Getting rid of the "hum"

[Armistice]

Hello

I have a bass that I mainly DI into my recorder - lately when I've used it there is a very loud hum when you plug it in and don't touch the strings - as soon as you touch the strings then the hum reduces (but doesn't go away completely) - so I'm presuming there's a grounding problem somewhere.

It's only this particular instrument that has the problem, none of my guitars do it, I've changed cables etc.

When recording I can basically get rid of the hum by a combination of playing barefoot and standing on the metal adapter of my headphone lead, pointing the bass to magnetic north, wearing a little hat made of aluminium foil (keeps those alien mindreaders at bay too ) and prayer - but I'm seeking a more permanent solution.

Any ideas? I presume I'll have to get into the back of it with a soldering iron or something?

Cheers

David

 

[M.Brane]

http://www.emgpickups.com/bass.html

 

[bongolation]

You don't tell us what bass this is nor what kind of pickups it has, but this sounds like a combination of single-coil hum and poor shielding.

Here's an article on shielding single-coil instruments.

 

[Disco_Dave]

Do you have dimmer switches to control the lights in your room? Dimmer light switches make my amp hum like a bitch.....Turn them off and see if its any better.

 

[mrbigputts]

Perhaps a ground problem?

 

[Armistice]

Thanks for the advice guys - it's a Schecter bass, I'm not really a bass player so I can't tell you much more about it - however I've had the thing for 10 years and it's only recently that this has started to happen, so I'm figuring something in the bass itself has changed. I have no problems with dimmer switches etc.

Anything in particular I should look for when I pull it apart, or should I just unsolder all the connections and resolder them and hope for the best?

 

[smilestoned]

switch off all the monitors in the room, also the tele.