PatrickJ Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Hello my Friends, I need a little help. Today I picked up a replacement P Bass pickup for my Sandberg VS4. I went for a Nordstrand NP4V, I installed it fairly hasitily this afternoon and initially all seemed to be good, however, I'm sure I've got something wrong. This is the first time I've done any work on a bass guitars electronics so I'm sure it's something obvious. This evening I noticed a buzz from the guitar when the volume on my amp was at 1/2 way or more. This didn't happen with the stock Sandberg pups, I swapped to my VT4 and that was totally silent, same amp, same cables. The buzz is constant, and doesn't change when I touch the strings - though touching the guitar at certain points makes the buzz louder. A weird thing also is if I touch my laptop it makes a buzz audible even at lower volumes. The laptop has a aluminium case, but other metal objects didn't have the same effect. Again trying the same with the VT4 and nothing, totally quiet. So what have I got wrong. The pickups that came out had the covers sealed with a plate on the back which looked like it had a lot of wax holding it all in place. The Nordstrand pickups have lose covers and no back plate - I used some acoustic foam under the pickup to hold it all in place - was this wrong, is there something I need to do? I've heard of brass plates being used under the pickups for extra grounding/ shielding. Do I need to add something like that? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 (edited) See below Edited January 1, 2020 by KiOgon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 On 29/12/2019 at 00:39, PJ-Bassist said: Hello my Friends, I need a little help. Today I picked up a replacement P Bass pickup for my Sandberg VS4. I went for a Nordstrand NP4V, I installed it fairly hasitily this afternoon and initially all seemed to be good, however, I'm sure I've got something wrong. This is the first time I've done any work on a bass guitars electronics so I'm sure it's something obvious. This evening I noticed a buzz from the guitar when the volume on my amp was at 1/2 way or more. This didn't happen with the stock Sandberg pups, I swapped to my VT4 and that was totally silent, same amp, same cables. The buzz is constant, and doesn't change when I touch the strings - though touching the guitar at certain points makes the buzz louder. A weird thing also is if I touch my laptop it makes a buzz audible even at lower volumes. The laptop has a aluminium case, but other metal objects didn't have the same effect. Again trying the same with the VT4 and nothing, totally quiet. So what have I got wrong. The pickups that came out had the covers sealed with a plate on the back which looked like it had a lot of wax holding it all in place. The Nordstrand pickups have lose covers and no back plate - I used some acoustic foam under the pickup to hold it all in place - was this wrong, is there something I need to do? I've heard of brass plates being used under the pickups for extra grounding/ shielding. Do I need to add something like that? Cheers @PJ-Bassist How have you connected it? https://nordstrandaudio.com/pages/pickup-wiring-diagrams-and-schematics Cheerz, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrickJ Posted January 2, 2020 Author Share Posted January 2, 2020 On 01/01/2020 at 12:47, KiOgon said: @PJ-Bassist How have you connected it? https://nordstrandaudio.com/pages/pickup-wiring-diagrams-and-schematics Cheerz, John Howdy John, yeah I checked that but it didn't give a lot of useful information. The pickups went into a Sandberg VS4 that has an active pre-amp. There was no grey cable on the pick-ups as described in the article you referenced just black and white leads. The original Sandberg pickup was the same so I soldered the white wire to the pre where the original white wire was connected and the same with the black. I looked at the guitar again and fiddled the cables a bit. It seems to have changed the behaviour that seems to fit with a grounding ssue, I.e. the buzz is only audible when volume is above 50% and stops if I touch the strings. This makes sense as I wasnt very happy with how I soldered the black cable so I guess it needs to be redone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickyk Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 ?Did you get this sorted,as i might be going down the same road as you regarding the Nordstrand pups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killed_by_Death Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 (edited) I'm going to predict it just needed better shielding. Hmm, the NP4V is the Vintage one, didn't expect that one to be noisy... Edited March 3, 2021 by Killed_by_Death Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrickJ Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 Yup it was shielding. The PU cavities were comlletely unsheilded, the stock pickups were sealed and shielded so it wasn't a problem but the loose covered nordy's had none. Some shielding tape cleaned up most of the noise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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