Buzzing pole piece problem

[Finbar]

Hey!

 

Wondering if anyone smarter than me might have any ideas on this one. 

 

I have a Fender Mark Hoppus sig bass which is my 'project' bass. Nothing really major, but it's got a lot of hardware upgrades and I've also had a new pickup fitted to it. 

 

I took the bass to a local tech to have the body routed and pickup installed, and I'm pretty happy with the end result. I've had it this way for a while - maybe a year or so? But I noticed at a recent practice that one (and only one) of the pole pieces makes a noise when you touch it with your finger (it's a consistent G, for anyone wondering! :D). A bit like the sound when you touch the jack on your instrument cable while your amp is on. I assume that it's been doing this all along, but I just don't touch the pole pieces very often. 

 

Is there anything that might cause this? As far as I'm aware (and I'm rubbish with electronics), there isn't much to wire up incorrectly for a pickup - I imagine it would either work or not work, so that makes me wonder if it could be a faulty pickup?

 

If it matters, it's a Bill Lawrence/Wilde J45 pickup, installed in parallel with the original Seymour Duncan pickups which I think are Quarter Pounders. Everything is passive, and there is no tone control on the Mark Hoppus bass - both pickups go straight to the output via a volume pot. There really isn't much to go wrong I don't think.

 

Any thoughts are very welcome - I'd love to get to the bottom of it. 

 

Chris

 

 

Edit - I have seen some threads indicating that this could be due to the pole pieces not being grounded and that this can be remedied with some work on the underside of the pickup, but the Wilde pickups are epoxied on the bottom, so that's a no-go

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Finbar

[mcnach]

Earthing the magnets usually solves this. When they're not accessible, as in your case, it becomes more a matter of avoiding touching the polepieces. I have used clear nail varnish to put a thin coat on the offending poles and that works (and it won't be visible).