Chappman Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Hi Guys I have an issue with my Warwick Streamer LX Jazzman 5 string. This is an ongoing issue that I can't seem to get fixed by any repair person. I have attached a video of myself demonstrating the issue. The single coil neck pickup has a loud buzz. this goes away if you touch any of the nobs. it is not an earthing issue as you can see in the video. When you blend the bass to the bridge pickup the sound pretty much goes away. I have had this checked by someone who has a great reputation and they cannot see anything wrong with the pickup or the wiring. What's also odd is that this issue does not happen at every location I take it to! The bass and pickups are working fine other than the buzz. Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated! Thanks Ian video-1539780182.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikay Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) If it's already baffled the experts then I'm not sure that my input will help - but here it is anyway! Sounds to me like a combination of earthing and shielding. Earthing because you can kill the noise by touching the knob (which presumably connects to earth via the pot/shaft), and shielding because the noise varies depending on the environment (proximity of lights, other electrical appliances, mains wiring/earthing variations etc). The noise gets less when you turn the blend to the bridge humbucker which suggests that the main component of the noise is down to single coil hum. This is 'normal' but might be improved by shielding the single coil pickup cavity (make sure that the shielding is also connected to ground). There was a 'click' when you touched the polepieces which suggests that the poles aren't grounded. Grounding the poles can help to reduce noise (and unwanted clicks and clunks). If the poles of the single coil are visible on the underside of the pickup you can ground them by running a strip of conductive adhesive foil across them and connecting this to ground. I noticed that when your finger briefly touched the bridge earth wire (and when you placed the bridge in the cavity) the noise didn't stop dead in the same way as when you touched the knob. If the bridge earth wire was properly connected to the earth of the output jack then touching it should have exactly the same effect as touching the knob. So it would be worth double checking the continuity of the bridge earth to the earth connection of the output jack. When playing the bass another thing to check is whether the noise varies depending on your position. If you turn round does the noise diminish or get louder? If it does then that suggests the noise is due to local sources of interference and poor shielding. Edited October 17, 2018 by ikay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridgehouse Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 ^ Bridge earth. Sounds like the pickup is naturally noisy, and the strings (which act like antennas) are picking up a bit of noise from certain locations - if they aren't properly grounded then it will buzz. Touching stuff to get rid of the buzz means it's not a grounding issue with the electronics as such, but more likely an issue with string grounding. It should go away when you touch the strings in the same way it does when you touch the knobs. Having a bass with piezo saddles, a carbon fibre back plate for the strings, and no metal contact along the whole length I know very bitterly how string grounding can really make a difference to stray buzzing with single coils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridgehouse Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 I've just rewatched that vid.. the strings are off. Hmmmm. It sort of sounds like the ground connection in the actual pickup itself is faulty. The best way would actually be to test continuity using a meter between each point and see where it's failing... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Make sure that the bridge ground wire isn't sunk in the wood and making little contact with the bridge (as it looks in the video) change its location to the side so that it makes better connection (and create a new sink in the wood). Shielding the electronics and pickup cavities and connecting that shield to the ground also helps. Last advice is to, if all fails, replace the bridge pickup for a dual-coil/humbucker/noise cancel one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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