Noisy Bass Guitar- Simple Fix

If your bass guitar is noisy you might have a grounding issue, or are suffering from electrical interference. If the buzz stops when you touch the strings or bridge, that is a good indicator. At any rate, one easy and cheap fix you can try is shielding the electrical cavity with copper shielding tape. If this doesn't fix the hum you may have other issues, but a good shielding job certainly wont hurt!

For 14$ worth of shielding tape, and 40 minutes of my day, I completely eliminated the excess noise from my P bass and it is now silent.

If you don't feel comfortable taking your bass apart to shield the cavity, take it to a professional!

This is the tape I used

Song is "Headspin" by my band "Nico and The Boys"

[PianoUncion]

Thanks! This worked. I was getting so frustrated after swapping electronics. One thing to note is that you also have to ground each cavity to the other areas for it to work properly. I added a bonding wire underneath the copper foil in the my pickup cavity and soldered it to the back of the volume pot.

[jairepp]

Awesome short video! I will try this on my guitars … and make a helmet like this as well

[ArtHoward]

Technically what you have there is a shielding issue, not a grounding issue. If your ground wire is attached between the pickup and jack, then you're grounded, you're just picking up interference in your pickups from lack of shielding. I've got Teles and Strats that buzz a little, but the Squire PJ bass I just got buzzes like an elecric razor. At some point I'll get my patience and nerve up and try this.

[Bassman]

So does the whole pickguard need shielding? I would have thought to just shield around the pickup cavity and the area that covers the control cavity would suffice?

[nojuanatall]

I'm gonna have to do this to my squier CV mustang. I've eliminated all other possibilities. Got a cioks power supply. Unplugged other electronics that use the same outlet. I use high quality cables, have my pedalboard grounded and use the noise gate on my boss GT1B.

If I play my humbucker guitar through my setup it is dead silent. I plug my mustang in and I get gnarly hum with the tone up past halfway. I touch the control plate and it goes away. So my plan is to shield it and check the solder connections and reflow the solder as needed. And if that doesn't fix it I'll revisit the issue when I get new pickups and I'll probably replace the pots and wiring.

[dylanlovesqueentoomuch]

Does it matter what kind of copper tape you use? I have an Aria Pro II SB-r60 with this problem really bad and saw some copper tape on Amazon that I think would work but I’m not sure if there is a specific brand that should be used for guitars

[cptncanela]

Hey! I'm about to shield my pbass due to when I touch the pole pieces of the pickups it makes noise, unless the tone is at 0%. Will shielding help with this issue?

I know. "Just don't touch the pole pieces". But still, that is an issue that annoys me to have and I want my bass as perfect as possible.

[paulv]

Great video but do you need to solder a ground wire from the copper tape to the ground of the input jack? Thanks

[DT-kowd]

Did you use some kind of glue? Also I see you didnt remove the bridge, that means you weld out the ground from the control panel?

[usmanshahid]

Can we use aluminum foil to shield it?

[Georgeggg]

Take the bass apart and reassemble. Simple

[GraceNoteMusicAcademy]

But you didn’t play it after fixing to know if the bass was sounding and the noise stopped! 🙏🏻☺️ I waited all the day to hear you play it without the noise till video ended