Cheap stacked humbuckers for Jazz Bass?

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:22 pm

Does anyone know of something decent in this area? My bassist scooped up a super cheap Fender Jazz bass, I did some fixing up on it but I cannot get the horrible hum to go away. Searched for single-size humbuckers and the cheapest I found was $100 for a pair of Duncans. Anyone have any other recommendations? KEY WORD: CHEAP.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:22 pm

did you check the ground from pickup to teh bridge?

protip: CHEAP

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:36 pm

Yes. There's a wire coming from the bridge, and wires coming from each pup. I even undid them from the three different solder points (WTF?? GROUND LOOPS!) and bundled all three ground wires together, and soldered them to a single point. The hum got better but it's still just the classic single coil hum. It does not "get quieter" when touching the strings which would indicate that there was a ground wire break.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:48 pm

I wired the '60s style pickup/bridge covers to the ground on mine for now. A pickup upgrade is on the slate, though.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:56 pm

http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-JB-Pro- ... p_318.html

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:19 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-JB-Pro- ... p_318.html

Yeah dude I saw those but they aren't humcancelling. The biggest problem with this here bass is the hum.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:31 pm

the pickups in a strat aren't humbucking until you put the switch in position 2 & 4 either...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-String-Sealed ... 0608529458

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Open-Humbucker- ... 0690203444

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-String-Open-H ... 0844066936

you get what you pay for, though.

cur · Post by **cur** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:37 pm

is the pickguard shielded? Try some tinfoil on it if not.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:43 pm

cur wrote:is the pickguard shielded? Try some tinfoil on it if not.

I have some copper tape, I thought of that, but then only one pickup is under a guard on the Jazz bass, other other is just in the body.

Hotrod, yeah dude I thought of that but on a Jazz Bass both pickups are always on, and they often still have shit loads of hum. A strat gets the hum cancel because the mid pickup is reverse wound. I'd be all down for going with the GFS if it said the pair were reverse wound from each other, but it doesn't, and I don't wanna waste the monies just to find out that they don't hum cancel each other.

Which was why I was asking to see if anyone else has done this before.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:44 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:the pickups in a strat aren't humbucking until you put the switch in position 2 & 4 either...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-String-Sealed ... 0608529458

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Open-Humbucker- ... 0690203444

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-String-Open-H ... 0844066936

you get what you pay for, though.

Hmmm. Thanks for these links. Those resistances look really low to me, though. I'll pass this by the bassist and see what he thinks about going this route. Thanks dude.

cur · Post by **cur** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:51 pm

Pens wrote:
cur wrote:is the pickguard shielded? Try some tinfoil on it if not.
I have some copper tape, I thought of that, but then only one pickup is under a guard on the Jazz bass, other other is just in the body.

When I did my aria build I shielded the cavity and grounded everything. Put it together and it had the worst hum I have ever heard. I could trace my finger on top of the pickguard and would make all sorts of weird hum noise. Foiled it up like old time hockey and it totally went away. Just a thought.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:00 pm

cur wrote:
Pens wrote:
cur wrote:is the pickguard shielded? Try some tinfoil on it if not.
I have some copper tape, I thought of that, but then only one pickup is under a guard on the Jazz bass, other other is just in the body.
When I did my aria build I shielded the cavity and grounded everything. Put it together and it had the worst hum I have ever heard. I could trace my finger on top of the pickguard and would make all sorts of weird hum noise. Foiled it up like old time hockey and it totally went away. Just a thought.

So, are you saying to cover everything with the copper tape?

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:30 pm

Is the hum an issue when playing? If not, ignore it

. Rolling back the tone between songs should kill the hum; roll back up when you're ready to rock. This is what I do with my Jazz and Jazz-pickuped 5er.

cur · Post by **cur** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:52 pm

Pens wrote:
cur wrote:
Pens wrote: I have some copper tape, I thought of that, but then only one pickup is under a guard on the Jazz bass, other other is just in the body.
When I did my aria build I shielded the cavity and grounded everything. Put it together and it had the worst hum I have ever heard. I could trace my finger on top of the pickguard and would make all sorts of weird hum noise. Foiled it up like old time hockey and it totally went away. Just a thought.
So, are you saying to cover everything with the copper tape?

That fixed my problem. You can try some cheap foil and make sure it touches something that goes to ground and see what happens. then if that helps use the copper tape.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:22 pm

Eh, might as well try. I bought a big roll of copper tape to shield my Musicmaster build but there's so little that actually needed to be covered that I have a ton left over.

Ank, yeah it's just when playing stops really. Rolling tone down nixes most of it. Sounds annoying to me, that's why I installed hum-cancelling pups in every guitar I actively play now. This is for my bassist, I need to cut and install a new nut in it anyway, I'll go ahead and give it the copper treatment and see if that clears it.

Cur, what about the bridge pup, how do you shield that one? The one that just sits in the body without having a pickguard?

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:00 pm

Pens, try shielding the route with some of your copper tape.

i use aluminium car body tape to shield my guitars.

cur · Post by **cur** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:58 pm

serfx wrote:Pens, try shielding the route with some of your copper tape.

i use aluminium car body tape to shield my guitars.

Just do it all. See if it helps.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:11 pm

If I actually liked the sound of both Jazz pickups on, I would say that you don't need noiseless, but I don't.

That said, I love the sound of both Jazz pickups in series. I like to wire my Jazz Bass type basses as humbuckers with the bridge +, bridge - and neck + together to make a Spin-a-Split, and then neck - as the ground. This gives you a very full, loud sound as your default, which you can dial back with the Spin-a-Split to have bridge only. You lose neck only but I always thought that a neck only on Jazz Bass is a poor man's P-Bass anyway, so this isn't a problem for me.

If you want real noiseless Jazz pickups, I don't know of any that are actually cheaper than $100 a set.