Ibanez PJ Bass - Noisy

iblive

iblive

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Howdy boys and girls. Just finished replacing Pots in my bass. Got everything soldered up. Triple checked all connections to make sure I didn't dork and get a wire on wrong lug. Grounds are good. Bridge is grounded.... tested with multi-meter. Even checked with multi-meter for continuity where there should be and not where there shouldn't be. Copper tape shielded the control cavity. Bass has always had a bit of a buzz if I wasn't touch strings or bridge. Always assumed a bit of single coil noise. However.... now its really a load obnoxious buzz. Especially at higher volume. So I checked everything again. I don't see anything I did wrong. Here's the weird thing. While checking continuity,..... and it doesn't matter which probe I use, ground or positive with the meter. I touch either meter probe to the outside posts on the pot (the one that jumps from neck vol to bridge vol to middle post on tone pot) and it about blows the headphone off my partially pickled head. That don't seem right.

Thoughts?

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willmunny said:
I am not an expert, but did you get a bad pot somehow?
Never mind, just saw your answer.
I do know my little zoom stomp box has some patches that are very noisy
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Thank you, I thought that as well.... so good thought.

To keep harmony in the house I play thru headphones plugged into a Boss GT1. Yes, I know. That a guitar multi effect box. It works. I do have my kids bass amp here. 400w into 4-10" speakers. It'll rattle walls. Anyway...... For kicks and giggles I switched to a different patch. Cleaner.... less gain. Problem went away. Been playing now for like an hour. Not used to playing bass. Fingers and left wrist are worn out. But a good worn out.
 
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iblive said:
Thank you, I thought that as well.... so good thought.

To keep harmony in the house I play thru headphones plugged into a Boss GT1. Yes, I know. That a guitar multi effect box. It works. I do have my kids bass amp here. 400w into 4-10" speakers. It'll rattle walls. Anyway...... For kicks and giggles I switched to a different patch. Cleaner.... less gain. Problem went away. Been playing now for like an hour. Not used to playing bass. Fingers and left wrist are worn out. But a good worn out.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my wife goes to bed before I do, so play through headphones regularly.
My cv 60s strat had really loud buzzing through the zoom.
Got annoyed, plugged in another guitar, went about my session. I was thinking, maybe I need to shield the body cavity.
I took a closer look at the guitar this morning, there is a cold solder joint on the trem claw.
I was actually happy to see that.
Peace
 
Mad_Hater said:
Which model? I have an old passive GSR200 and the J-pup is so noisy it's basically unusable. Might wanna swap in DiMarzio's at some point and do a setup...

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We’ll see if this works. A mid 90s Ibanez EX I bought new. Mostly an entry level. But it works for me. Sad thing. I never really worked at playing it. I’ve played it more in the past week than most likely the entire time I’ve had it. Not proud of that one.

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iblive said:
Howdy boys and girls. Just finished replacing Pots in my bass. Got everything soldered up. Triple checked all connections to make sure I didn't dork and get a wire on wrong lug. Grounds are good. Bridge is grounded.... tested with multi-meter. Even checked with multi-meter for continuity where there should be and not where there shouldn't be. Copper tape shielded the control cavity. Bass has always had a bit of a buzz if I wasn't touch strings or bridge. Always assumed a bit of single coil noise. However.... now its really a load obnoxious buzz. Especially at higher volume. So I checked everything again. I don't see anything I did wrong. Here's the weird thing. While checking continuity,..... and it doesn't matter which probe I use, ground or positive with the meter. I touch either meter probe to the outside posts on the pot (the one that jumps from neck vol to bridge vol to middle post on tone pot) and it about blows the headphone off my partially pickled head. That don't seem right.

Thoughts?

View attachment 100618
Click to expand...
Bass has always had a bit of a buzz if I wasn't touch strings or bridge.

This happens because the inside of the guitar is not shielded.
Make sure the controls, tone cap, jack, pick guard (if applicable) and insides of the PU cutouts are shielded.
Paint the insides of wire holes / jack holes with shielding paint.
Use shielded wire or wrap the existing pickup wires with shielding.

I use 2 coats of shielding paint (prefer super shield paint) with copper foil over the top of it.

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Amp Mad Scientist said:
Bass has always had a bit of a buzz if I wasn't touch strings or bridge.

