How to Fix a Buzzing Fender Jazz Bass

In this video I try to explain what causes exposed pole pieces to buzz when you touch them. Then I do a very simple mod to a pair of vintage Fender Jazz Bass single coils. You can use copper shielding tape to ground the alnico magnets. You can use a pickup cover that is without holes to insulate them. But neither of these solutions are appropriate for this situation. Luckily there's an even simpler way. It's so easy, it makes me wonder why Fender don't so this in the first place.

[@toddbrittain1060]

Rob, you clearly know your stuff. It's a pleasure to listen to a pro articulate his expertise with such clarity.

[@RobMods]

Hi Todd, thanks for the kind words mate. I'm glad you like my stuff!

[@chippsterstephens6800]

I been doing music electronics for 40 years. And yet learned something here. Thank you

[@RobMods]

Thanks mate.

[@pauleandersonmusic]

I haven't seen anything else like this on youtube. I truly appreciate you sharing your experience. One thing I love about guitar repair videos is that there are so many different ways and approaches to the field. Some people are really great at woodworking and seem to focus more on acoustics and structural repairs and setups on electrics but don't delve too deep into wiring. I liked how thoroughly you explained your thinking behind what you were doing. I particularly appreciated your thoughts on pickup wiring. Thanks again.

[@RobMods]

Thanks Paul. I'm glad you like my stuff! Thanks for the kind words mate.

[@smollande]

It's difficult to understand how swooping the leads around works until you've thought long and hard about it and watched it a few times. But that's because it's a difficult topic for lay persons anyway. I do appreciate the info being shared its deep but very helpful and rarely discussed. Thank you Rob.

[@charlesmcgehee3227]

These fixes absolutely work. Finished up last night. Grounding the pole pieces was my choice. Buzz free.

[@WilDBeestMF]

Gotta love that 70s Jazz pickup position. So much more bite. You have to shield them pretty good or they're a can of bees haha.

[@jeromepouzoulet7823]

The title, the analysis, the fix, everything sweat some mighty smartness in this video. I guess i would have put everybody to the ground, your fix is a lot more elegant, it is like a way to live with. JBs are noisy animals by nature... and so are many other basses designed by the very same guy, and for sure elixir do not help. This will be very informative for a lot of bassist interested in these matter, like me. Thanks a lot Rob!!!

[@rexertek]

Very informative Rob. I never realized about the difference in hum depending on which pickup coil side is wired to ground. I am gathering the pieces to wire a split coil pickup, quantity 2, using your winding video. I'll be using this video as well in the design of the bass wiring. Cheers!

[@frunshi]

Love this simple and straight explanation

[@octo3167]

Good research on the topic Rob! Thanks a lot

[@shadowminister4090]

F I found your channel about a month ago. Love your videos. Great to be subscribed to an Aussie channel. Thank you.

[@villastube]

Spectacular explanation! Thank you so much.

[@RobMods]

Thanks Eduardo. I'm glad you enjoyed the vid!

[@hallanvaara6106]

Interesting! There's always something new to learn.

[@RobMods]

Thanks mate. Passive guitar circuits look simple but the interactions are quite complex and confusing. Years ago, I met Chris Kinman and got to hang out a bit in his old workshop in Brisbane. He always wound pickups with the start of the coil as earth. A remarkable bloke. I doubt there's anyone else on earth with such a deep technical knowledge of guitar pickups.

[@MikaelBerglundBass]

Thanks for this very useful video. I had just this issue on my Jazz bass when I installed new Fender CS pickups. Couldn't understand why since everything looked just the way I was used to. But after watching this and just switching the earth/hot wires on both of my pickups the noise when touching the pole pieces disappeared. A very simple solution to a problem I thought was much bigger :)

[@RobMods]

Nice one. Glad the video helped you out mate.

[@MikaelBerglundBass]

@@RobMods What I just noticed now is the weirdest thing. The bass has no hum in general and the hum touching the pole pieces is gone but now I have a slight buzzing sound from playing the A-string. This goes for both pickups and if I touch my pots it disappears. So how come I seem to ground the circuit on just the A-string? There is no hum if I don't touch the strings or do not play. Also the sound is not hum it's more of a soft buzz but it's nothing physical on my bass it's definitely the pickups and only from the A-string. Does this in any way sound familiar?

[@pallecla]

Lots of good info.

[@kingkobra7745]

Great video and explanation! Thank you so much!! 🙏

[@RobMods]

Thanks mate. I'm glad you liked it!

