Am I live in a static way?

[AndyD]

Hello and help

When I touch my bass there is a little static type click and I would love to know how to get rid of it. When I play I occasionaly lose contact and so it clicks when I next touch it. If I wire myself to the bridge it doesn't happen but that's not really satisfactory. There is no other hum problem either touching or not touching. Anyone got any ideas?

It's a passive single pickup Arai and the bridge earth is OK. I've got good leads (silly money). The path is:Bass -> Tech21 compressor box -> Tech21 Bass driver -> Joe Meek channel strip -> YamahaMD4s (But, that said, I get it even if I plug it straight into the 4trk)
Somebody else must have had this.

Any replies gratefully considered. (hard labour, religous conversion, sacrifice of first born.)

AndyD

[Daddy-O]

Welcome to the wonderful worlld of siingle coil pickups..... First off, Are you using a good quality "instrument" cable and not a "speaker" cable. Now let's make sure that your bass' metal parts are all bonded together-electricaly speaking. All of the metal casings of the pots, negative side of the pickup and the negetive side of the input jack should all be touching each other somehow...you could solder everthing together in one big chunk or make sure that there is a wire connecting all of these pieces together.

Now that all of these parts are electricaly bonded together, there sould be a wire that connects all of the electronic parts to the tailpiece and/or bridge plate. Ok, being that you have checked this out and everthing looks good to you, see if there is any foil shielding inside the wiring compartment or under the pick gaurd if the electronics are moounted to it. If not, get some from your local radio shack or music store. The stuff is cheap so get some.

If all of these things are correct and you still have a problem, are all of your effects, proccesors, EQ's, amps, ect. plugged into the same power source? If you are using multiple outlets in the room--get a power strip with a biult-in surge arrester and use just one outlet. Is the outlet grounded? I mean, does it have two hole/slots or three. If it's a grounding type recepticle it will have three. If it has three, are you using a ground lifter adapter? If you are throw it away. If you don't have a three hole/slot outlet, take your rig to a friends house and see if the problem follows you or stays at home....If the gremlins stay at home you may need to call in an electrician to run some 14/3 nm-b non metalic sheath cable tp your music room and re-wire the outlet boxes and provide the correct outlets.......

[AndyD]

Daddy-O

Thanks for the post. Most of what you say I've got covered. Whirlwind instrument leads, the wiring is orig (but I've been thinking about junking the pots all together), Most of my gear has wall warts and everything goes into a single power point. Also, I live in the UK, so if all your leccy isn't earthed to the water supply, they won't let you live there. That's not to say it doesn't happen, but mine's OK. As far as shielding goes, there's only sawdust in there and I doubt that counts. I am however now looking at two rolls of sticky aluminium tape from Maplins (read as Radio Shack) as I clatter.

I remember as a kid making a really long lead out of household flex and thinking it was really cool to able to stand so far away from the amp I couldn't hear the buzz. However, punk is long gone and so is THAT kind of buzz.
This is just a little momentary click at the moment I resume physical contact with my long guitar's metal parts.

There has to be an alternative to taping fuse wire to my arse when I want to track something.

If anyone says acoustic bass,... I'll track you down.

AndyD

[Wallycleaver]

electric bass unplugged?