This happens because the inside of the guitar is not shielded.
Make sure the controls, tone cap, jack, pick guard (if applicable) and insides of the PU cutouts are shielded.
Paint the insides of wire holes / jack holes with shielding paint.
Use shielded wire or wrap the existing pickup wires with shielding.

I use 2 coats of shielding paint (prefer super shield paint) with copper foil over the top of it.
Click to expand...
Yep.... and I mostly fixed it by changing the patch I was using in my effect box. Went with a clean lower gain patch. Practically dead silent now.

As for shielding and shielded wires..... also yep. Have not done pup cavities. Not ambitious enough to pull strings and pups just to do that. Maybe sometime when I'm changing strings. But I did copper tape the control cavity. Have not painted inside wire holes or jack holes...... yet.

8QaeOy1.jpg


And then for kicks and giggles.... a project I've been working on that has zero to do with anything. I replaced the plastic control cover with a carbon fiber piece I fabbed myself. Also shielded on inside with copper tape and a decal from RS GuitarWorks.

OLD:

7ffkuvq.jpg


NEW:

FZz8syZ.jpg
 
iblive said:
Yep.... and I mostly fixed it by changing the patch I was using in my effect box. Went with a clean lower gain patch. Practically dead silent now.

As for shielding and shielded wires..... also yep. Have not done pup cavities. Not ambitious enough to pull strings and pups just to do that. Maybe sometime when I'm changing strings. But I did copper tape the control cavity. Have not painted inside wire holes or jack holes...... yet.

8QaeOy1.jpg


And then for kicks and giggles.... a project I've been working on that has zero to do with anything. I replaced the plastic control cover with a carbon fiber piece I fabbed myself. Also shielded on inside with copper tape and a decal from RS GuitarWorks.

OLD:

7ffkuvq.jpg


NEW:

FZz8syZ.jpg
Click to expand...
Put copper foil on the back of the control cover.
Bring the copper foil up out of the control compartment to the screw holes.
This will ground the shielding foil on the back of the control cover.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Put copper foil on the back of the control cover.
Bring the copper foil up out of the control compartment to the screw holes.
This will ground the shielding foil on the back of the control cover.
Click to expand...
Put copper foil on the back of the control cover. - Done
Bring the copper foil up out of the control compartment to the screw holes. - And also done

I think it was Robert when he building his yellow Strat. He did an entire long post on properly shielding a guitar.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Bass has always had a bit of a buzz if I wasn't touch strings or bridge.

This happens because the inside of the guitar is not shielded.
Make sure the controls, tone cap, jack, pick guard (if applicable) and insides of the PU cutouts are shielded.
Paint the insides of wire holes / jack holes with shielding paint.
Use shielded wire or wrap the existing pickup wires with shielding.

I use 2 coats of shielding paint (prefer super shield paint) with copper foil over the top of it.

View attachment 100634
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Although….. I’ve seen some other folk here run a “ground strap” from a pot to the copper tape. Seems unnecessary since the pot is touching said tape when mounted. What’s your thought on that one? Good idea or waste of solder? I was thinking of doing that….. just because. And then didn’t. Wouldn’t be difficult to do though.
 
iblive said:
Although….. I’ve seen some other folk here run a “ground strap” from a pot to the copper tape. Seems unnecessary since the pot is touching said tape when mounted. What’s your thought on that one? Good idea or waste of solder? I was thinking of doing that….. just because. And then didn’t. Wouldn’t be difficult to do though.
Click to expand...
Yep….you could run a ground from one of the solder points on one of the pots to the copper foil…wouldn’t likely hurt.

Edit…goes off to plug in his unshielded P90 loaded SG…to muff type fuzz…expecting quiet…
…oh yeah…noise gate.
 
iblive said:
Although….. I’ve seen some other folk here run a “ground strap” from a pot to the copper tape. Seems unnecessary since the pot is touching said tape when mounted. What’s your thought on that one? Good idea or waste of solder? I was thinking of doing that….. just because. And then didn’t. Wouldn’t be difficult to do though.
Click to expand...
The pot is made of 2 pieces which are crimped together.
The crimped metal sometimes oxidizes and loses the connection, that's why they solder it. Crimped connections don't last like soldered connections.
You can just use wire, you don't need a strap.
But 3 pots all secured to the copper, and all grounded together improve the odds of maintaining a connection.
There should be lock washers behind each pot, that dig into the copper.
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