[@franemarzic9261]

thank u mr. rob!!!

[@PierreLewin]

My solution: take the cover off, put a thin plastic tape on the top of the plots and put back the cover. Make pressure for the tape to take the shape of the holes... That'simple!!! You can even use a colour you like! (I use black).

[@RobMods]

Yep. That does work. And you can also paint CA or even nail varnish to insulate the magnets. These are good fixes if you are not experienced with soldering. Pickips, especially vintage, can be damaged with poor soldering.

[@Belman5]

Love that intro music!

[@RobMods]

Ha ha. Thanks mate. Nothing like slapping a drop D on the JB4!

[@NicleT]

Thank you so much, this made me understand better what's happening with my pickups ground noise. I just added a Kent Armstrong lipstick bridge pickup to my bass that already had a neck humbucker pickup with only two leads, hot and ground). I added a rotating 3 positions selector too. As soon as I plugged it in, the Humbucker started to make that ground noise when selected. The lipstick is ok when selected. Should I try to reverse the connection of the humbucker?

[@281amine]

Thank you so much !!!!

[@edjefferson9175]

I learned a ton of great stuff here. You explain things so well. Later on after watching this I wondered if simply reversing the polarity on the output jack would do the same thing. Would that not send the innermost windings to earth?

[@stephenhookings1985]

I have a Squier Standard with HSS that does something like this - for sure I will be seeing if you mods help - it was shielded like all my other SSS strats that don't have the issue. But I also moved to EMGs in my basses - no shielding and super quiet at rest even with coated strings.

[@RobMods]

In a guitar it is less often an issue because so many players use a pick and their fingers don't come near the pole pieces. But if you are into finger picking I can see it being a problem from time to time.

[@DavidRavenMoon]

The way Fender pickups should be wound/wired is the start of the coil connects to ground. The start of the coil wraps around the magnets. The magnets aren’t grounded, so when you touch them you induce that hum. If the start is at ground the noise from the pole pieces will be shunted to ground. This is why they reverse wind pickups and why Mustang guitars have closed covers on the pickups, since they have phase switches. Someone might have rewired that bass the wrong way. Humbuckers are usually wound the same way. On a real Stingray pickup they are reverse wound since the pickup is wired in parallel. In series it doesn’t matter since the second coil will have its start coming from the first coil.

[@ShaneDobbie]

Great vid. I've just been earthing my foot (on an fx pedal etc.) to stop the buzz while I'm recording at home 🤣

[@RobMods]

Hums and buzzes and other interference can be a real head scratcher at times!

[@raulconve6841]

Hey Rob, good job and thanks for sharing your experiencie. I have a Fender Jazz Bass which only buzzes when you turn the volume all the way up to either the neck pickup or the bridge pickup. When you turn on the volume all the way up to both PU's, the buzzing disappears. What would you recommend to do? Thanks and kind regards from Mexico!

[@gnfrank]

@robmods How would you wire a JB with the coils in series and still retain hum-canceling properties of the counterwound & opposite-polarity pair of pickups? Series coils boosts low-end so well, sounds much better to me. But I want to still be able to change the blend between neck and bridge pickups and vary overall volume - while retaining the best hum cancellation I can.

[@andreasfranzke3787]

I bought a new Fender Am Pro II P Bass with this „issue“ and it was not completely noise cancelling. My older Squier VM 70s Jazz Bass did a better job with both things. No buzzing when touching the pole pieces. And no hum with both pickups together. Can you now solve my issue with the 60 cycle hum from the neck or bridge PU soloed? You have a better way than to just swap the PUs for active or dualcoil ones? Thanks!

[@stevo45172]

Hi Rob. Thanks for posting a video that actually explains the solution. Have you done a video on fixes for a buzzing p bass. Obviiusly i have investigated the bridge wire and soldering but cant get it sorted. Continual buzz when not touching the bridge

[@RobMods]

Since the coils sense different strings, a P bass pickup is one of the few that will still work and sound OK even if its coils are out of phase. So check the signals from both coils are in phase with each other, and also that the magnets are opposing. This will ensure it is working and hum-cancelling as well as it can. After this, to reduce hum, you'll need to improve the shielding in the instrument. The wire should be replaced with one that has a braided shield. Plus a copper foil shielding job is a good idea. Best of luck mate!

[@roelschouten8834]

Great video Rob. I make my own pickups, black wire always at the start of the coil. So I’m thinking those old Fender pickups had the wires the wrong way round.

