How to shield a 4003 bass?

[prowla]

The jack socket is the place where the guitar is earthed to (ie. where it connects to the incoming jack's earth).

[lumgimfong]

Which socket do I solder to? ROS or standard? And where on the socket do I solder the wire?

[prowla]

The shield (ie. the main shaft of the jack) is common.
It'll also be where the single wire coming through from the bridge connects to and also the braided shield of all wires and also the main body of all the pots.
It's probably an idea to have a little bit of spare in the wire, in case things do need to be moved for any reason.

[johnhall]

Ground loop. Every component must touch ground in only one spot. For example, if pots are grounded on the bushings and connected to the stock wiring, the instrument often hums more than when there is no shielding. All of the shielding must connect to ground on the bass at only one spot.

[lumgimfong]

So where should that spot be?

[johnhall]

All I'm saying, connect each portion of the shielding material to only one place. For instance, cut a ring around the pot mounting bushing or add an insulating washer to the hole so the pot shell is only grounded through the wiring harness. If you shield the cavity of the instrument and the back of the pickguard, don't let it touch around the edges; add a ground wire between the surfaces instead. While it would be best of the entire cavity and all the components were in a mu-metal can, the poor conductivity between strips of copper (or conductive paint) just touching each other provides multiple ground paths. Many times it doesn't matter but other times you get the perfect storm and adding shielding actually increases the level of hum.

[lumgimfong]

Thanks, John! I appreciate the help.

[cassius987]

In my experience with this (which is somewhat extensive by now), the issue is almost never solved by shielding. RWRP or humbucking is the only fix. Shielding can make some modest gains on other types of noise.

A Squier P Bass with no shielding whatsoever, as imperfect as it may be, does not pickup these noises. The difference is that the two pickup coils are RWRP. Same will go for a Jazz Bass at full volume on the two pickups. (Your 4003 will get audibly quieter when both pickups are at 100% too, but this is comb filtering between the two pickups sensing the same string vibrations at different locations, not RWRP filtering of any noise frequencies. It happens whether the pickups are RWRP or not.)

I have RWRP tutorials for the 4003 floating around on a couple of forums. But it requires some minor pickup surgery and not everyone wants to do this.

My 4003S has not been modded to be RWRP yet and I have not had much trouble with hum, but it does have noticeably more background noise in a quiet environment than my other Rics (modded). I have not been bothered enough to do anything about it yet.

[lumgimfong]

I really only use the bridge pup as I don't like the neck pup sound alone or with bridge pup blended. Any way to shut up just the bridge pup? That's all I really need. Sounds like an HB1 may be the only solution.

[jps]

I really only use the bridge pup as I don't like the neck pup sound alone or with bridge pup blended. Any way to shut up just the bridge pup? That's all I really need. Sounds like an HB1 may be the only solution.

If that's the case, turn your bass into a 4000. Install the HB-1 onto the mounting plate that the hi-gain bridge pickup is mounted to (quite easy to do really, with just a couple of bolts, washers and nuts) , and have Dane make you a new pickguard to eliminate the neck pickup, and a simple wiring harness with just a volume and tone control (if you never use the tone control, he can make a harness with just a volume control, too). All of this is easily reversible if you decide to bring the bass back to original specs, just keep all the original components.