Buzz from Polepieces when touched and static noise when rubbing scratchplate.

[yorks5stringer]

Just got a s/h but virtually new Player P Bass. 

It came with a non-standard pearloid scratch plate and I swapped it out with a black one I had lying around. Since then I've noticed ( and it might have been there before the swap) that when I touch the pole pieces  on the bridge side pickups that there is a buzz and also if I rub my finger on the scratchplate (near where the pickup wires go) I hear a crackle. The area under the pots on the scratch plate has foil although the one I replaced did not.

The OEM pickups were replaced with Fender CS ones by the previous owner, the internal bass  cavity is graphite paint shielded and the pickups have brass plates underneath. There is also  an earth wire to the pots from the shielded cavity and the bridge earth wire is intact.

I've re-soldered a couple of the joints but all seems OK (although I have not checked all the wires go the right place!) However both pickups work and the volumes and tone do as expected. The earth wires all seem to be connected too.

Any ideas please , am I missing something obvious?

Edited October 11, 2018 by yorks5stringer

[gary mac]

It's quite a common problem on Fender reissue 62's. THere is a mod that can be carried out, although I have found that it doesn't completely eliminate the problem. Also a little clear nail varnish on the pole pieces can help.

[yorks5stringer]

Not sure I am metrosexual enough to go into Boots and choose a bottle of clear nail varnish! Good to hear it is a known issue however.

[yorks5stringer]

I've shielded the whole reverse scratchplate with copper slug tape (from the £1.00 shop) and that's sorted the static issue, I can live with not touching the poles.

[BreadBin]

I'm sure I've seen people put tape over the poles to stop the click.

[Phil_T]

I've grounded the poles on my basses. As long as the bottom of the poles are exposed you just need to run a bit of copper foil across them and then solder a wire to the foil that then connects to one of pots. Works a treat.

[yorks5stringer]

Good to know, having removed the scratchplate at least 5 times already I'm going to leave it as my wrists are starting to complain!

[mcnach]

On 11/10/2018 at 20:41, yorks5stringer said:

Not sure I am metrosexual enough to go into Boots and choose a bottle of clear nail varnish! Good to hear it is a known issue however.

 

A while ago I had a lovely Tanglewood with that issue. I went to buy nail varnish... and I could not decide whether to buy clear one, or coloured: they had silver, black, metallic purple... The male assistant came to see if I needed help. I very casually told him what I needed (fast drying) and what for... he didn't seem surprised and showed me a range that were cheaper, fast drying, and came in a range of beautiful colours. I even bought a red one to retouch the body of a guitar as well.

You can do that... or ground the polepieces, which is what I ended up doing. You just need a bit of foil (or that copper tape with conductive glue, that's really handy) to touch the polepieces from below, and connected to ground. 

The static noise I see you dealt with already. Just make sure that everything (that needs to be connected to ground) is connected to ground solidly.