My ranger crackles ... read on .. :-)

[juan_10]

Thank you Arpsum , I checked out your posts .. what an elegant solution !
I'm an old studio guy so hums pops and crackles
were my daily enemy back then .
I really see what you mean about that long wire acting as an antenna. High output pickups
are fun .. I'll get that line to the output jack shielded . Love the tube
The only time I've had trouble 'under the scratchplate' before was with my strat when it got so old the
earth circuit needed re-doing . So this has been a good chance to think about matters to do with earthing
and shielding.

Plan B is more tape

Cheers Juan

[Veenture]

Old thread, but new 'same problem'.

I found out that my Aria VMB-75 bass crackles too...and quite loud I might add! I'm not sure if the pickups are hot (haven't had 'em measured) ...and I have wooden floors.
I'm sure it is static build up and don't even need to rub the pick guard to generate a crackle -touching the body is enough already


Now on the other hand I know that my Hallmark 60 Custom does have hot pickups but I have never experienced a single crackle and I've played it in different surroundings. While remedying a loose trem arm on it one day, I discovered a ground wire underneath the trem plate against which it was pressing (not soldered).
I shall have a look-see if my Aria bass has one too perhaps

I'm not a guitar tech, neither an electrician so I'll have to take it to my luthier one day in order to solve the problem, I guess.

Was you Ranger's crackle ever remedied Juan, I'm wondering?

[juan_10]

Hi Paul,
I've not cured the crackle/popping, but arpsum's thread helped reduce it to a level that I don't notice any more. Your Bass looks lovely by the way.
Main thing was the wires between the jack socket and the first pot that they reach. They were just plain unshielded wires , the ones that are arrowed in my picture on page one. These were the wires that arpsum said should be redone with wires that have an earth screen wrapped around them .. the earth screening soldered to the pot cover . There was more in the posts , hehe , but just doing that seemed to help so much , I felt more was overkill.
I wonder if you've taken off the scratch plate from your bass ? It could be something as small as a loose wire, a bad solder joint etc , something that you can see is a mechanical fault .
I'm better with mechanical faults that you can see .. earthing and earth loops can get 'theoretical' real quick ! ie.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
Painting the wood with conductive material , and putting a conductive tape on the underside of the scratch plate , then hooking them both up to the earth side of the jack socket would have been stage two , but I didn't go that far. 1836 seems not so far away !

Hope you get this resolved Paul , or maybe get it so it doesn't worry you so much . A guitar electrics guy could check the earth for you .. it's one of those health and safety areas that worry us all. http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/ele ... /index.php

I hope you use one of those cutoff units or wireless to save you from shocks when you are out gigging .But then, that's a long way from minor pops and crackles

Love that Bass ! juan

[Veenture]

Thank you very much for your valued response Juan,
I shall certainly come back to this thread when I'm ready to pop the pick guard on my bass to see if I can discover anything that seems to be (mechanically) wrong. I won't do anything beyond my limited knowledge of guitar electrics and if need be, summon a doctor (for the guitar ).
I'm glad to hear that you are sufficiently satisfied with your Ranger after you managed to reduce the symptoms to an acceptable level even though you haven't sent the crackles packing altogether.
I’m really surprised at guitar designers/manufacturers, you’d expect them to know enough by now to prevent those "snaps crackles and how's your dads."

And thanks for the warning about shock hazards! I shall read up in the link you so kindly provided.
Thanks also for the kind words, this bass is indeed lovely and sounds even lovelier!
More pics here if you haven’t seen them already viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2941&start=10

Take care,
Paul

[olrocknroller]

Nice mod ARPSUM. Yes, static is the culprit. I always shield the entire back of the scratchplate as shown, and from the most inconspicuous place you can find near the bridge, run a bare wire from the back of the scratchplate to the bridge ground connection. I usually make a wrap around one of the screws. This effectively diverts any static to the ground circuit of your guitar, instead of it wandering into the audio circuit. I do this on all my guitars with plastic scratch plates. You could also replace all the wiring with small gauge shielded cable if you intend to do any studio recording.

olrocknroller

[Veenture]

I had left it (Aria VMB-75 bass) with my luthier to have it checked out for correct wiring etc. (at home it had some snaps and pops -from static build-ups). He found nothing lacking or out of place and mentioned that all ground wiring in our country is poor and in my house there's probably some kind of electricity 'leak'.

My bass player in the band happened to notice the wide spacing between strings and pickup poles when I showed him my bass (the picture I posted earlier on in this thread does not show it). During our band practice it did not make a single snapping sound relating to static build-up (a different location!). He also noticed that the pickup output of my bass was considerably weaker compared to his own brand new Squier P bass, probably due to this wide spacing. Man, the gap must've been more than 1/4 inch, so today I raised the pups so the distance between strings and pole pieces are now 1/8" and guess what?......more power!.......and considerably less (audible) snaps and pops! Now I'm thinking that perhaps because -like in a spark plug- the lesser the gap between the two 'sparking points' the smaller (and weaker?) the 'spark'? hmm...

[juan_10]

Good to hear Paul ! I've been lurking on the forum I've seen the guy you bought the Bass from has had some more stuff up on eBay recently ..
you can't miss that carpet.

Nice to see you are starting to adjust the Bass setup

[Veenture]

I've seen the guy you bought the Bass from has had some more stuff up on eBay recently ..
you can't miss that carpet.

Quite so!