I am having an issue with my Jackson JS3 Concert bass. I bought it as a floor model since I am just getting started in bass. I have been playing it with a small practice amp at home with no issue to my knowledge. I was able to play with our church worship team a few times, and when I did our sound guy says my bass had a constant hiss coming through. When I got home, I checked and was able to hear the hiss through my practice amp. I got my guitar from Sweetwater. I got in contact with them, and they offered my a brand new replacement guitar. I picked up the new guitar and plugged it in at home, AND the hiss is still there. The volume of the hiss adjusts when I adjust the treble on my amp at home. Not sure what to do, if I can do anything at all. Any help would be appreicated.
This sounds like normal preamp noise in an active EQ. This is super common with (how should I put this) less expensive preamps. There’s a few things you can do. You can probably just EQ it away with the EQ on the bass, so try that first:
Simply roll the treble knob on the bass off a bit, maybe boost the bass knob a bit, should eliminate it
Try checking shielding like Mac suggested; this will have a worse hiss in rooms with fluorescent lights, while running a microwave near it, etc
If those fail, upgrade the preamp to something like an Aguilar or a Darkglass
Note that all preamps, regardless of cost/quality, have the potential to add some noise. If I turn things way up on my board, I can get some with either my Yamaha or Warwick, and the Yamaha’s electronics are quite good.
In most active basses you can both cut and boost frequencies. Think of the center position (you probably have a center detent) of your treble knob being the equivalent of the fully open (10) position of the tone knob on a passive bass. When you turn your treble knob past 5 you are boosting the treble frequencies higher than “normal” and you’re also increasing the amount of noise produced by the preamp. I think if you stay between 0 and 5 on your treble knob for normal playing and just go above 5 when you want to “cut through the mix” for certain parts of songs the sound guy will probably get off your back.