At least I know there is still a chance 
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Performance wise not really. You wouldnāt be able to tell, feel? Maybe if you are sensitive to touch sustained.
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This is apparently brand new technology (5 days ago) and no one knows how it works but, itās Darkglass so Iām assuming itās awesome.
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I actually dislike them on bass. Good for guitar though.
I mean, itās a noise gate
itās not a mars probe
Well we shall see. It is supposed to address all the negatives with this new fangled tech and not supposed to be like any other. But we shall see. Iāll wait for what Gregor has to say about it.
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Yeah it would be interesting to see. Noise gate in general will get rid of the hum but it would also dull the tone, if this new tech would just eliminate only the hum it would be really awesome.
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I am pretty surprised the Aerodyne was unshielded. Extremely lame for an instrument in that price range. Good to know.
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Oof man, Tim be cursed. I canāt picture an MIJ in that price range with poor or no shielding.
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Soā¦should I upgrade my bridge? 
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A: Depends
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It looks like a pretty standard noise gate, control-wise:
except it doesnāt give you any control over attack time.
Maybe it will do some dynamic EQ stuff like the software ones. I mean itās DG, it probably is software. Even so it would be missing the potential advantages of other software ones (i.e. lookahead, which could be 0-latency with ARA - not that I know of any that do this) but thereās not much you can do about that in a pedal without adding latency.
Forgive me if this is obvious but for anyone that doesnāt know, everything else being equal a P/J will actually have worse noise characteristics than a J/J as it has just one lone single coil pickup. A J/J (if wired correctly) will usually act as a humbucker between the two Jās.
I do think this chasing every last bit of noise is a giant pile of BS. I have done it too, but at the end of the day, single coils are noisy. In our home settings with zero ambient noise we are way way way more critical than practical. Guitars are noisy AF. Why are we chasing silence? Itās not a thing. I accepted the noise in my room, and the basses that have some noise and I deal. None of the noise is heard in a mix, so, why bother.
Just a bit of devilās advocate here. And believe me Iāve been there too and decided F it, just okay.
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. I have little real need for a gate on bass.
For what itās worth, Iām not talking about normal single-coil (or any pickup) noise. Iām talking about a loud, electrical buzz which goes away when the tuners, strings, knobs, or bridge is touched.
Normal pickup noise is OK. Itās there whether Iām touching those components or not, and yeah, itās part of the instrumentās character. Nothing can be done about that.
But the specific noise that Iām talking about in my environment can be eliminated by fully shielding the instrument. Itās nearly as loud as the notes played on the bass and is annoying AF.
Hereās what I did on my Aerodyne, and now it is whisper quiet:
- Fully shield the electronics cavity with conductive paint.
- Score the back of the electronics cavity and coat it with conductive paint.
- Score the bottom of the bridge to make sure any coating isnāt getting in the way of a good ground.
- Ground the painted cavity.
- Fully shield the pickup cavities with conductive paint.
- Ground the painted cavities.
I did steps 1 through 3, re-assembled everything, and tested it out. There was a partial reduction in buzz. I did step 4, re-assembled and tested, some buzz reduction but still not all. I did steps 5 and 6, re-assembled everything, and tested it out. There was a complete reduction in buzz. Excepting, of course, the normal pickup noise which remains and will always remain.
So if I can reduce that loud, electronic buzz which happens when Iām not touching the tuners, strings, bridge, or controls by fully shielding the instrument, why wouldnāt I? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
shrug
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that sounds like grounding issues, not shielding
i would not be at all surprised if this is what actually fixed it, or simply ensuring a good ground.
Shielding should only guard against broadcast EMF. What you describe sounds more like a floating ground issue in the circuit to me. But hard to say.
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I know this is an obvious question @JustTim but if you have the same problem in the next bass.
Then is it possible to try that bass at another location ie a different house.
This will then at least prove if itās the shielding or as @howard and tbh I at this point suspect a grounding issue.
I have grounding issues in my house. Iāve had a couple of tube amps that had a crazy loud hum. But plug them into a friends house and super quiet.
I sold both of them. My amps are solid state and are quiet.
Disclaimer I am not an electrician just trying to use some logic to help.
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My understanding is that if you touch the strings and it hums, you have a grounding issue, but if it hums until you touch the strings, you have a shielding issue. (See Solving Bass Hum Problems (Grounding vs. Shielding) ā No Treble).
It did not. As mentioned above (and I edited the post, because I went through each step meticulously to validate) the buzz did not go away until both the electronics and pickup cavities were grounded and shielded.
I have done that many, many times, with several basses. And my amp. Like I said earlier, this has been a two-year challenge for me with more basses than I care to count. Itās not my amp, there is something in my environment which requires a more industrial strength shielding and grounding job than what comes stock in most basses.
While I appreciate all the feedback and suggestions, I already have a solution for my unique problem and am not looking for another one. Everything that can be tried has been tried over the last two years, and Iāve just accepted that most basses I get will require additional shielding in my environment.
Really, the only reason I posted in this thread was to find out the going opinion on whether a Gotoh 201 would be a decent upgrade over the stock Fender bridge on my Aerodyne. 
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