largo Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Hello all I've suffered for years now with earth buzz !!!! It happens with different basses and doesn't happen in all venues but I thought I'd entrust you lads & lassies to help me try to get rid of it. I know it might just be conditions and I'll never get round it but if I can reduce it as much as possible then I'd be a happy bunny. Here's what I've tried so far: 2 different basses, fully screened. Only commonality is using Nordstrand Big Singles which may be prone to buzz 'casue they are single coil. 2 different amps, only commonality might be I have a 4-way power block velcro'ed to the top of the amp inside the rack. If I switch to passive the hum goes away. So, what should I try next ? Could it be the power block, or where it's situated? I'm getting to the stage of buying a Fender 2008 Jazz V or Precision V passive just to get round the problem. Starting to like the passive tone more and more anyway So, open to suggestions/ideas/comments on the above ..... Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 [quote name='largo' post='442454' date='Mar 23 2009, 02:21 PM']Hello all I've suffered for years now with earth buzz !!!! It happens with different basses and doesn't happen in all venues but I thought I'd entrust you lads & lassies to help me try to get rid of it. I know it might just be conditions and I'll never get round it but if I can reduce it as much as possible then I'd be a happy bunny. Here's what I've tried so far: 2 different basses, fully screened. Only commonality is using Nordstrand Big Singles which may be prone to buzz 'casue they are single coil. 2 different amps, only commonality might be I have a 4-way power block velcro'ed to the top of the amp inside the rack. If I switch to passive the hum goes away. So, what should I try next ? Could it be the power block, or where it's situated? I'm getting to the stage of buying a Fender 2008 Jazz V or Precision V passive just to get round the problem. Starting to like the passive tone more and more anyway So, open to suggestions/ideas/comments on the above ..... Stephen[/quote] Nordstrand pickups - horrendously noisy. Coupled with a circuit, you are going to end up with a ridiculously noisy bass. Sadly, all single coils are going to exhibit noise to a certain extent. I screened the hell out of my basses with the Nordstrands in... never got anywhere. I swapped them out and they were a hell of a lot better. Don't know why specifically Nordstrand - loads of people swear by them - but I think that they are way, way overrated. I love my soapbars... and they are pretty much silent in any environment. My single coiled Lakland can have a little bit of noise, but as I stated beforehand, that's singlecoils for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umph Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 get some power filtering going on if its in a rack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOD2 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Can you borrow a different bass (with different pickups) just to see if it is the Nordstrand pickups ? I wouldn't spend any money on power filtering or anything like that until I'd eliminated the pickups. Besides which, the power in the UK is actually not bad in that respect (i.e. not too noisy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Power filtering won't do jack in the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largo Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Could I look at different Nordy pickups, not the Big Singles. would that help ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 (edited) [quote name='largo' post='442818' date='Mar 23 2009, 06:24 PM']Could I look at different Nordy pickups, not the Big Singles. would that help ?[/quote] Why are you so intent on Nordstrands? I've had the split coils and they didn't do a lot in terms of lowering the amount of noise either. The winding of a Nordstrand pickup is a bit weird also. All mids, mushy bottom and no tops... particularly when passive. Edited March 23, 2009 by EBS_freak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh3184 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 couldnt you just use a noisegate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 [quote name='josh3184' post='442825' date='Mar 23 2009, 06:28 PM']couldnt you just use a noisegate?[/quote] You could do... but a bass really shouldn't be *that* noisy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh3184 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 true, I've always been of the out of sight out of mind school though it doesn't exactly solve the problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largo Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 (edited) Had a Sei with Bart soapbars and couldn't get on with the smoothness of them, I prefer the bite of the coils. I only mentioned Nordstrand again as I presumed they were a weird size so would have to get like for like as a replacement. I'm open to suggestions, a soapbar with bite perhaps or a low/no noise coil alternative. Edited March 23, 2009 by largo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 [quote name='largo' post='442912' date='Mar 23 2009, 07:10 PM']Had a Sei with Bart soapbars and couldn't get on with the smoothness of them, I prefer the bite of the coils. I only mentioned Nordstrand again as I presumed they were a weird size so would have to get like for like as a replacement. I'm open to suggestions, a soapbar with bite perhaps or a low/no noise coil alternative.[/quote] Ah - are you talking about the longer than standard Fender Jazz 5 string coils... that really screws things up. You ever have to get them custom wound for you... or try the Fender SCN noiseless things. They aren't too bad - certainly lots of bite to them if thats what you are looking for. If you are constrained by dimensions, things could be difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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