Humming and Buzzing Problems

[chrisalvey]

Hi Guys

I have a 'new', 1935 4 12 marshall bass cab, it needed some work to replace a celestion GT12-75 guitar speaker with an eminence beta 12; now I am using a Mk2 superbass head, a few effects (compressor etc); I have noticed that at practice volume (i.e to keep up with the drummer) when I drop the E to D, I get a 'farting' noise - Am I clipping the speaker, and what do you think the solution is?

I have rewired the cab to 16 ohms, and rewired the cab with better quality wire and fittings.

Any thoughts???

Chris

[Trip]

Can anyone help me by recommending a good electrician who can sort out the humming, I have recently brought a BB614, and the front pick ups are fine when the controls are set for the neck only, as soon as I go to the bridge only then I have a sound somewhat similar to the hadron collider. Too much hum,to be honest. I live in East Sussex so if anyone could kindly recommend someone I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

Trip

[winterfire666]

[quote name='algmusic' timestamp='1295957741' post='1101967']
Sorry to open up the thread.

I have an aerodyne jazz. I have just installed Seymore Duncan quater pound on the J pick up. The the J pick up already buzzed a bit when it was full on with no P in the mix. After I installed the you SD, I noticed the buzzing stopped completely when I touched the bridge. I'm using Trybass strings, so just touching the strings doesn't work as the strings are coated with nylon

Any thoughts, I checked the earth goes to the bridge, but If I could grow an extra arm, I'd be fine ;-)
[/quote]

i have the same problem when using coated strings,im using 2x seymour duncan quater lb jazz pickups i have tried replacing all the pots ect, checked thebridge connection but still.it hums.
it has been suggested that i remove the pickups and use some copper tape (available on ebay) to shield the pickup cavities, i have not tried this yet but its gotta be worth a go. apperantly its something to do with the coated strings and single coil pickups.
im gonna try it next week ill update accordingly.
hope this helps.

[Jazzer]

Hi,
I need some help please... I have a Trace Elliot GP12 SMX head...
Occasionally when I turn the mains switch on there is an awful loud buzz... this happens with or without my bass plugged in and with the standby switch on (which I thought should stop anything getting to the speaker??)

After one turning it on and off once or twice, the problem goes away and amp switches on properly and works without the buzz.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem is..??
I'm worried that this intermittant problem will become permanent (maybe on a gig!) and I'll be stuck.

Many thanks for any help or advice.

[spellonyou]

Hi,

I am experiencing a problem with hum in the following setup:

signal chain: (any bass, or only a patch cable); korg pitchblack; palmer deepressor; behringer bdi21; amp (any kind)
all powered by Harley Benton pp junior, with the pitchblack using a battery cell as alternative (makes no difference)

the hum is only present with the tuner and compressor switched on simultaneously. its pitch and loudness seem to be stable.

touching the casing of the compressor with bare skin, providing ground, will eliminate the hum. engaging the input attenuator on the compressor also makes the hum disappear, or so it seems. nothing else makes the hum disappear, apart from switching off the tuner. I did not however try to add electrostatic shielding around any of the pedals nor powerplant.

i would like to keep the attenuator disengaged and not to use a battery cell as power supply for the deepressor. gigging with bare feet is also not an option. what could / should I try next to find a solution ?

[spellonyou]

Threading the lead between powerplant and pitchblack through a ferrite bead made this problem disappear completely.
As far as the actual cause of the problem is concerned, and how exactly the noise travels from the pb to the deepressor is a mystery to me, but there you have it.

[Mr Fretbuzz]

Since I've started to play my new Fender P Bass on my rumble 15 amp it's started to pop which it doesnt do with my squire..I take that as a good sign for my fender and an indication I need a more powerful amp, speaker set up...just got to convince the wife now :-D

[EdwardHimself]

[quote]
Move around the room with the guitar. Does the noise lessen or disappear as you move around ? If so then there may be some “noisy” electrical equipment in the room. Some common culprits are –

1. Computers screens and computers
2. Fluorescent and “low-energy” light fittings
3. Lighting dimmer switches
4. Cheap mains transformers (e.g. pedal power supplies)
5. Fridges and air conditioning units
[/quote]

This is certainly true. One thing I would suggest for anyone suffering from noise issues whilst recording on their own onto a PC is to try turning off your monitor before you start recording. This reduces the amount of hum you get dramatically. It's a lot less of a problem with LCD monitors though, compared to the old CRT types. Alternatively, you could try standing further away from the computer or if you feel better sitting down, move your chair a bit further away.

Edited June 29, 2012 by EdwardHimself

[spellonyou]

[quote name='spellonyou' timestamp='1340988303' post='1712564']
Threading the lead between powerplant and pitchblack through a ferrite bead made this problem disappear completely.
As far as the actual cause of the problem is concerned, and how exactly the noise travels from the pb to the deepressor is a mystery to me, but there you have it.
[/quote]

Well, as it turned out during yesterdays gig, the problem hadn't been solved after all, and I am still looking for tips on what to try next ...

Edit: running the compressor on a battery cell also seems to make the noise disappear but as the pedal is normally fixed to the board with 4 screws making battery changes quite a hassle that's only really a last resort option...

