Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?

Professional audio recording and studio engineering, post #46,354
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 Paul Stamler
 2008-07-15 02:19:43
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
"Arny Krueger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:5oSdnQkguaFB8ubVnZ2dnUVZ_sLinZ2d@comcast.com...
> "Scott Dorsey" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:g5fpe5$lq5$1@panix2.panix.com
> > Throw out the American DJ stuff.
>
> Actually, we found something cheaper than American DJ. ;-)
>
> But we surrounded them by some fairly robust 5-terminal power line
filters.
>
> > Your power lines are
> > radiating harmonics all over the place, and consequently
> > you have an RF issue, not a magnetic pickup issue.
>
> Interesting how the Bass guitar suffers so much, and the other electric
> guitars don't.

What are the other guitars? Single coil, or humbucking?

> >> Yes, I need to fix the power wiring, but I suspect that
> >> I could change pickups on the Bass with a lot less
> >> effort, if it was effective.
>
> >> Are Hum Bucker pickups really effective, and which ones
> >> work the best?
>
> > They work very well to deal with stray magnetic fields,
>
> We think that is a lot of what is going on here.
>
> > but when you have dimmer packs that are bletcherous crap
> > and spewing huge amounts of RF trash out, they aren't
> > going to help.
>
> Given the pricing of parts, its a ton cheaper to try a good hum bucker
> pickup as compared to buying even 1 high end quad dimmer pack.

Well...for a start, you may need to rout the wood on the electric bass. And
the tone will be different from what your bass player is used to.

> > Note that most of those cheap packs don't
> > even come close to meeting FCC Part 15 legal limits
> > either.
>
> I suspect that the 48 dimmable CFLs don't meet part 15 either, and no
matter
> what kind of expensive dimmers we get, we're pretty much stuck with them.

You may be seriously up the well-known creek. Have you considered switching
to a synth bass?

Peace,
Paul
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 Jenn
 2008-07-14 19:25:37
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
In article <3PTek.119000$102.33167@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
"Paul Stamler" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Have you considered switching
> to a synth bass?
>
> Peace,
> Paul

Will probably require a different player, of course.
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 elecbanana
 2008-07-14 22:29:35
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
I recently picked up a cheap bass with two humbuckers to add to the
collection. It sounds suprisingly good but gets interference in some
rooms. The pick-ups are humbucking, like I said, but the electronics
cavity is unshielded. Also, it is a cheap bass. If your guy has an
active bass, like my new one, there's a bunch of circuitry involved
that could be playing a part as well.

So what bass is it? That might help.

I assume you've tried the obvious things of moving the bass player and
amp over to where the guitar usually is and vice versa? I don't know
what exactly it would tell you, but try having the bassist face
different directions or angle the bass. I think I heard somewhere
that the Yellowjackets' tune "Man Facing North" was called that
because the guitar or bass had to face north in the studio to get rid
of interference.
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 Romeo Rondeau
 2008-07-15 13:03:19
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
Jenn wrote:
> In article <3PTek.119000$102.33167@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
> "Paul Stamler" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Have you considered switching
>> to a synth bass?
>>
>> Peace,
>> Paul
>
> Will probably require a different player, of course.

CHange to synth bass because the one he's using is making a humming
noise? Shit! What great advice :-)
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 Scott Dorsey
 2008-07-15 14:15:54
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
Romeo Rondeau <[email protected]> wrote:
>Jenn wrote:
>> In article <3PTek.119000$102.33167@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
>> "Paul Stamler" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Have you considered switching
>>> to a synth bass?
>>>
>>> Peace,
>>> Paul
>>
>> Will probably require a different player, of course.
>
>CHange to synth bass because the one he's using is making a humming
>noise? Shit! What great advice :-)

