Chris Horton Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 (edited) Just to start off , I have sevral bass guitars and i have swapped between basses, leds, amps and speakers etc and i have narrowed down the fault which only occurs when i play my P bass I have an early 70's Fender Precision. When i plug the bass stright into my bass amp i get a light buzing/crackling sound (sounds abit like static) when my fingers touch the strings or the pickups. Is this an earthing/shielding problem ? or are my pickups about to die ? What things should i check next to try and pin the fault down further ? Any help / info would be most gratefully received. Chris Edited May 15, 2011 by Chris Horton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protium Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Is there any sound from the bass when you play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Horton Posted May 15, 2011 Author Share Posted May 15, 2011 (edited) [quote name='Protium' post='1232467' date='May 15 2011, 09:27 PM']Is there any sound from the bass when you play?[/quote] Yes, when i play the bass through the amp i get perfect bass notes but at the same time i get a small/quiet electric shock which can be heard through the amp/speaker. It feels like a very small static shock through my fingertips when i touch the strings Edited May 15, 2011 by Chris Horton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 [quote name='Chris Horton' post='1232473' date='May 15 2011, 09:35 PM']Yes, when i play the bass through the amp i get perfect bass notes but at the same time i get a small/quiet electric shock which can be heard through the amp/speaker. It feels like a very small static shock through my fingertips when i touch the strings[/quote] Check that there's a connection between the bridge and the internal grounding (ie the pots, ground contact on pickups and jack socket). If you don't have a multimeter, try connection one end of a piece of wire to the bridge and the other end to the body of the jack. If the problem goes away, this connection is missing internally and should be redone. Do you get the same problem wherever you are, or is it at a particular venue (one where the lights run off teh same ringmain as the amp, for example)? You may need to screen the control cavity with copper tape. None of these jobs is particularly difficult with a Precision, beautifully simple electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Horton Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 [quote name='bremen' post='1232790' date='May 16 2011, 10:28 AM']Check that there's a connection between the bridge and the internal grounding (ie the pots, ground contact on pickups and jack socket). If you don't have a multimeter, try connection one end of a piece of wire to the bridge and the other end to the body of the jack. If the problem goes away, this connection is missing internally and should be redone. Do you get the same problem wherever you are, or is it at a particular venue (one where the lights run off teh same ringmain as the amp, for example)? You may need to screen the control cavity with copper tape. None of these jobs is particularly difficult with a Precision, beautifully simple electronics.[/quote] Thanks Bremen, I shall try your first idea. sounds good. with regards to your second point, the fault follows me no matter the location of where i play the bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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