Repair: Pickup overdriving/popping with string collision

Mastiff_5

Mastiff_5

Mar 26, 2013
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5,408
#1
Greetings!
I may be coming at this from a completely backwards direction, but I am new to the world of passive electronics. I've played bass for awhile, gigged for some years, and have been a pro A/V tech my entire career until recently. I've always been able to keep up with my own setups, generally.
I had a friend hand off her 4 string J, passive to me, because it "pops" when she plays it. She "never" practices this bass, she played it live as a backup and it "popped."
Dweedling around on it, all I can tell is that she's unused to playing it, and is mashing the E string into the bridge pickup magnets. There is no preamp battery. It doesn't seem that wiring associated with the bridge-pickup magnet poles beneath the E string should be any more sensitive than the others, except that the E string is bigger.
I'm going to lower her pickups just a little, and MAYBE raise her action just a tiny bit, or suggest pickup covers.
AM I DOING THE RIGHT THING?
The magnetic poles under the E string couldn't like, lose ground independent of the others or something, right?
 
#4
Set the pups to Fender specs factory specs for a Jazz bass.

PICKUPS
Setting pickups too high can cause a number of unusual occurrences. Depress strings at last fret. Using a 6" (150 mm) ruler, measure the distance from the bottom of the first and fourth strings to top of the pole piece. A good rule of thumb is that the distance should be greatest at the fourth-string neck pickup position and closest at the first-string bridge pickup position. Follow the measurement guidelines from the chart below as starting points. The distance will vary according to the amount of magnetic pull from the pickup.

Note: Larger string gauges need wider vibrational allowances. If you have a five-string bass or are using heavier-gauge strings, your measurements must be increased accordingly.

Shop Pickups

Bass Side Treble Side
Vintage style 8/64" (3.2 mm) 6/64" (2.4 mm)
Noiseless™ Series 8/64" (3.2 mm) 6/64" (2.4 mm)
Standard "J" or "P" 7/64" (2.8 mm) 5/64" (2 mm)
Special Design Humbuckers 7/64" (2.8 mm) 5/64" (2 mm)

Another thing I usually do is to stop buzzing and popping when fingers come in contact with the pole pieces is to ground the pole pieces on single coil pickups. Not difficult and really does help. Apply Conductive copper foil tape on the bottom of the exposed magnet pole pieces. Then solder a thin wire to the copper tape and then to the common ground. Bingo no more snap crackle pop. Leo never grounded the pole pieces because well, no one would ever want to remove those chrome covers and actually touch the pickup poles. Of course this won't help if a player is forcing the string against the pole pieces when playing. In that case, as Turnaround says you have to lower the pickup.
 
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