No more crazy than changing the pickups because your power system is
screwed up.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 Romeo Rondeau
 2008-07-15 19:48:18
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Romeo Rondeau <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Jenn wrote:
>>> In article <3PTek.119000$102.33167@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
>>> "Paul Stamler" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Have you considered switching
>>>> to a synth bass?
>>>>
>>>> Peace,
>>>> Paul
>>> Will probably require a different player, of course.
>> CHange to synth bass because the one he's using is making a humming
>> noise? Shit! What great advice :-)
>
> No more crazy than changing the pickups because your power system is
> screwed up.
> --scott

A single coil hums period. The only way to get to stop humming is by
wiring it in a humbucking mode. Don't believe me? Take a look at a strat
's wiring. Know why they did that? It hums. That's why they invented
humbuckers, Scott. I have 2 Jazz basses, one is mexican with regular
single coil pickups, if I use one of them it hums, both of them will not
hum... because they are reverse wired to one another. The american Jazz
bass I have has pickups that look like single coil pickups, but are
actually 2 different coils reverse wired with each other, neither one
hums and there ain't shit wrong with my wiring. There ain't nothing
crazy about changing pickups to make the bass quit humming, people do it
all the time. Blaming it on the power don't cut it.
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 rboy
 2008-07-15 20:29:18
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
On Jul 15, 8:48 pm, Romeo Rondeau <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> A single coil hums period. The only way to get to stop humming is by
> wiring it in a humbucking mode. Don't believe me? Take a look at a strat
> 's wiring. Know why they did that? It hums. That's why they invented
> humbuckers, Scott. I have 2 Jazz basses, one is mexican with regular
> single coil pickups, if I use one of them it hums, both of them will not
> hum... because they are reverse wired to one another. The american Jazz
> bass I have has pickups that look like single coil pickups, but are
> actually 2 different coils reverse wired with each other, neither one
> hums and there ain't shit wrong with my wiring. There ain't nothing
> crazy about changing pickups to make the bass quit humming, people do it
> all the time. Blaming it on the power don't cut it.


Single coils CAN hum, but nothing says they have to. If both of your
Jazz basses hum with one pickup on, they shouldn't. Mine don't.
Sure, with both up it's quieter, but I I don't use that sound if it's
not what I want. I have several guitars and basses with single coils
that don't. They may not be as quiet as the ones with humbuckers but
no way do they hum. And the ones that are well shielded are plenty
quiet. If you're playing a stock single coil in a room where nothing
else hums but it does, replacing the pickups without going over the
shielding in the body cavity is dumb. It's a lot of expense and
trouble to maybe find out, whoops, still hums. Gotta reshield it
anyway.

Plus, humbucking pickups are different feeling and sounding animals,
same as using both pickups on a Jazz bass. Would you tell a funky
strat player "Just use my strat with humbuckers. Forget about your
funky JB sound, so you sound like Neal Schon, big deal"?
Author:
Date:
Subject:
 Les Cargill
 2008-07-15 23:53:38
 Re: HumBucker Pickup For Bass? Which one?
rboy wrote:
> On Jul 15, 8:48 pm, Romeo Rondeau <[email protected]> wrote:
>> A single coil hums period. The only way to get to stop humming is by
>> wiring it in a humbucking mode. Don't believe me? Take a look at a strat
>> 's wiring. Know why they did that? It hums. That's why they invented
>> humbuckers, Scott. I have 2 Jazz basses, one is mexican with regular
>> single coil pickups, if I use one of them it hums, both of them will not
>> hum... because they are reverse wired to one another. The american Jazz
>> bass I have has pickups that look like single coil pickups, but are
>> actually 2 different coils reverse wired with each other, neither one
>> hums and there ain't shit wrong with my wiring. There ain't nothing
>> crazy about changing pickups to make the bass quit humming, people do it
>> all the time. Blaming it on the power don't cut it.
>
>
> Single coils CAN hum, but nothing says they have to.

If there's an electric field of the right strength and frequency
in front of 'em, they have to.

<snip>

--
Les Cargill