off to the side when sitting.

 

[Ben B]

OP, I didn't think you issue was going to be that strange when I read the thread title. Wow! First, I'm sorry you need the pump. Sounds yucky.

I think you are on the right track with active basses, but do your active basses have regular pickups with a pre-amp? Or do these basses actually have active pickups? I'm wondering if active pickups might be quiet enough to bring the noise down to an inaudible level. Also, do you know if your basses have shielding in the pickup cavities?

If all that checks out, as a test I would try putting aluminum foil between you and the bass. Maybe glue or tape the foil to some thick paper and tape the paper to the back of the bass. I've never tried this, but at leas tit would let you know if extra shielding might help.

Lastly, if all else fails, learn to play the drums.

 

[RobbieK]

I tried many different kinds of metal shields

Did you try copper? It's used for RF shielding in medical imaging, computers, phones etc.

How about mu metal? It's used for magnetic shielding. Also in medical imaging, hard disk drives, transformer enclosures etc.

 

[ctmullins]

Have you considered an instrument that only uses piezo pickups? Or one of those LightWave things? Might not help; I’m just thinking out loud...

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

I'm sure it's been said but all shields must connect together and finally to ground.

My friend Don recommends decoupling the signal ground from the shields (and the bridge/strings) with an 0.022uf capacitor paralleled with a 220k resistor.

His main reason to do that is to provide some separation between bridge and strings vs. possibly miswired equipment, but it also seems to improve EMI/RFI rejection.

Link Removed

 

[unbridled]

Maybe I need to experiment with noise gates, although I hate them.

This actually ended up being the solution I used. I was able to dial in the noise gate on my EHX Battalion where it just cuts out the beep but doesn't unnaturally cut the tails of my notes or mess with my dynamics too badly. Ironically, the gate on the Battalion is the second-most complained about feature of the pedal, behind the compressor.

I think any gate with a rotary control will work. I just couldn't find a setting on either of the digital gates available to me to work well.

To those who asked about different metals: I tried everything available to me. I even tried gold (admittedly, it was just a sheet of really thin gold leaf from the craft store.)

I also built a cable with a wire attached to the ground and tried attaching that ground anywhere I could. I even used the paste and a pad from my TENS unit to ground it to my body. My next experiment is to see if the Battalion affects the tone of my 6-strings if I set everything flat.