1975 Fender Jazz - very noisy! Do I need new pickups?

[Mike]

Hi all!

I have a 1975 jazz in mostly great condition. One issue I'm having is a significant buzz when the I'm not touching the strings/bridge/any metal part of the bass. So I'm guessing it's an earthing issue - what can be done to rectify this?

Also, the pickups crackle and buzz loudly when you touch the pole pieces. I've encountered this before on another bass and some black electrical tape did the trick, although of course this is treating the symptoms rather than fixing it. Can anything be done or are new pickups required?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

[gjones]

I doubt it needs new pickups. It's more likely that the earth wiring has loosened or corroded. Are you any good with a soldering iron? If not take it to a local guitar tech and they'll sort it for about £50.

[brensabre79]

Sounds like an earthing issue to me. Probably a really simple fix.
Open it up and see if there's a loose wire in there. If so, take a pic..
It won't do any harm to get a diagnosis on here before you go to get it fixed - or someone tells you how to.

[brensabre79]

Nice Jazz btw

[icastle]

There's an earth wire sat underneath the bridge that runs back to the jack socket.

It might have a poor connection at the jack socket end.

More likely though is the wire sat underneath the bridge has become corroded (rub it with a bit of sandpaper to clean it up as well as the underside of the bridge that pushes against the wire) or perhaps time has caused the wire to embed further into the woodwork so it can no longer touch the underside of the bridge (it's not fixed - it just sits there - just move it a centimetre).

[Mike]

Thanks for your tips. When I am back from a trip I will take a pic and see if I can locate the loose wire. Thanks!

[iiipopes]

Mains wiring. There's nothing wrong with your bass. I used to have a '75 Jazz bass in the early '80's. All single coil instruments will hum or buzz slightly when you are not touching them with the volume turned up. If it buzzes a lot, it is usually because of flourescent lighting, computer monitors, or other devices causing electrostatic noise that the bass is picking up, or an insufficiently filtered mains supply. That's why the bridge is connected to the sleeve of the jack: when you play the bass, the electrostatic noise is conducted to earth instead of being sent through the amp as noise or buzz.

Now hum is a function of the AC mains as well, which on a Jazz bass is attenuated by having both volume knobs at about the same level because the pickups are RWRP.