Tape wound grounding issues?

[john allemond]

Hi, I love tapewounds but on all my basses, which are vey quiet, they hum…anybody else have this issue? John

 

[trothwell]

Right, the nylon cover prevents completing the grounding circuit. Some basses are worse about this than others; I have a (stock) Fender Jazz with tapewounds that had almost no hum at all.

Active EMG pickups can be one method of dealing with it. Or you might find you can turn the tone knob down a bit and still get a good bass sound but reduce the sound of the hum.

 

[john allemond]

Right, the nylon cover prevents completing the grounding circuit. Some basses are worse about this than others; I have a (stock) Fender Jazz with tapewounds that had almost no hum at all.

Active EMG pickups can be one method of dealing with it. Or you might find you can turn the tone knob down a bit and still get a good bass sound but reduce the sound of the hum.

Thanks for reply…that's usually how I handle it, rolling off the highs

 

[iiipopes]

The other solution is to have a grounded chrome pickup cover that you can anchor your thumb to get rid of the hum. I have used both the EMG approach and the thumb ground approach on different basses when I wanted to use tapewound strings.

 

[john allemond]

The other solution is to have a grounded chrome pickup cover that you can anchor your thumb to get rid of the hum. I have used both the EMG approach and the thumb ground approach on different basses when I wanted to use tapewound strings.

So, run a ground from pick up cover screw through pickup cavity to harness?

 

[Aidil]

I love tapewound strings too. But, I'm only using them on basses equipped with under saddle piezo pickups. No problem with hum on this configuration.

 

[iiipopes]

So, run a ground from pick up cover screw through pickup cavity to harness?

Yes. Or some pickups already have a ground lead from the cover which is soldered as a common ground elsewhere.

 

[gitfiddl]

I tried some LaBella black something or other tapes on a Peavey Foundation about 15-20 years ago and couldn't readily solve the hum issue. I ditched the strings and never tried again.