Help with buzz from Tonerider pickup on Ibanez SRMD200 bass

[Brim Taika]

Hey, everyone

 

I'm hoping I can get some advice about the freshly installed pickups on my bass. Here's the situation:

 

I ordered a set of The Duke PJ pickups from Tonerider and had them professionally installed along with a pro setup and a Graphtec nut at the local custom shop. The technician called me and said that there was a buzz coming from one of the pickups because it was too hot for the built-in preamp. It's listed as "Ibanez Custom Electronics 2-band EQ". He tried throwing a resistor on the pickup to cool it off, but it didn't make any difference. I brought it home and did a few minutes of testing and it seems that with the blend knob all the way up I'm getting a pretty bad buzz. I've attached a recording if that helps - Open E string moving the blend knob from 100% right to 100% left.

 

Here are my questions:

 

1) I'm considering an Artec SE2 preamp because it's cheap. Any good?

2) Apparently I can make the bass passive, but it'll take just as much effort on the part of the technician to do this. Pros and cons here?

3) Could it be something else I've overlooked?

 

Thanks in advance, looking forward to any advice anyone can share  

 

Attached a photo of her with my guitar too, because I think they make a cute couple.

[jonno1981]

Is it the jazz pickup at the bridge which is buzzing? 
I wonder if this is a single coil issue. Does the buzz go away when you blend the pickups together? Does it buzz more/less if you move the bass around the room? Angle it away from lights or electronics? 

[jonno1981]

As a further thought, is the pre-amp a cut and boost model, or can you only add and not cut bass and treble?

Is the pre-amp heavily boosting bass and treble in the recording? It sounds like it might be and that’ll also amplify the buzz. 

[PaulThePlug]

Presume wired parallel, I wonder if turning the J round would help...

 

I'm a Passive Ibby Fan with 4 SRs

 

Toneriders shouldn't need help in the Tone Department from a cheap pre.

Quality VBT Loom?

[Brim Taika]

17 minutes ago, jonno1981 said:

Is it the jazz pickup at the bridge which is buzzing? 
I wonder if this is a single coil issue. Does the buzz go away when you blend the pickups together? Does it buzz more/less if you move the bass around the room? Angle it away from lights or electronics? 

Hey, @jonno1981, thanks for the reply and, yes. It's the J pickup at the bridge. Buzz starts at 50% blend and increases as I go all the way over to the J.

 

16 minutes ago, jonno1981 said:

As a further thought, is the pre-amp a cut and boost model, or can you only add and not cut bass and treble?

Is the pre-amp heavily boosting bass and treble in the recording? It sounds like it might be and that’ll also amplify the buzz. 

It sounds like a cut and boost. Both dials at are 50% in the recording. Boosting bass and cutting treble reduces the buzz.

[Brim Taika]

6 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Quality VBT Loom?

Hi, @PaulThePlug, thanks for the reply. Wiring is all factory standard apart from whatever came with the pickups.

[crazycloud]

It's a single coil J pickup - it will likely hum.

[Brim Taika]

27 minutes ago, crazycloud said:

It's a single coil J pickup - it will likely hum.

You're absolutely right, @crazycloud, thanks for the reply. Just wasn't expecting it to be this loud. I've reached out to my custom shop about double-checking the grounding and possibly shielding the cavity.

[shoulderpet]

On 03/09/2025 at 18:54, Brim Taika said:

Hey, everyone

 

I'm hoping I can get some advice about the freshly installed pickups on my bass. Here's the situation:

 

I ordered a set of The Duke PJ pickups from Tonerider and had them professionally installed along with a pro setup and a Graphtec nut at the local custom shop. The technician called me and said that there was a buzz coming from one of the pickups because it was too hot for the built-in preamp. It's listed as "Ibanez Custom Electronics 2-band EQ". He tried throwing a resistor on the pickup to cool it off, but it didn't make any difference. I brought it home and did a few minutes of testing and it seems that with the blend knob all the way up I'm getting a pretty bad buzz. I've attached a recording if that helps - Open E string moving the blend knob from 100% right to 100% left.

 

Here are my questions:

 

1) I'm considering an Artec SE2 preamp because it's cheap. Any good?

2) Apparently I can make the bass passive, but it'll take just as much effort on the part of the technician to do this. Pros and cons here?

3) Could it be something else I've overlooked?

 

Thanks in advance, looking forward to any advice anyone can share  

 

Attached a photo of her with my guitar too, because I think they make a cute couple.

I ordered an Artec but it seems it was dead on arrival, hopefully you have better luck than me. 

 

The preamp on the mezzo is pretty hot but I am sceptical that the pickup was too hot for the preamp as a I had a Seymour Duncan hot Spb2 in one a while back and no issues, I actually chose the SPB-2 to counter the mid scoop in the preamp and it was a great match and did exactly that.

[42Hz]

On 03/09/2025 at 19:54, Brim Taika said:

Pros and cons here?

By going passive you don't need batteries 😁. It is also likely that the pu and pream of the Ibanez were made for each other. You may need to change some potentimeters, if going passive. That would be my uneducated choice anyway.

[Brim Taika]

1 hour ago, shoulderpet said:

I ordered an Artec but it seems it was dead on arrival, hopefully you have better luck than me. 

 

The preamp on the mezzo is pretty hot but I am sceptical that the pickup was too hot for the preamp as a I had a Seymour Duncan hot Spb2 in one a while back and no issues, I actually chose the SPB-2 to counter the mid scoop in the preamp and it was a great match and did exactly that.

Thanks so much for the reply! So the built-in preamp is probably fine and I should just get some shielding in the cavities to reduce 50/60hz hum?

[Brim Taika]

1 hour ago, 42Hz said:

By going passive you don't need batteries 😁. It is also likely that the pu and pream of the Ibanez were made for each other. You may need to change some potentimeters, if going passive. That would be my uneducated choice anyway.

Appreciate the reply! I'll check with the custom shop how much a passive conversion would cost.

[shoulderpet]

7 hours ago, Brim Taika said:

Thanks so much for the reply! So the built-in preamp is probably fine and I should just get some shielding in the cavities to reduce 50/60hz hum?

It can't hurt to try, if that doesn't imply things it is also worth checking that the ground wire is making contact (I had mine years ago so can't remember what the wiring was like but I would assume that like most basses there is a ground wire under the bridge) single coils are noisy but they shouldn't be unusably so.