is my bass wiring bad?

[captainjon]

Hi,

I've got a warwick fna jazzman that has a noise problem. I've made a recording using a bass pod with all effects, eq and amp simulation off.
the bass is on the front single coil pickup, bass and treble are on full to hear the noise properly.

I've made a soundcloud file - https://soundcloud.com/internaljon/bass

Can anyone advise if this is within a normal range, or if it needs repairing. I did need to solder a wire back on when i got it off ebay, but cant see
if theres any bad solder connections.

cheers,

Jon

[HowieBass]

I've listened to the clip twice and to be honest I'm not sure I'm hearing what you're hearing. It doesn't sound at all noisy to me. There's maybe a very slight background hiss but my hearing's less than perfect so you and others may notice it more.

[PlungerModerno]

As HowieBass said - sounds like a faint hiss - All pickups can make that noise though a preamp - BTW if you have the treble all the way up on most preamps you get a hiss...

E.g. I have an active 2 band EQ on a Cort bass - twin humbuckers (Stingray style copies) when the treble is boosted more than 50% . . . slight hiss.
I'm guessing the warwick has a better preamp coz that's pretty quiet for a single coil pickup. I'm guessing with the bridge humbucker solo'd the preamp would be even quieter with extreme treble boost.

[captainjon]

thanks, its not the hiss from a treble boost which would be constant, its the kind of static interference that im hearing.
the treble i can deal with, but the interference needs a shielding repair?

[HowieBass]

You could do with checking it's not your cable that might have a shielding issue first (unless of course you've already tried a few decent quality cables and have noticed the problem with them all).

[Grangur]

It sounds like a good Warwick grown tone to me. Have you played other Warwicks or is this your first?

Just a 2nd thought; have you listened to the soundcloud recording? I'm thinking, "is this a buzz you can hear in the room, as the player, but not occurring in the amplified signal?" This may be a stoopid question. I'm good at coming up with stoopid questions/ideas

Welcome to BC btw.

[paul_5]

Could you post a short recording of the bass turned up but not being played - it may be that the interference noise is masked by the playing volume?

[PlungerModerno]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1412953582' post='2573636']
Could you post a short recording of the bass turned up but not being played - it may be that the interference noise is masked by the playing volume?
[/quote]

+1.

I had another listen to the soundcloud recording. Right at the beginning there is about a second where no notes are being played and there is some noise.
The good news is I had to turn the volume waaaAAAAAY up to be able to hear it properly (with OK headphones).
From what I heard there may be noise entering the signal chain. Probably not from a very powerful or close source - IME something like a computer LCD/LED monitor or a Hard drive (non-SSD) very close (less than 1 foot / 300 mm) produces a really severe noise in a single coil pickup - even with good shielding.
I gained the above info when trying to record a Jazz bass sitting right next to a PC.

In the case of the your Jazzman It would seem to be a minor noise issue. All your true singlecoils will be sensitive to EMF signals - even with shielding the noise is picked up from the front! If you are noticing the noise very much in certain situations (e.g. under lights) you can look at noise gating - otherwise you can swap a single coil for a dual coil hum cancelling design. Some people say they sound as good - I guess it depends.

Welcome to the forum anyway!

[discreet]

I can certainly hear it, but I'd say it's within normal parameters. If you had drums, guitar and vocal on the go (for example), there's no way you'd ever hear it. I wouldn't worry about it too much. It could be a slight shielding issue. It could be the Pod, even. And as has been said, a single coil pickup is inherently noisy in any case. Can you hear it when you're using both pickups together?

I get various noises from my Hayman - it's old. So I use the Zoom Noise Gate on my MS-60B and forget about it.

Welcome aboard, Captain....

Edited October 11, 2014 by discreet

[captainjon]

thanks for the feedback. i dont hear it so much, just the soundman, and i also like to use a bass exciter which ends up
making any noise worse. i have used other corvettes before, and this seems to be the worse from memory.

If i decided to get another preamp like an aguilar, would that make any real difference or just a waste of cash?

[PlungerModerno]

[quote name='captainjon' timestamp='1413070787' post='2574749']
thanks for the feedback. i dont hear it so much, just the soundman, and i also like to use a bass exciter which ends up
making any noise worse. i have used other corvettes before, and this seems to be the worse from memory.

If i decided to get another preamp like an aguilar, would that make any real difference or just a waste of cash?
[/quote]

It depends - The Bass exciter however is like any Compressor / Distortion that can be high gain - You'll probably want a noise gate working to cut out the worst of the noise.
Some guitarists & bassists swear by them. Personally I'd be looking at that before a second preamp... But you can form your own opinion. FWIW, the bass signal should be OK if you can avoid boosting the noise too much.