[@RobMods]

Hmm maybe. I've come across it a lot over the years with Fender Jazz basses. The thing is though, (and I should have mentioned it in the video), this bass would have had covers over both pickups originally, so touching the pole pieces wasn't really on the radar at Fender when the original basses were designed. And by the late 70's when the covers were phased out, Leo was long gone, so we can't be too critical. It does surprise me though, that it still happens with new basses and also aftermarket pickup sets...

[@roelschouten8834]

@@RobMods yeah, just find it interesting, the way those pickups are wired. I was taught black wire on the start of the coil, which goes to ground. Learnt some new things from this video. Cheers

[@John_Myke]

Great content Rob... I'm curious as to how this works when you have a preamp involved (inspired by your 2 band video). I have a noisy pickup that has no exposed pole piece and has epoxy at the bottom (so no way to add an earth connection). I hope you don't mind shedding some light

[@RobMods]

This video is specifically about pole pieces capacitively injecting noise into the coil. Unfortunately there's several other ways pickups can be noisy/buzzy/hummy. If it's potted in epoxy, then I'd recommend shielding the cavity, and also using shielded cable from the pickup, especially if you are wiring it straight to the preamp.

[@charlesmcgehee3227]

Very nicely done. I taught engineering for decades. Your style of making things understandable to the layman is Excellent. BTW My vintage J Bass only displays the buzzing sound on the neck pickup. The question hovering in my mind, before I decide what to do is, why does the bridge pickup Not buzzing? Haven't decided which way to go on this yet. I do not want to alter the tone. This particular bass sounds so sweeeeet! Thanks again. Liked and subscribed of course.

[@RobMods]

Thank you Charles. I'm glad you like my stuff! Hmm that is a mystery. I wonder if the pickup had been swapped to a humbucker. Or perhaps the volume pots are miswired or faulty and it is not actually soloing the pickup...

[@charlesmcgehee3227]

@@RobMods It is s 43 yr. Old j bass with single coil pickups. Could the neck pickup winding wire insulation have broken down and is somehow touching a pole? I haven't started troubleshooting and think I can determine if this has happened with and ohm meter and decent capacitance checker. I'm sure I will manage this. Don't want to drop in new pickups if I can avoid it. Thanks for the thoughts.

[@RobMods]

@@charlesmcgehee3227 Oh I see. You mean they are buzzing when you touch the pole pieces while you aren't also touching the bridge or strings. Cool. I thought you were talking about regular 50/60hz hum... As I mentioned in the video, the windings don't have to be touching the magnets to cause the buzz. Just being so close is enough because of the capacitance. But if you DO measure a resistance between the mags and the coil, then yes the insulation has broken down and there's a good chance the pickup will need rewinding in the future. As for buzzy pole pieces, if your pickups are original, then the fact you have one but not the other probably means one pickup has been rewound at some stage. Or perhaps someone has connected the mags to earth underneath.

[@charlesmcgehee3227]

@@RobMods When I touch the strings I get a good little pop if I touch a pole. If not touching the strings then I get a good loud 60Hz. I'm starting on it today. I will follow know if the fix ends up unusual.

[@charlesmcgehee3227]

@@RobMods Rob. Job done. I used a 1/8" strip of copper tape across the poles and grounded. Then cut a thin strip of rugged sponge to add a little pressure..... ran it along the copper. Then taped down a wide strip of Gorrilla tape. (awesome duct tape). No way this will separate. Good fix. I think reversing the wires would have done the job too. Checked continuity and capacitance between the poles and each lead. No worn winding wire insulation touching any pole. Grateful to you. New tricks. I love them......

[@maartengaander6388]

Can I ask questions concerning bass guitar repair?

[@quintijn3444]

Thanks! I was just looking exactly for this information! I just installed a Fender Custom Shop P pick up, and instead of one the coils being quiet and the other one noisy, I find that both the coils are noisy? The outer pole pieces seem especially louder

[@RobMods]

Yep. This is normal. The outer pole pieces have a far stronger capacitive coupling to the coil since around half their outer is in close proximity to the coil. If both coils are buzzy when touched, then you can either earth the pole pieces, or swap the phase of the whole pickup. You may need to swap the e/a coil to the d/g position and vice versa to get the quietest coil in the right spot. Which for most bassists is under the e/a strings, where you are likely to brush it with your thumb. If you swap the phase of the p pickup and there's another pickup, you'll have to swap its phase too. If the pickup has just plain wires, it's a simple job. If the wiring is shielded, then you will have to change them at the pickup.

