New guitar - bit of a hiss on the G / B / high D strings?
Hey Tilderinos! I tried this on r/guitar and had no dice, so figured I'd give it a shot here. I was playing bass a few weeks ago transcribing a line meant for guitar and suddenly felt like, uh, learning guitar. So I picked up a Squier CV Jazzmaster off FBM and have been plucking away, really enjoying learning it. Thank you to ~UniquelyGeneric for the Justin Guitar rec, his stuff is great.
I'm aware Jazzmasters notorious for requiring a proper setup, and I don't really mind while I'm getting some form stuff down - but I have noticed there's a bit of a
hiss happening when I pluck on the harder side that I didn't notice while I was testing it out. I made a recording on my audio interface here. There's also a bit of a hum which changes with the pickup selection and goes down with the tone knob. Does this sound like a particular issue and does anyone have a good guide to troubleshooting or addressing it? Not the worst thing if I adjust the volume right, but if I can pull it apart and fix it myself then hey. Thanks!
Those are single coil pickups, even though they are in a fat housing. You are going to get single coil noise no matter what you do, but inexpensive guitars often skimp on shielding and "good" wiring. IMO its not worth fixing. In an ensemble, you probably wont notice it at all.
The hiss sounds to me like regular old fret buzz. your string is hitting a fret further up the neck. This probably cant be fixed easily either. You may be able to adjust the truss rod if its not set up correctly, but its likely close enough that it wouldn't make much difference. The real answer is to have your frets leveled, which is not hard, but pretty time consuming, and requires specialized equipment. There is a standard clearance that the next fret should have when you play any fret, and if this is too close, it will vibrate on that next fret(or one further down), especially if you play it aggressively.
The recording sounds like you are playing open strings, so another possibility is that your nut is just not cut correctly on that string(too shallow and close to the fretboard). That is an easier diy fix, but you will probably have to file down the slots for the strings once you install it. It's not really drop in ready usually.
I agree that this sounds like fret buzz. Increasing the neck relief (loosening the truss rod) is definitely a good option, but before doing that I'd suggest trying to raise the bridge (or preferably just the saddle of the affected string, but I'm not sure how do-able that is on a jazzmaster). I'd like to add, though, that if the buzz is limited to one note just leveling one spot on one fret isn't too hard, provided you take your time and don't overdo it and remove too much material.
I would even maybe take it to a luthier for a proper setup if you are a bit nervous with truss rods, don’t have the right feeler gauges, etc. A proper setup and strings can do absolute wonders for a cheap-ish bass; especially a used one - but even brand new from the factory. Single coil seem (to me) always has problems with noise so I don’t usually record with them (also make sure you don’t skimp on the cable). The different pots knobs might also be dirty.
Yeah, I'm considering having someone do it - I see frequent suggestions to have Jazzmasters get a proper setup. Probably should have my Ray34 bass done while I'm at it, I've tried to give adjusting the truss a shot but the levels have still seemed a bit uneven afterwards when I tried to do a measurement.
While I “know” how to do fret/neck work I cannot bring myself to do much more than slight truss adjustments or setting the action - and that’s only when the weather changes seasons, usually. Taking a file to the fret board…hell no…I can’t do that. Knowing a couple of good luthiers over the decades has probably saved me a ton of money by me not fucking things up 😆
Wonky necks and fret boards are a nightmare (to me) and definitely something I wouldn’t feel comfortable screwing around with. Not knowing how the bass was stored (warped?) or knowing 100% that the entire neck is okay would definitely make me want to give it to a pro.
Hey all! Thank you so much for the input.
@SeeNipplesAndDo and @albino_yak, regarding the ground - When I lay the guitar down and hover my fingers near the pickups, I hear the opposite of what you mentioned about single coils, I think... Turning my volume all the way up, there's a noticeable bit of crackling if I set it down and just start hovering my finger near either pickup, bit moreso on the neck pickup. End part is with my finger on the strings and letting go.
