Interference problem through pickup

[BiteTheBoxer]

Hi all. I have a squier jaguar bass (the one with the single humbucker pickup, which I replaced for a Seymour Duncan SMB-4d) and have been happily gigging with it most weeks for the last year or so without any issues. Then a few weeks ago I was asked to step into the band for a community panto being held at the local arts centre/theatre. On this first rehearsal we were in one of the downstairs dance studio rooms but I could hear everything that was being put through the PA system in the main theatre room coming through my amp. Really strange, I thought, so tried different cables, different wall sockets, took my pedalboard out of the chain and nothing stopped the noise coming through. The only thing that would change it was unplugging my bass from the amp or rolling the volume on the bass all the way down. 

I took the bass home, resoldered some of the wiring and put a load of shielding in the cavities. Went back to the venue the following week and was still having the problem. This time I even tried plugging bass directly into a spare PA speaker and still the noise.

...and here's the question...I got home and realised that the pickup had been wired in series, rather than parallel. Am I right in thinking that when it's wired to series it no longer acts as a humbucker? Do we think that this might solve the issue? Any other suggestions welcome.

Thanks

[Hellzero]

Humbuckers are supposed to be wired in series.

 

Your body is acting like the biggest antenna around and if your shielding isn't fully grounded, it's totally useless, meaning you'll still amplify the local radios, electrical parasites, routers, anything with a PWM supply, neons, ...

[bremen]

Yes but it was picking up the interference before the shielding was installed, as well as after.

 

Is it well behaved elsewhere? How about if you move it close to an amp?

 

There's a rehearsal room I use that sometimes but not always puts weird noises into my amp. Apparently others have also suffered, but noones got to the bottom of it. Best guess is it's something in the mains, it's on an industrial estate shared with some heavy industry.

[Hellzero]

1 hour ago, bremen said:

Yes but it was picking up the interference before the shielding was installed, as well as after.

As I wrote, if the shielding is not fully grounded, it's totally useless...

[bremen]

Op doesn't say whether the problem got better or worse after shielding. Yes I agree if it wasn't grounded it'd make it worse.

[BiteTheBoxer]

19 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Humbuckers are supposed to be wired in series.

 

Unless of course it's a stingray, then it's supposed to be wired in parallel. Side note, I actually prefered the tone I had when it was wired in series.

 

16 hours ago, bremen said:

 

Is it well behaved elsewhere? How about if you move it close to an amp?

 

Yeah, perfectly behaved elsewhere.

Edited January 24 by BiteTheBoxer

[bremen]

Same issue as me then, my bass and amp are fine except this particular venue.

 

Humbuckers work equally well series or parallel, precision or stingray, for noise cancelation.

 

Are the pole pieces grounded? They weren't on the Alan Entwistle P pickups I just fitted.

[BiteTheBoxer]

14 hours ago, bremen said:

Are the pole pieces grounded? They weren't on the Alan Entwistle P pickups I just fitted.

Yeah, good continuity between pole pieces and bridge and ground.

I went to the venue last night to test again and rewiring to parallel has reduced the noise a lot but it is still there a little. I think I'm just gonna have to get a noise gate for between songs and put up with the tiny amount of residual noise when playing. Also, hope that I don't have the problem anywhere else (but as this is the first venue I've encountered this issue after years of playing, I'm willing to take that risk).

[bremen]

Obvious questions coming up, sorry:

-does it happen when you plug into guitarist's amp, or plug her guitar into yours?

-do you have another bass to compare?

 

Assuming you have a guitarist of course!

 

 

[BiteTheBoxer]

1 hour ago, bremen said:

Obvious questions coming up, sorry:

-does it happen when you plug into guitarist's amp, or plug her guitar into yours?

-do you have another bass to compare?

 

Assuming you have a guitarist of course!

 

 

Sadly, no other guitarist in the band. It's just bass, keys, electric drums and sax. I only have 2 basses and they are both the same (same pickup, same wiring). If anyone is anywhere near Sturminster Newton in Dorset and fancies coming along to help troubleshoot, it would be appreciated.