[@quintijn3444]

@@RobMods Thanks for clarifying! I really appreciate this video! I was looking online all night to see what was going on with the buzz haha. I grounded the P bass pick up! But what´s interesting is that it didn´t take away all that much noise at all! It tested it with my multimeter, and the copper tape on the bottom of the pick up wasn´t showing any contuinity with the top of the pole pieces. I tried cleaning the bottom more thoroughly with naptha and found out the bottom of the pole pieces are not showing conductivity with the top of the pole pieces either! Other pick ups I´ve tried do seem to be conductive though! What's interesting to me is that i haven't really encountered this issue with guitar pick ups whatsoever! It seems to be way more severe with bass pick ups

[@rsoldi1977]

Oi sou do Brasil sou técnico eletrônico e meu músico entusiasta de música ele tem guitarra, violão, baixo e akulele, nas minhas horas vagas faço manutenção e monto alguns projetos para ele, nos 2 ficamos curiosos com qual amplificador e caixa você testa os instrumentos nos vídeos. Obrigado

[@sdejesus13]

Great video but I offer one engineering correction. You described pickup function as capacitance but that is incorrect. It's inductance you want to be describing - the interaction of coils and magnetic fields. Nothing to do with capacitance, although both pass ac signals. Otherwise very instructive and well done.

[@thejoetandy]

Great content, I'm still making mistaken assumptions about how this stuff works. How does an Australian contact you for repairs?

[@RobMods]

Don't sweat it Joe. This stuff can be pretty confusing at times. And non-intuitive as well! I'm afraid I'm too busy to take on extra work at the moment. I have a day job and play gigs as well. This stuff is more of a hobby these days. Cheers!

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

To quote the 3rd Doctor - you're going to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!

[@RobMods]

Who?

[@danielirvine7468]

Hi rob I have a 70s p bass that has a really stiff tuner machine Can I please ask what you would do to lube it Like what oil grease in Au would you use ?

[@RobMods]

Hi Daniel. Great question! I generally use 4 different lubricants in my workshop. Light machine oil (AKA sewing machine oil - bought from Spotlight) is good for old open bass tuners etc. Just a single drop at each side of the key shaft where it is covered by the main plate shackles. I also use a tiny smear of either Dri Lube (Supercheap, I think) or general purpose grease for the string posts where they rub on the bushings and (if you disassemble them), on the top side of the gear and the bottom lip of the string post, where they rub on the main plate. (Top tip: look inside the bushings, and if they are really worn on the front side, then pop them out, and reinstall after rotating 180 degrees. Also, mark your machineheads or do them one at a time, so they stay in their original places.) The other lube I use is lanolin grease. This is great when you have to reuse screws that have rusty threads. Just a small smear is all they need. This will stop the rust and also, the lanolin won't run into the timber pores like regular black grease can. The other thing to think about is why the machine head is so hard to turn. Eg, it is common for vintage basses to have a G string tuner with a bent key shaft, because it is so often bumped on stuff. Or if the bushing is coming up out of the headstock and has been like that for a while, it may be worn unevenly, or the string post is not aligned with it anymore. Also, FWIW, I recommend using a single drop of light or medium loctite on the screws that hold the gear to the stringpost. These are notorious for loosening and even falling out. Cheers mate!

[@muzicman2007]

so I have a question. The only noise i am getting is from my tone pot. when i have it in the closed position it is very guiet, when i have it in the full open position, that is when i get the ground hum, does that mean i have a bad pot or is it just not grounded good?

[@RobMods]

Without seeing your guitar in person, I can't be 100 percent sure, but it sounds like the tone pot is functioning just fine and is simply filtering out the hum. In this case, a shielding job and/or some hum-cancelling pickups might be a good upgrade.

[@mrmjkhnds]

I have 2 Jazz basses. I'm not as concerned with buzz from touching the poles on the pickups as much as the buzz I get when both pickups are not wide open. Will this fix get rid of the ground buzz when I roll back on one pickup?

[@RobMods]

Hi Joe. A good shielding job with copper tape and shielded wiring will usually go a long way to improving single coil hum, and there's plenty of videos about this. If that is still not enough, the next step is to use hum cancelling pickups. Cheers.

[@mrmjkhnds]

@@RobMods Thanks Rob.

[@claudiocruzat8777]

It seems that humankind needs a good ground connection, copper isolation, glue, and lots of Mods...too.

[@RobMods]

Well this human does for sure!

[@claudiocruzat8777]

@@RobMods Mee too, Saludos desde el sur de Chile 🤣👍