@MosephBlankenship and @albino_yak, the first G note here is the fuzz I originally meant and I don't hear as much fret buzz there - but I think I can hear the fret buzz you're talking about in the second B? The PO mentioned it needed a setup and had the action fairly low, so at least for the buzz the leveling does sound like a problem. I see a lot of people mention a neck shim and some loctite on the bridge really helps properly get the action sorted out, so I may just need to hunker down and give a crack at a full setup. The fuzz is bugging me a bit more than the buzz, though. (Need to find a thesaurus for these sounds.)
I did realize what the constant hum was - my mechanical keyboard is giving off a shitload of intereference! Whoops. Doubt it's going to help a ton but I see a lot of people throwing some copper insulation in the guitar during setups, might give that a shot too down the line.
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Whoops, thanks.
Admittedly, I have limited knowledge. I'm on my own journey. Regardless, I put copper tape in the entire cavity of my electric mandolin, including the pick guard that covers it. I went so far as to make it possible for the two to contact each other when assembled. Also, soldering the tape seams to complete the sheilding. I have been hyper aware of grounding. Good luck and enjoy!
More shielding won't hurt so go for it, but don't expect miracles. As others have mentioned, single coil pickups are inherently noisy. It's not surprising that holding you hand near the pickups increases the noise you hear. I'm no electrical engineer, so I won't hazard a guess about whether your body is acting like an antenna or a waveguide or something, but it's not unusual and as long as it goes away when you touch the strings it isn't a reason for concern.
Before you try shimming the neck or loctite-ing the bridge, try to identify the source of the buzz. If the buzz is only happening with open strings and not when you fret them higher up the neck, it's either an issue with the nut slots being cut too low (so the open strings rattle on the first fret) or the first fret being too high. If it's happening all along the neck, the issue if probably at the bridge.
Jazzmasters have bolt-on necks, so you can unbolt it and shim it to your heart's content, but that will only change the angle of the neck relative to everything else. I'm not that familiar with Jazzmaster bridges, so that may well be the best way to adjust the height of the strings over the fretboard. If the nut is cut too low, though, it might not be feasible to ship the neck enough to fix the buzz.
Careful with the loctite. I haven't heard of using that on guitar bridges before and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me because it will only help for metal to metal connections, and those connections are the ones that you want to be able to move so you can set the guitar up correctly.
I did a little more reading about Jazzmasters and it seems like buzzing at the bridge is a common problem. People blame it on the low break angle at the bridge (the break angle is the angle that the strings make when they go over the bridge and slope down towards the tailpiece). The lower the break angle, the less force the strings exert on the saddles, so there's a greater chance of the strings and saddles moving in ways they weren't intended to and buzzing. There is an aftermarket accessory for Jazzmasters called a Buzz Stop which bolts onto the tailpiece and holds the strings down to increase the break angle. People seem to have mixed feelings about these, but the consensus (which seems reasonable to me) is: make sure your guitar is set up well before worrying about using accessories to fix what might just be setup problems.
A quick way to check for a bad ground wire connection is: plug in your guitar, set it down and don't touch it. Hear how much noise you're getting. Then touch the strings (don't play them, just make contact with them). If there is no change in the amount of noise, you have a bad ground connection. With single coils, you should hear a big reduction in noise when you touch the strings.
One other thing to check which hasn’t been mentioned yet are the ends of the screws that thread through the saddles. This is a source of buzz on many a Jazzmaster, mine included. If the string is hitting these screws you can file them down.
Someone else mentioned filing the nut, but be careful. I have seen many a slaughtered nut, which can potentially ruin the intonation.
The buzzing could be the pickups, but that is a bit much even for single coils. Shielding could help, but it is also likely to be a grounding issue.
If you do end up going in to have it setup, I hope you are satisfied with the results. It is nice to have a good starting point from which you can make minor adjustments in the future as things loosen up and wear out. Good luck! Jazzmasters are so fun!