How to shield a 4003 bass?

Vintage, Modern, V & C series, Fretless, Signature & Special Editions

Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4

User avatar
lumgimfong
Intermediate Member
Posts: 704
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:57 pm

How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by lumgimfong »

How to shield a 4003 bass?

Anyone have any pointers our walk-throughs they would care to share for me?

I've read snatches of the process from these forums but no complete info all in one place. Still unsure.

First, I'm only planning to do the treble pick up cavity when I install a bezel.

I'll do the control cavity next so I haven't thought about the complexities of that. From what I understand the treble pick up cavity has its own ground wire so I think I can just apply the copper foil around the cavity and leave a tab of it over the lip of the cavity to contact the metal surround plate that the ground wire from the pick up will be indirectly in contact with.

I believe John Hall wrote on this or that Rick forum that it is not necessary to shield the neck pick up\cavity. So I'm going to do the treble pick up first and just measure the continuity to make sure my conductive adhesive tape is correct.
From what I understand there's no need to solder the adhesive backed tape I'm not sure how to tackle the control cavity not clear on this.

Also, what kind of multimeter and what setting is good to use for measuring the continuity?
prowla
Junior Member
Posts: 123
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2017 3:35 am

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by prowla »

The big treble pickup surround should be earthed with a trailing wire from the pickup cable, but the underside of the cavity isn't shielded.

The neck pickup has a metal surround and its wire is a coax, so it should be OK.

The control cavity could have conductive tape stuck around it, along with the underside of the pickguard, but beware that things are tight in there and you wouldn't want a cap or something touching it (I don't recall if their wires are covered with heatshrink or whatever).

If I were doing it, I might be inclined to add another earth wire, tapped off the jack sockets, or alternatively to make sure that the shielding made good contact with the jack plate.

However, Ric have been around for years and you don't often hear of them being shielded.
User avatar
jdogric12
Rick-a-holic
Posts: 10853
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:00 am

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by jdogric12 »

I had a Dec 1973 4001 JG that was shielded, plus had a big shielded plastic/copper back on it covering the whole back. It was great!
4000
New member
Posts: 86
Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2010 7:48 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by 4000 »

prowla wrote:However, Ric have been around for years and you don't often hear of them being shielded.
Hello,

I figure my 4003 could use shielding as well. W.r.t. the quote above, as in: it'd actually would not be needed ? My interpretation of the brand is that some things got changed/improved, while other things are left as is. The non-RWRP for hum-minimizing for both PU's on comes to mind here. I sure like the brand, but must admit I'm sometimes a bit puzzled why some steps have not been made. Or at least curious to the reason behind it.

Regards
User avatar
lumgimfong
Intermediate Member
Posts: 704
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:57 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by lumgimfong »

So I carefully shielded the treble pick up cavity with copper tape with conductive adhesive. I checked for conductivity and it was good all over. I put a treble bezel on, re-hooked up the ground.
Bass still noisy. So I guess I'll have to do the control cavity and pick guard next and see if that makes it quiet.
prowla
Junior Member
Posts: 123
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2017 3:35 am

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by prowla »

lumgimfong wrote:So I carefully shielded the treble pick up cavity with copper tape with conductive adhesive. I checked for conductivity and it was good all over. I put a treble bezel on, re-hooked up the ground.
Bass still noisy. So I guess I'll have to do the control cavity and pick guard next and see if that makes it quiet.
Is it noisy on one pickup only?
I was doing the club circuit way back and I ended up putting an SD in the treble position.
User avatar
lumgimfong
Intermediate Member
Posts: 704
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:57 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by lumgimfong »

Noisy in all three toggle positions.
User avatar
cassius987
Senior Member
Posts: 4702
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:11 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by cassius987 »

lumgimfong wrote:Noisy in all three toggle positions.
Are you sure it's not 60 Hz hum? Shielding will do nothing for that. You need RWRP or humbucking to fix that.

If it's 60 Hz hum, rotating the bass around so it faces different directions will make the volume go up or down.
User avatar
lumgimfong
Intermediate Member
Posts: 704
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:57 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by lumgimfong »

Two kinds of noise:

1. Buzz that gets louder/quieter as I turn side to side.

2. Massive raybeam sounding buzz and noise as dimmers are turned up/down in auditorium.
Kind of like "Zeeeyyyyooowwww!!!" "Wooorrrryyyyooowww!!" as the dimmers go up and down.
User avatar
jdogric12
Rick-a-holic
Posts: 10853
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:00 am

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by jdogric12 »

Yep, shield that puppy. Dimmers are the worst!!!!!!!
M2016G
New member
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2016 5:02 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by M2016G »

I have a 2016 4003s. My first Ric.
I use a SansAmp BDDI and Boss tuner at every show. The BDDI can generate a lot of noise if certain settings are too high. I noticed a lot of hum and could not figure out why. I've been playing Fenders for decades and never had this amount of hum/pup noise.
I was powering my pedals with a cheap Snark type of power supply and daisy-chaining the 2 pedals. Tried a few different cables and no change.
I then tried a Voodoo Labs ISO-5 power supply. Hum gone. All of it. I'm not an electric circuit guy, so have no idea if this has anything to do with cavity grounding (I suspect not), but the hum went away by isolating the power to the 2 pedals. Aside from that the bass is pretty quiet without pedals as well. The Rick Hi-gain pups are a little noisier than Fender single coils I found. If any of you are getting excessive noise while using 1 or more pedals, the power supply may be the bulk of the issue.
User avatar
JackTheRipper
Junior Member
Posts: 153
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:05 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by JackTheRipper »

I use one of these to keep the noise at bay...
isp_decimator.jpg
--jack
User avatar
woodyng
Senior Member
Posts: 4454
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:11 am

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by woodyng »

JackTheRipper wrote:I use one of these to keep the noise at bay...
isp_decimator.jpg
--jack
MF also sells a power conditioner multiplug unit,usually for $50,on stupid deal,$30.
It completely eliminated the RF noise issues i was experiencing with my shielded 4000.
(The shielding didn't slow it down at all.)
User avatar
JackTheRipper
Junior Member
Posts: 153
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:05 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by JackTheRipper »

woodyng wrote:
JackTheRipper wrote:I use one of these to keep the noise at bay...
isp_decimator.jpg
--jack
MF also sells a power conditioner multiplug unit,usually for $50,on stupid deal,$30.
It completely eliminated the RF noise issues i was experiencing with my shielded 4000.
(The shielding didn't slow it down at all.)
One of the guitar players I play with uses one of those and it doesn't help much at some venues. Especially at my house where we rehearse.

I've used other noise gates with varying success, but the ISP Decimator II is the best by far. And it was easier than shielding all (15 or so) of my basses.

--jack
User avatar
lumgimfong
Intermediate Member
Posts: 704
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:57 pm

Re: How to shield a 4003 bass?

Post by lumgimfong »

So I shielded every cavity and the pickguard and there is continuity among them all as well as between these shielded cavities and the pup surrounds, pickguard shielding, bridge/tailpiece, input jackplate. So everything, shield-wise, is connected. I even ran shielding from the pup cavities to the control cavity to make sure everything was connected. Copper tape with conductive adhesive.

But my bass still hums.
Maybe 5% better.

Any ideas?

Do I need to run a wire from the shielding somewhere to some other metal point on the bass to ground everything somewhere? Does the control ground to bridge wire or the bridge pup ground to surround lug already suffice for this?
Post Reply

Return to “Rickenbacker Basses: by Joey Vasco & Tony Cabibe”