How to Correctly.Install Nordstrand NP4 Pickups

[PatrickJ]

Hello my Friends,

I need a little help.  Today I picked up a replacement P Bass pickup for my Sandberg VS4.  I went for a Nordstrand NP4V, I installed it fairly hasitily this afternoon and initially all seemed to be good, however, I'm sure I've got something wrong.  This is the first time I've done any work on a bass guitars electronics so I'm sure it's something obvious.

This evening I noticed a buzz from the guitar when the volume on my amp was at 1/2 way or more.  This didn't happen with the stock Sandberg pups, I swapped to my VT4 and that was totally silent, same amp, same cables.

The buzz is constant, and doesn't change when I touch the strings - though touching the guitar at certain points makes the buzz louder.  A weird thing also is if I touch my laptop it makes a buzz audible even at lower volumes.  The laptop has a aluminium case, but other metal objects didn't have the same effect.  Again trying the same with the VT4 and nothing, totally quiet.

So what have I got wrong.  

The pickups that came out had the covers sealed with a plate on the back which looked like it had a lot of wax holding it all in place.

The Nordstrand pickups have lose covers and no back plate - I used some acoustic foam under the pickup to hold it all in place - was this wrong,  is there something I need to do?  I've heard of brass plates being used under the pickups for extra grounding/ shielding.  Do I need to add something like that?

Cheers

[KiOgon]

See below

Edited January 1, 2020 by KiOgon

[KiOgon]

On 29/12/2019 at 00:39, PJ-Bassist said:

Hello my Friends,

I need a little help.  Today I picked up a replacement P Bass pickup for my Sandberg VS4.  I went for a Nordstrand NP4V, I installed it fairly hasitily this afternoon and initially all seemed to be good, however, I'm sure I've got something wrong.  This is the first time I've done any work on a bass guitars electronics so I'm sure it's something obvious.

This evening I noticed a buzz from the guitar when the volume on my amp was at 1/2 way or more.  This didn't happen with the stock Sandberg pups, I swapped to my VT4 and that was totally silent, same amp, same cables.

The buzz is constant, and doesn't change when I touch the strings - though touching the guitar at certain points makes the buzz louder.  A weird thing also is if I touch my laptop it makes a buzz audible even at lower volumes.  The laptop has a aluminium case, but other metal objects didn't have the same effect.  Again trying the same with the VT4 and nothing, totally quiet.

So what have I got wrong.  

The pickups that came out had the covers sealed with a plate on the back which looked like it had a lot of wax holding it all in place.

The Nordstrand pickups have lose covers and no back plate - I used some acoustic foam under the pickup to hold it all in place - was this wrong,  is there something I need to do?  I've heard of brass plates being used under the pickups for extra grounding/ shielding.  Do I need to add something like that?

Cheers

@PJ-Bassist

How have you connected it?

https://nordstrandaudio.com/pages/pickup-wiring-diagrams-and-schematics

Cheerz, John

[PatrickJ]

On 01/01/2020 at 12:47, KiOgon said:

@PJ-Bassist

How have you connected it?

https://nordstrandaudio.com/pages/pickup-wiring-diagrams-and-schematics

Cheerz, John

Howdy John, yeah I checked that but it didn't give a lot of useful information.  The pickups went into a Sandberg VS4 that has an active pre-amp.  There was no grey cable on the pick-ups as described in the article you referenced just black and white leads.  The original Sandberg pickup was the same so I soldered the white wire to the pre where the original white wire was connected and the same with the black.

I looked at the guitar again and fiddled the cables a bit.  It seems to have changed the behaviour that seems to fit with a grounding ssue, I.e. the buzz is only audible when volume is above 50% and stops if I touch the strings.  This makes sense as I wasnt very happy with how I soldered the black cable so I guess it needs to be redone.

[Mickyk]

?Did you get this sorted,as i might be going down the same road as you regarding the Nordstrand pups.

[Killed_by_Death]

 

I'm going to predict it just needed better shielding.

Hmm, the NP4V is the Vintage one, didn't expect that one to be noisy...

 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Killed_by_Death

[PatrickJ]

Yup it was shielding.

The PU cavities were comlletely unsheilded, the stock pickups were sealed and shielded so it wasn't a problem but the loose covered nordy's had none.  Some shielding tape cleaned up most of the noise.