Grounding Problem?

[nosurprises]

Hi,

I have a Mexican Jazz Bass that I'm having some problems with.

The first probably has to do with grounding, but searching through forums I haven't been able to find a straight answer. The bass is plugged in to an amp. It buzzes. When the strings, bridge or any other piece of metal connected to the guitar (the metal casing on the cord for example) is touched, the high frequency of the buzz is reduced, significantly reducing the total noise. What could the problem be? Would opening up the bass to check the ground wires and shielding help?

The second is that when recording with headphones, the bass picks up interference from the headphone speakers. Is it at all normal for this interference to be noticeable? Is this a sign of poor quality pickups, or is something else wrong? Is there something that can be done to fix this?

Third, our entire system has been cutting out on us periodically. My suspicion is that this could have something to do with the tube in our amp going bad. Could that possibly be related to what's going on in the the two points above? Could the entire problem by amp related? If so, I'll be happy to re post in the amp forum.

I'm really just trying to figure out what needs to get repaired here so I can avoid taking either the amp or guitar in to the shop if they are working properly. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug

[dai h.]

if there is a significant difference, I would guess that you don't have good ground connections in the bass.

re: the 'phones, I suppose if you have the phones loud enough, and close enough you might get feedback.

No idea about the other stuff.

[Sock Puppet]

Could you borrow a different amplifier?

S.

[bob p]

here's a good reference: check out the tube amp debugging page on this site: http://www.geofex.com/

[David Schwab]

The first probably has to do with grounding, but searching through forums I haven't been able to find a straight answer. The bass is plugged in to an amp. It buzzes. When the strings, bridge or any other piece of metal connected to the guitar (the metal casing on the cord for example) is touched, the high frequency of the buzz is reduced, significantly reducing the total noise. What could the problem be? Would opening up the bass to check the ground wires and shielding help?

That is a ground problem, but not necessarily from the bass. The fact that the hum goes away when you touch the strings shows that the bass is properly grounded.

I'd check your patch cord, and then also check that the wall outlets are properly grounded. If they have three pin sockets, make sure you are not using one of those adapters that lifts the ground.

It could be a noisy environment you are in, and the bass is picking up a lot of interference. Does it do it in other places and with other amps?

The second is that when recording with headphones, the bass picks up interference from the headphone speakers. Is it at all normal for this interference to be noticeable? Is this a sign of poor quality pickups, or is something else wrong? Is there something that can be done to fix this?

Jazz Basses are noisy. They have single coil pickups, which will pick up interference unless their volumes are both all the way up.

I'm surprised that they are picking up the headphones though.

There are many noise canceling pickups for Jazz basses on the market.

Third, our entire system has been cutting out on us periodically. My suspicion is that this could have something to do with the tube in our amp going bad. Could that possibly be related to what's going on in the the two points above? Could the entire problem by amp related? If so, I'll be happy to re post in the amp forum.

What "entire system"? A tube in an amp should only effect that amp.