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[rabidgerry]

Yip dead sexy dem nails eh!!  hahahha  Na she has actually cut them all off now so no more of this (Judas Priest fans?)



NooooooooNo No No BACK TO THE POINT Gerry

Right guys, I never got back about this, the shielding did not do what I hoped.

No recording the bass hooked up to my gear, DI enviroment, the noise floor was below -40db (roughly).  However back in the rehearsal room the same shit happened!!  Awful awful buzzy crappy noise.  Just like there was an earth fault.  Moving about made it either better or worse.

So my deduction from the whole thing is that it's either the room or the pickup.

NO i have questions.


On this Rickenbacker bass, there is a horse shoe pickup.  Is this a single coil pickup?  I do not know.  This pickup on the bass is Quiet when hooked up to the bassist rig.

Testing a different bass through the bassist rig also proved quiet.  This bass was



Now the comparison.  This Peavey zodiac has a single coil in there and one of those staggered precision bass pickups.  So I figured its fair to compare the jazz bass style single coil pickup with the single coil of the rickenbacker correct?  If this isn't fair speak up now.

Well this single coil pickup on the peavey zodiac doesn't appear to make the same noise as the rickenbacker copy bridge pup.  So could it be the rick copy has a turd pickup?  Or Faulty pickup?  What could be the matter?

The horse shoe pickup sounds very good in my opinion so worth keeping.

Any thoughts people?  Have I assessed this correctly do you think?

When I get some feedback from you guys I shall tell you my plan

[rnolan]

Hey RG, it's a fair comparison in some ways in that they are both single coil PUs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickenbacker#Pickups) but like all PUs, there are many variables in their construction. It does seem there are issues with the PU and changing it with a decent replacement would be a good idea (from what I read they were always noisy).  I don't know if there are any active PU options for it, but for a bass, that would be my choice. I don't like active PUs on guitars, but they work well on bass guitars.

(http://jbepickups.com/r-4000-2/) This site speaks about the noise and seems a good offering,
Or the SD ?
(http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass-pickups/rickenbacker/)

[rabidgerry]

So yeah I checked it out, those Horse shoe pups are humbucking so that would explain why that one is silent.

As for the single coil.  I still don't understand how the shielding did not help it in the slightest.  Also the noise does not appear to go away  when you touch the string.  It will only go away if  you find a randomly find a spot where the noise is not present.  I have not given up

I have a replacement pickup I can use in the meant time so I will use that one, it's for a j bass.  I can mount it on the fibre board that the original rick copy pickup was mounted on.

[rnolan]

Sounds like it's acting like an antenna for RF. I think there's something not quite right in that PU.

[rabidgerry]

Sounds like it's acting like an antenna for RF. I think there's something not quite right in that PU.

True, but that is the way all single coils behave unless something is done to them to stop picking up any noise.  Which is what I'm trying to achieve with this one.

This is also a lot to do with location as well.  I practice in an old mill and we have no f**king idea exactly what is going on below us or above and anything susceptible to RF is gonna get noise.  I do know when light are on on the floor below, if we run down and turn them off, the noise will go away, well most of it.  Fluorescent tubes. However this again is why I want the shielding to aid this so it wont matter too much if near lights etc  Basically I don't want to have to worry about the situation the bass will be played in.

[rnolan]

So go with a humbucker or better active PU

[rabidgerry]

So go with a humbucker or better active PU

active pickups are actually the work of the devil 

and I'd rather fix it than avoid it.  How does every other bass player with single coils cope? Geddy Lee or anyone else using Jazz bass or Rickenbackers with single coils.  Must be an answer somewhere.  We'll see what I can accomplish with the new modifications.

[rnolan]

Single coils are always more susceptible to noise but some designs work better than others, or no one would ever play a strat/tele/pbass/jazzbass etc.

[Peter H. Boer]

Maybe this one http://jbepickups.com/r-4000-2/ will solve the problem. 

[rnolan]

But note the PU cover is not included in the JBE

[rabidgerry]

But note the PU cover is not included in the JBE

lol that's cheating, it's a humbucker

I have j bass pickup that I can mount on a bass and install already so I'm gonna try that.  I f**king hate this bass anyways.  Mind you it sounds nice through my set up but sounds shite through the bassist amp.  Well it's ok until his strings die.  Trying to get him to use long life strings but he's broke and can afford nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rabidgerry]

going to install a new pickup on the bass this weekend.  Will see how it sounds.  Will also shield it after I check what it sounds like pre shielding.

[rnolan]

I suspect it will work better (noise wise) than the current PU (hope so  ). As I posted before I spent a whole night playing a Ric bass at the music farm studio (mulumbimbi/Oz) many years ago, I'm not a fan (but also not a bass player). I've set up and played many other basses, even many of the cheaper ones were better IMO... As you say he's poor (don't I remember that... ), the Music Man SUBs coming out of Indonesia are very good (check bass posts here for my comments) and are not that expensive (~$600 AUD) and they are seriouisly very very good !! The 5 string looks heaps better BTW LoL. The PUs aren't quite as good as the more expensive Music Mans, but they are close and not shabby (shit on the Ric PUs IMO), and you can set them up so sweet.... (sign of a good instrument).

But hey hope the PU change works out. I'd trash it as a spare and buy something better (but guitars aren't quite like that, and you need the $s to do it), Ric basses are not easy to play BTW, but hey, like telecasters, the fight is part of the journey....