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The Soundgear Club

#3,041
Any one here have their SR 400's or below give a hum that goes away when touching the strings? My SR 375 hums like crazy when the strings are not being touched, and my tech seems to think it is ok. Here is the message I got from him tonight.

"I looked at the bass. Hum goes away when touching strings. This means that circuit, bridge, & strings are grounded properly. The cavity is shielded and all the wiring look fine. All the frets are level but I adjusted the truss rod to get rid of fret board buzz. I also smoothed the fret ends, they were pretty sharp. You can pick up the guitar tomorrow if you like."

I also posted in the electronics forum to see if there is any help there
 
#3,043
It needs to be rewired. I couldn't tell you where the problem is without looking at it but more than likely the issue is a wire or connection that looks fine but is not performing right. IMO hum of any kind is unacceptable, none of my bases hum ever. I'd also stop using that tech if he thinks its acceptable. That's just me though.
 
#3,044
Strat Hater said:
Any one here have their SR 400's or below give a hum that goes away when touching the strings? My SR 375 hums like crazy when the strings are not being touched, and my tech seems to think it is ok. Here is the message I got from him tonight.

"I looked at the bass. Hum goes away when touching strings. This means that circuit, bridge, & strings are grounded properly. The cavity is shielded and all the wiring look fine. All the frets are level but I adjusted the truss rod to get rid of fret board buzz. I also smoothed the fret ends, they were pretty sharp. You can pick up the guitar tomorrow if you like."

I also posted in the electronics forum to see if there is any help there
Click to expand...

I'm having the same issue and can add a little info since I'm researching the same problem.

First, my house has no ground wire. Period. So I know that's an issue, but what puzzles me is that only certain basses make that sound - and both of them are passive (a Peavey and a Fender). Even stranger - the Peavey P bass didn't make that sound until I upgraded the pickup to a Seymour Duncan. Both pickups were passive so that doesn't clear anything up.

The next step for both of us is to take the bass to a different location and see if it has the same result. This will help isolate if it's the place or the bass. Then maybe post info where electronics people are more likely to see it and offer some advice.
 
#3,045
minimal said:
I really wish you hadn't posted those pics. Or more accurately my wallet wishes you hadn't posted those pics. In the near future, I foresee getting a set of those and a matching bridge for my SR505.
Click to expand...

BWHAHAHA!!! The tuners+bridge combo is gonna really set you back. I was going to get a bridge since know that all the other hardware has been replaced its the only thing that's still Cosmo black. But I remember seeing the price and thinking its really not that important. I only justified the ultralights because one of the stock tuners looked kinda broken. I discovered that the tuner in question was just poorly installed like I thought it was but I already had the Hipshot's so I wasn't going back.
 
#3,046
PDGood said:
I'm having the same issue and can add a little info since I'm researching the same problem.

First, my house has no ground wire. Period. So I know that's an issue, but what puzzles me is that only certain basses make that sound - and both of them are passive (a Peavey and a Fender). Even stranger - the Peavey P bass didn't make that sound until I upgraded the pickup to a Seymour Duncan. Both pickups were passive so that doesn't clear anything up.

The next step for both of us is to take the bass to a different location and see if it has the same result. This will help isolate if it's the place or the bass. Then maybe post info where electronics people are more likely to see it and offer some advice.
Click to expand...


I've found active preamps will suck up some ground related noise. I practice pretty frequently in my car using cigar lighter power converter and a Fender combo amp and it makes lots of noice because there is no true ground. when running my bass passive (bypass eq via a push/pull) it has lots of noise, when active (bart NTMB) the noise is cut in half.
 
#3,047
PDGood said:
I'm having the same issue and can add a little info since I'm researching the same problem.

... but what puzzles me is that only certain basses make that sound - and both of them are passive (a Peavey and a Fender). Even stranger - the Peavey P bass didn't make that sound until I upgraded the pickup to a Seymour Duncan. Both pickups were passive so that doesn't clear anything up.
Click to expand...

Passive basses will ALWAYS hum. It's the nature of single coils. Personally, I have all active basses with soapbar pickups and all my basses are silent. To me active is where it's at, but I'm in the minority.
 
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#3,048
mb94952 said:
Passive basses will ALWAYS hum. It's the nature of single coils. Personally, I have all active basses with soapbar pickups and all my basses are silent. To me active is where it's at, but I'm in the minority.
Click to expand...

I don't entirely agree. Single coil pups are much much more inclined to hum but not guaranteed. I have some singles that don't hum.

Also Single coil and passive are not the same thing.
 
#3,054
mb94952 said:
Passive basses will ALWAYS hum. It's the nature of single coils. Personally, I have all active basses with soapbar pickups and all my basses are silent. To me active is where it's at, but I'm in the minority.
Click to expand...

Passive isn't the same like single coil.

Dualcoil pickups, MM humbuckers, J-pickups and P-pickups can be passive as well but that doesn't mean they automaticly make noise or so. It's all about the wiring of the electronics. Look at the SR5006 for example. A prestige bass and although it has custom ACTIVE pickups, they still make noise.. The pickups are dualcoils by the way, so as you might have noticed where I wanna go to with this, is that each pickups, active or passive can make some noise. Wiring can be an issue, but also putting some copperfoil on the inside can reduce the noise.

And yes, also if they were made to reduce the noise / hum, bad wiring can still screw this up ;)

My advice : Let it rewire and let a (experienced) luthier put some copperfoil on your pickups and in your cavity where your preamp is (if you got one of course ;) ).
 
#3,057
Thomas Kievit said:
Nice information Ibanez gave me then... :eek::eyebrow: I asked them if they were passive or active and they mailed me they were active...
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All Bartolini pickups are passive. They don't make any active models, but you can have an active preamp that gives you the ability to boost and cut your EQ.

Whereas (some models of EMG)EMG or all Peavey Cirrus pickups ARE active and have microchips in them to boost the signal. They have less copper wiring and are low impedance, making it necessary to have a preamp to boost the signal.

I like the tone of Bartolini pickups, but I don't like how darn noisy they are. I DO love the Bartolini NTMB series of active preamps, though !!
 
#3,058
Alright. Well I hope you got my point :p

mb94952 said:
All Bartolini pickups are passive. They don't make any active models, but you can have an active preamp that gives you the ability to boost and cut your EQ.

Whereas (some models of EMG)EMG or all Peavey Cirrus pickups ARE active and have microchips in them to boost the signal. They have less copper wiring and are low impedance, making it necessary to have a preamp to boost the signal.

I like the tone of Bartolini pickups, but I don't like how darn noisy they are. I DO love the Bartolini NTMB series of active preamps, though !!
Click to expand...
 

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