LeftyBassist.com

I just got my package of goodies from Stew Mac and I'm going to drink some coffee here in a minute and start the surgery. Anyone here ever do this? Was it worth it?

I love my Streamer and I am a Warwick fan like insanely yet this bass needed new electronics and preamp. The MEC preamp was harsh and thin. Anyway I bought brand new Bartolini pickups stacked and a 3 band Bartolini preamp and dang it sounds amazing and is now my favorite bass. But there is a slight hum and when I touch the strings it clicks and pops.

Now I have been around the block and I know a good deal about this stuff so it is not a simple thing here I do not believe. I know it's a ground issue and everything is grounded. So Evan from www.bestbassgear.com told me to line the whole thing in copper and it should do the trick. Any suggestions??? I'll post some pics so if I bitch up my prized bass you can watch the horror and be glad it isn't you and it will be like watching a horror movie.

I have used this product on several basses to clean up ground loops, it works great. If you don't like it, you can just pull it off, the adhesive stays with the foil. A lesson learned by me: Foil the bottom of the plastic cavity cover and insure that the foil on the cavity cover touches the foil in the cavity to complete the circuit. Good luck!!

IMO one can never go wrong with a good shielding job, especially in a bass with single coils. But here's a dirty little secret, aluminum foil tape works just as well a copper and is alot less expensive.

I heard that about the aluminum but I went with the copper from S.M because the adhesive is conductive as well as the copper.

First step before I foil the control cavity I'm painting the inside if the pickup routed spaces with conductive shielding paint. Says to do 3 coats 24 hours apart...I don't think an ex crack head like me can wait that long. UGH!!!

Well I just thought I would show some pics of the progress of this freaking thing. I learned after putting copper foil in the cavity and rewiring the pots like 5 times it was a bad blend pot that was the culprit of the noise.

All the other crap I have done won’t hurt and was cool to try and do and learn but if my thinking is correct it will be $18 for the repair and many hours of banging my head into the wall. Pot is ordered from Planet bass and I hope will be here soon.

OK bass is now fixed but what a freaking pain in the arse. I had 4 different people look at my wiring and solders. Switching things around to try and isolate the buzz. Even using a multi-meter to try and track it down nobody could figure out the issue. I finally wired each pickup by itself passively then right to the jack to try and track down the issue. It was the neck pickup itself.

Just because it was brand new didn’t mean a thing. I have heard some different grumblings around about Bartolini quality control lately but this was my first experience with an issue from them. I had Evan from Best Bass gear ship me a new neck pickup and I dropped it in and it’s 100% perfect. I learned a ton about wiring and active and passive systems as well as the different Ohm and types of potentiometers as well. It was an awesome learning experience. Now I have it two volumes which I greatly prefer anyway. Is super quiet and I guess in the end the extra shielding didn’t hurt.

When it finally came down to it I had to figure it out and follow all the schematics and do all the follow ups with Evan. This bass sounds incredible!! I feel pretty confident now about being able to solder pretty much anything now.

You've just been through "Experience 101".... congratulations! Now you have a greater understanding for why your tone sounds so good, because you made it that way!