Single Coil noise problem?

[JesuMan]

Hi there,

Our rehearsal room is under the railroad embankment, with the railroad overhead contact line.
This high voltage line produces a loud buzzing only in my SingleCoil MEC Pickup in Bridge Position (on my Fortress One) – The P-Pickup in neck position is not concerned!
It also buzzes with the SingleCoil in the guitarists Telecaster, but guitarists don’t be bothered by fuzzy noises! ;-)
Could this problem solved by an active pickup in the bridge position (bad solution, because I don’t wanna change it)?
Or are there possibilities to insulate the pickup (my favorite, if there are anny solutions)?

Thanks for your suggestions, and best regards,
JesuMan

 

[thefitz]

An active pickup isn't necessary - a noiseless pickup would do the trick. You could use copper tape to shield the electronics and control cavity, but that won't completely eliminate the hum.

I have no idea why people pair a non-noiseless J pickup with a noiseless P pickup....

 

[JesuMan]

Thanks for the answer. So I will try my best with Cooper Tape, maybe this helps.

I have no idea why people pair a non-noiseless J pickup with a noiseless P pickup....

Don't ask me, ask Warwick - they build it! ;-)

 

[golem]

`

An active pickup isn't necessary - a noiseless pickup would do
the trick. You could use copper tape to shield the electronics
and control cavity, but that won't completely eliminate the hum.

I have no idea why people pair a non-noiseless J pickup with a
noiseless P pickup....

In case they need some of that Authentic Single Coil Hum

P-basses don't NEED a bridge PU. It's just there to dial in the
noise that MEANS "Rock n Roll". Perzanilly, I have a P-bass [an
actual Fender] with a TJ at the bridge cuz I'm not really a true
card carrying Fender freak, but I'm really into StingRays, which
come with SC or Humbugger neck PUs but no split coil neck PU
option ... thus my Fender is just another type of Ray clone as
far as I'm concerned [ezpezshilly since this version comes with
a 3-band active EQ engineered by Ghangis Khan himselves].

 

[thefitz]

Would you be referring to an American Deluxe Precision? Particularly an earlier 9V version?

I have one, and I modded it heavily - flipped the P pickup (which was already flipped to begin with, so the B and E strings were on the bridge coil, and the A/D/G was on the neck coil), replaced the bridge humbucker with a noiseless Fender Jazz (I'm sorry, that bridge pickup was ♣♣♣♣ing useless), replaced the preamp with a Glock, and the bridge with a Hipshot A series. It now sounds incredible. It's not shielded at all and I did a ♣♣♣♣ty soldering job so I get a lot of buzz when not touching the strings, both other than that, it's amazing. I can't really shield it, now that I have a single coil pickup in a humbucker routing.

EDIT: 2 things -

1) I'm not just blaming Warwick, a lot of companies do that too. Yamaha does that on their $2000 BBs. 80's basses in the height of the PJ combo did that. It makes no sense - the neck pickup is noise cancelling with itself, so the only time you're going to get noiseless operation is when you're soloing that neck pickup.

2) Is a preamp engineered by Ghengis Khan a good thing? Mine sounded like a transistor radio.

 

[spitskin]

Hummmm!
To get my starbass quitet is zero chance ! Well if i get the humbuckes off couse but they are crazy expencive !

 

[Charmand G]

Isn`t the problem the power line, rather than the bass?

I wouldn`t bother if you don`t hear it while playing, but rather look for "something" that can shield your amps power input in some way.

 

[Curtis]

There's a venue in Holland, near to Amsterdam Central Station, so it has like 20 tracks with the electricity cables above the trains near the venue. Every singlecoil buzzes like hell there. You almost have to shield the rehearsal room

I think this is too much, so maybe you just have to change to another rehearsal room? In the worst case you have to do some expensive mods, only for rehearsing....

 

[golem]

Would you be referring to an American Deluxe Precision? Particularly an earlier 9V version?

I have one, and I modded it heavily - flipped the P pickup (which was already flipped to begin with, so the B and E strings were on the bridge coil, and the A/D/G was on the neck coil), replaced the bridge humbucker with a noiseless Fender Jazz (I'm sorry, that bridge pickup was ♣♣♣♣ing useless), replaced the preamp with a Glock, and the bridge with a Hipshot A series. It now sounds incredible. It's not shielded at all and I did a ♣♣♣♣ty soldering job so I get a lot of buzz when not touching the strings, both other than that, it's amazing. I can't really shield it, now that I have a single coil pickup in a humbucker routing.

EDIT: 2 things -

1) I'm not just blaming Warwick, a lot of companies do that too. Yamaha does that on their $2000 BBs. 80's basses in the height of the PJ combo did that. It makes no sense - the neck pickup is noise cancelling with itself, so the only time you're going to get noiseless operation is when you're soloing that neck pickup.

2) Is a preamp engineered by Ghengis Khan a good thing? Mine sounded like a transistor radio.

Mine is an '08 USA Deluxe. It's got an 18 volt 3-band with
18db cut and boost, so there's no transistor radio effect
The 18db boost/cut is what I meant about Ghengis Khan
engineering. Sounds like your hot rod is/was a righteous
ride ... apparently a 5-string, mine's a 4. I'm toadally with
you on which way to angle a split coil ... you wanna sense
the skinny strings closer to the neck than the fatties. Less
twang on the treble side, better low mids on the bass side.

I'm perficklee happy with the stock Fender TJ as a bridge
PU. I'd say this partikoolar version of P-Dlx is the perfect
Fender for an EBMM freaque who's already got too many
StingRays and needs to branch out a bit ;-)

How come you can't shield you SC just cuz it's in the rout
from a humbugger ?

 

[thefitz]

Yeah, rumour has it that they discontinued the 5-string deluxe P because the B string was too bone shattering. Problem solved by flipping the pup. Still strange that the magnets were B/E on one coil, and A/D/G on the other, and not B/E/A on one coil, and D/G on the other, like every other 5-string P. The Basslines ASB2-5 pickups are essentially what I did to the neck pickup, and I love them as well.

I had a Jazz with that 18V system - loved the sound, but I dime the treble, and there was a buzzing I could not get rid of. Got techs to call Fender, and they said it's just the way it is. Reggie Hamilton CS sig is even worse, as the treble knob starts at 2k.

I'm worried about shielding the pickup because you want to 'box' in the pickup with copper tape, and it'll be hard to 'seal' the box with an SC in an HB route.