HELP : Occasional static noise when touching the bridge pickup

[ASonic]

Hello , I'm new here, trying to find an answer to this.
I recently bought Super 58 Ibanez pickups for my AF85 archtop, the luthier installed them, replacing the stock ones. Now the bridge pickup acts weird. Usually the slight static gets muted when you touch the pickups, and that's the normal behavior. In this case it's the opposite, sometimes it gets noisy when I touch it or simply rest my hand on the strings over the pickup. Doesn't happen all the time, but it's annoying. What can be the problem here?

[Drewline]

Sounds like the pickup leads are reversed. If the pickup has a metal cover it should have continuity to ground.

[ASonic]

Sounds like the pickup leads are reversed. If the pickup has a metal cover it should have continuity to ground.

Wouldn't this mean consistent behavior? It's fine at one point and then it goes wild again. It does have metal cover.

[Drewline]

My best guess without seeing the guitar is that you have an intermittent connection between the cover and the pickup or a pinched wire where the leads enter the pickup base. Your hand is acting like an antenna from what you describe.

[ASonic]

Thanks, I'll just take it back for him to take care of I guess. I'll try to upload a video of it when it happens again, cause for now its quiet again.

[ASonic]

https://youtu.be/Dy66zdz5Xhc this is how it happens. I found out that after switching to neck pickup and back, it stops.

[Helmholtz]

PU cover and base (as well as strings) need to be grounded.
Seems that ground contact gets lost intermittently.
Remedy requires pulling the PU and checking the ground wiring.

[ASonic]

I'm taking it back tomorrow, will update on the results. Hopefully he has a clue.

[nevetslab]

I'm taking it back tomorrow, will update on the results. Hopefully he has a clue.

Well, give him the link to this thread to get all of our input if he doesn't have a clue. Good luck.

[ASonic]

Well, give him the link to this thread to get all of our input if he doesn't have a clue. Good luck.

Thanks! I actually passed the info already , we'll see how it goes lol Something else I realized, switching doesnt necessarily do the trick. The key part is where the "pop" sound comes (you can hear it on the video, with the delay pedal it's quite audible) and it gets reversed.

[ASonic]

So after more digging with the luthier we found out that one of the mounting details on the pickup (the angled endings, dont know the name) wouldn't make contact with the base properly, leaving a gap in between. Soldering the gap fixed the issue (hopefully fully). Wasn't luthier's fault, but he did fix this free of charge, so hats off to him.

[Jazz P Bass]

Nice!