Edited July 1, 2012 by spellonyou

[davehux]

I have a Squier VM fretless Jazz which was driving me up the wall with buzzing. A multimeter showed that I had a good ground from the bridge to the pots and the pots & pups seemed to be fine. Comparing it to a fretted VM Squier, the only difference was no shielding paint in the pup cavities.

Solution

A 1m strip of 30mm wide self adhesive copper tape from eBay - costs less than £5. Make sure it has conductive adhesive or you'll need to solder connect all the strips. I removed the pups and covered the inside of the pup & control cavities with tape.

Solder a ground from the 2 pup cavity shields to a pot on the controls and put a little lip of copper on the edge of the control cavity so that it makes contact with the control plate.

Solder all pup, cavity and bridge grounds to one pot, and use the control plate as the ground link between the pots and the jack socket - don't wire the pot tops together (you can form an earth loop if you do that) You still need to solder the ground pin on the pots to their pot top. You only need to solder the 'hot' lead onto the socket. It gets its ground from the plate.

Put everything back, and ............................. a hum/buzz free guitar

[Marvin]

I've just bought a Squier P bass and it buzzes if I roll the tone up, it's not noticeable, I think, if you roll the tone off. There's no shielding so I'm assuming some copper tape and grounding wires?

[Geek99]

I have a Squier VM p bass, which has shielding paint in it and the standrd "duncan designed" pickups. It buzzes quite badly, but calms down a fair bit (but not totally) when I touch the strings. Tone up makes it worse. Is it likely theres a poor earth connection to the bridge ?

second question, doesn anyone know if shielding paint is superior to copper tape with conductive glue ? I have some spare tape, and I'm tempted to add it but not if there is no gain

thanks.



EDIT - I solved my issues. I put extra shielding in, and tucked a little foil up so it reached the foil on the back of the scratchplate.I noticed that resistance from the bridge to the jack (0.50 ohms) was much higher than from the pots (0.009 ohms).
Taking the bridge off I noticed that although the earth wire was in place, the exposed wire was twisted and quite slender so contact with the rough underside of the bridge was less than ideal. I pulled it through a little and put a piece of sticky copper foil over it to a ) stick it down and b ) widen the area of contact. This reduced the resistance from the now-refitted bridge to the jack socket to just 0.008 ohms. Bass now very quiet.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Geek99

[kolossusuk]

[b]Roland Bass Cube Buzzzzzzzz[/b]
For practice, I have a Roland Cube Bass 100 and all of a sudden it has developed a major buzzing when I plug in. There is no strip lighting or any dimmer switch nearby- following several processes of elimination, I have managed to conclude that it is def not the lead or bass guitar and it is a constant presence. It was sitting unused for a short while and had not been dropped or anything. Could there be a loose connection in the jack input or even a dry joint?

Anyone else had this problem and how did u manage to resolve it?

[vlazouras]

is it possible that by plugging my bass in a room with bad electricity, i can damage my pick ups?

[HowieBass]

[quote name='vlazouras' timestamp='1404659395' post='2494471']
is it possible that by plugging my bass in a room with bad electricity, i can damage my pick ups?
[/quote]

What do you mean by 'bad electricity'? But before we get to examining the room's electrical supply, no it can't; the bass sends a low level signal (very low voltage and low current) to your bass amp, so it's an output device; there's nothing coming back from the mains electrical supply to your bass, assuming of course that your amp has no problems. If the room's electrical supply is of poor quality (lots of noise on it) then that might affect what you hear when playing through your amp and generally, electrically noisy environments (which might be due to other pieces of equipment sharing and inducing noise on the supply) can make your instrument buzz where an poorly shielded bass pickup, or a poorly shielded instrument cable is picking up that noise; but even then your pickup isn't being damaged in any way.

Edited July 6, 2014 by HowieBass

[John Schoen]

My single coil Precision has developed a strange problem: when I turn the volume on the bass down the hum gets louder. It has always hummed a bit but the hum that I get now is much louder than normal. I have not changed anything, can someone suggest what the problem may be?

[icastle]

[quote name='John Schoen' timestamp='1408273167' post='2528455']
My single coil Precision has developed a strange problem: when I turn the volume on the bass down the hum gets louder. It has always hummed a bit but the hum that I get now is much louder than normal. I have not changed anything, can someone suggest what the problem may be?
[/quote]

There should be a wire running between the volume control casing to the tone control casing.
Is it still connected securely?

[John Schoen]

Thank you.
Everything looks normal, there is no wire between the casings and it doesn't look like there has ever been one. My multimeter has a dead battery, I'll check for bad connections tomorrow.

[URL=http://s5.photobucket.com/user/John_RSC/media/Bas/IMAG0067_zps4ffafc8f.jpg.html][IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/John_RSC/Bas/IMAG0067_zps4ffafc8f.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[taunton-hobbit]

I'll not name the pro-audio guy who tried to tell me that the crap noise from my brand-new custom built amp was caused by the 'factory next door'.
After ten months my tech has nailed it (& redesigned/rebuilt most of the circuit to BBC standard) - he gets my Denon decks in a couple of weeks, to work through my installed detritus of output & aux rca inputs....s'gonna be one of the best of the best......you just don't have to be in a hurry for this sort of work - fortunately I've spare kit should the need arise)

Edited December 24, 2014 by taunton-hobbit