Good to hear that solved the issue! Also a bass with single coils pickups (like a J bass) are more susceptible to interference and may contribute to hum. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Decent pickups and shielding is always good to have!
If you really want to eliminate all noise/hum you probably should be looking at noise gate pedals. Paging @Al1885
As a beginner I couldn’t hear the difference between tones either. Just by doing the course and lots of practice you develop your ears to hear the difference. So don’t worry about that for now
If you want to eliminate hums then humbucker pickups or active EMG pickups will do the job. One of the reason aside from the killer tone, EMG pickups are true active pickups which use the electrical current to eliminate 60 cycle hum.
I have 3 noise gate pedal and while they are great for eliminating statics and hums, they could only do that while your instrument is at idle. When you touch the strings it comes back, but the idea is that during the song you can’t hear the static anyways unless of course your noisy bass is the only thing playing,
I bought the EMG GZB PJ set, because it’s solderless, but I heard good things about it… I have no idea if it will cancel noise, but at least it will improve the sound, I hope.
Could be a defective tone pot or a ground issue. You hear it more when you turn up the tone pot because less of the higher frequencies are being shunted to ground. I’d suggest spraying the tone pot with DeOxit not a generic contact cleaner which can leave a residue that attracts dirt and dust. Spray the pot and work it travel from one stop to the other.
While you’re “under the hood” check all of your wiring to assure that all hot leads and grounds are properly soldered in place. Wiggle the wires a bit looking for bad connections and cold solder joints. Metal bridges also have a ground wire underneath them which is then soldered to the back of a pot. Make certain that wire is in place and also properly soldered to a pot.
Remember the J pickup is a single coil pickup and prone to hum itself which can also be evident if the volume settings of the two pickups aren’t equal. This is why some bassists use a blend pot for the pickups as opposed to two separate volume pots or they use noiseless J Bass pickups as I do. A lack of shielding can also cause hum in single coil pickups when they are near sources that can cause electro magnetic interference like a computer or monitor.
Isolating the problem is typically about eliminating possible sources one step at a time.
I also have installed EMG solderless pickups. They are great and as easy to assemble as LEGO (though the manual might be outdated sometimes).
For passive pickups you need to check the … wait for it … ground wire again, otherwise you will might strange effects when (not) touching the strings.
Thank you for the detailed explanation, much appreciated. I’ll proceed as you suggested. Interestingly, the J pickup doesn’t seem to hum too much, even when I turn up its volume only. The noise seems to be linked solely to the tone pot.
I’ll admit I’m a bit anxious because it’s the very first time I have done something like that, like ever. I’ll keep you guys posted, hopefully I won’t blow anything up
You’re welcome. In my experience the source of hum is most often associated with two things; 1) improper grounding, and 2) 60 cycle hum in single coil pickups due to EMI. This is why I suggested checking all of the wiring and most importantly the bridge ground wire. It must be in place and well grounded.
Proper shielding helps eliminate 60 cycle hum. If your control cavity has shielding paint that must also be grounded with a lead attached to a star screw into the wood inside the cavity and then to a pot. When using copper shielding tape there must be continuity between all control and pickup cavities.
The noise you hear from a dirty control pot is more often than not a scratchy static kind of sound when you rotate the knob. DeOxit will eliminate that by cleaning and lubricating the wiper and internal contacts. It’s the proper product to use on any guitar, bass, or amp. Hum is more indicative of a grounding issue or a pot having failed internally. That’s more rare.
You will notice hum coming from the electronics more when the tone pot is turned up to allow more higher frequencies to pass and be heard. That doesn’t mean the hum may not be there when the tone pot is turned down it’s only that you may not notice it audibly. Hope all of this helps and that you locate the source. Keep us posted on your progress.
I’ve never used one myself so I’ll refrain from commenting and allow someone who has to do so. However, after reading more my initial hunch seems correct. It’s most often used in a recording set up. Regardless, I would still trouble shoot your bass to nail down it’s issues.
I am really not a bass specialist, but in my opnonion, electronics should be (made) as quite as possible, before adding more stuff (that could introduce a whole class of new issues and not solve the root cause).
My “real” basses are both (almost) absolutely silent, no matter over which gadgets I use them. Both are active though - but even before, one of them was passive, and I did not have your issues…
UPDATE: According to Thomann the noise is due to a wiring issue, so they offered to replace the bass. At this point I am just sending it back, and they will probably re-ground the wires and put the bass back on sale…
