Intermittent earth buzz

[Sambrook]

Apologies if this has been done to death- in theory, I know how to fix an earth problem, but I can't seem to shift this one.
My Letts bass has a wooden 2 piece bridge, and is earthed at the metal plate that holds the ball ends of the strings. The earthing inside the cavity looks like it should, but I get an intermittent scratchy sound when I touch the strings; it doesn't do it all the time, and didn't do it at all through a friend's rig, or in his hands.
Is there something obvious I'm missing?

[chrismuzz]

This might sound completely ridiculous, but I had a similar problem with my bass once. Turns out my shoes were isolating me from the earth. Put my trusty Converse on and the noise disappeared!!

[PlungerModerno]

[quote name='Sambrook' timestamp='1406892520' post='2515643']
Apologies if this has been done to death- in theory, I know how to fix an earth problem, but I can't seem to shift this one.
My Letts bass has a wooden 2 piece bridge, and is earthed at the metal plate that holds the ball ends of the strings. The earthing inside the cavity looks like it should, but I get an intermittent scratchy sound when I touch the strings; it doesn't do it all the time, and didn't do it at all through a friend's rig, or in his hands.
Is there something obvious I'm missing?
[/quote]

I think this noise is caused by you grounding yourself through the bass. try touching some thing else to act as a ground (eg. metal table, tap, unused instrument cable connected to ground) and see if the noise goes away. There are special straps for it but there's a tip in this vid about putting a cable in your sock that could help: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/212625-recording-bass-guitar-free-lesson/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/212625-recording-bass-guitar-free-lesson/[/url]

[KiOgon]

[quote name='Sambrook' timestamp='1406892520' post='2515643']
Apologies if this has been done to death- in theory, I know how to fix an earth problem, but I can't seem to shift this one.
My Letts bass has a wooden 2 piece bridge, and is earthed at the metal plate that holds the ball ends of the strings. The earthing inside the cavity looks like it should, but I get an intermittent scratchy sound when I touch the strings; it doesn't do it all the time, and didn't do it at all through a friend's rig, or in his hands.
Is there something obvious I'm missing?
[/quote]Have you tried a different known good 'instrument lead' to your amp?