So I was doing the lessons today and since I was playing a lot earlier than normal, I turned up the volume on the amp. Not only did I realize how sloppy I actually sound (Probably need to start the course over again or something) it makes a hum, but only if I’m facing North or West. I can’t figure out how to make it stop, and the way my furniture’s set up, I have to face north when I play. What causes this and how can it be stopped?
Do you have single coils on your bass?
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I don’t know what that means
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no problem, what bass do you have
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Ibanez. It’s about 30 years old
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OK, and do you know what the pick-ups are on it. Are they like precision bass or jazz bass pick-ups or are they larger humbucker pick-ups like on a sting ray
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I have no idea what the difference is
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can you post a picture of your bass
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I don’t have a camera right now
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also, is it a constant hum or does it get worse/better if you ‘wiggle’ the lead in the input socket of your bass
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do you know what model your bass is?
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It’s the same if I wiggle it. The sound of the hum changes depending what angle I’m pointing at. It’s Ibanez 8913931
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OK so it’s probably not a faulty cable then. so back to the bass - 8913931 sounds like the serial number. A model number would be something like Ibanez GSR180 or SR800 = something like that
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Is your amp North West and how close do you stand to it? It might just be feedback.
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Can’t really help without more information. Take a look at this troubleshooting site and see if you can identify the problem from a similar soundclip
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Well that’s all the information I have
so, take a look at the site I linked
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I really appreciate the help, this is really stressing me out hard, I’m going to try to get some rest and I’ll be back in a couple days to compare the sounds
I google searched some of the terms you’ve been using, and I came across a picture that shows what the pickups look like on my bass https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Precision_Bass_pickup.jpg
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You might be having electrical interference. I have this issue when my bass is close to my laptop for example. Try different places in the room and different rooms and see if there is any difference. Do you tend to have a phone, laptop, or other electronics around when you are playing? Try moving those away and see if that makes a difference.
EDIT: I also have this issue magnified when I’m using a Vox amPlug headphone amp. So other things can impact it too. Cables. Etc.
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