Noisy preamp?

[Japhet]

I'm using a Lakland Skyline 55-01 and during gigs if I turn towards my amp it starts to buzz. Turning bass to Passive reduces it somewhat. Have read that these basses have a noisy preamp and I'm considering putting a John East one in it. Anyone got any thoughts? Should I put some shielding in the cavity and if so what should I use? All the leads are good by the way.

[HowieBass]

I'm surprised that it's noisy in the way you've described because the Lakland Skylines are built by Cort (in Indonesia these days, used to be Korea) and they'll very likely be using exactly the same components as the many other instruments they build (including their own line and Squier and Ibanez basses) - I've got four Cort built basses and none of them has any kind of noise issue - the closest in configuration to yours is my Cort B4FL which has the same pickups and preamp as your Skyline and mine's fine. However, I've seen that a few people have decided to replace Cort electronics with something more advanced than the licensed Bartolini Mk-1 preamp and John East products are very well respected and I think you'd be very happy with the sound. I'd suggest your first mod would be to check and improve the shielding first (conductive paint or better the proper copper foil) and I also suggest you check the ground wire that runs under the bridge and make sure that's in good metal to metal contact as well.

[Japhet]

Thanks for the input Howie - I'll give the shielding a whirl.