4001 Ground issue

[jaymi]

#80 is in the house and has a MAJOR ground problem. It appears to have an open ground that buzzes ferociously when I touch bridge or pickups. It goes to a light hum when I take my hand off. I checked the bridge ground already and it is in place and connected correctly, soldered to the back of the pot. The wiring is factory and the only thing I have touched is removing the cap(it is a 77)...It came to me with the ground issue and I am trying to figure out where the problem is....

[jaymi]

I have taken the whole bass apart and cannot find a loose wire or cold joint. Both pickups are fully functional just buzz like a big dog....

[kiramdear]

My guitar's not a rick, but it does the same thing since I substituted a couple of vintage p'ups for the stock strat p'ups. I shielded the whole cavity, checked every connection, but meh! My solution is to don't stop playing, or just to take my hands off it when I pause. I absolutely love the tone of this guitar and will just put up with the noise. That may not be good advice for your 4001 owner, but there are some hum destroyer devices that I may look into if the noise gets too tiresome. That's not the most graceful solution, and probably not what the owner wants, though.

[jaymi]

BAD JACKS!!!! I changed out the jack and I will need to replace the Ric-o-sound jack but I can get a new set prewired from Mike Parks...

[rickenbrother]

You got your post in just before me, so I edited this post. I was thinking that you should check the output jacks.

[beatlefreak]

Great troubleshooting, Jaymi. Sounds like you have the solution well in hand.

[nukebass]

How do you test the jacks without physically swapping them for others? My DCM has a ground problem I haven't bothered to troubleshoot to the full extent and I need all the info I can get when I actually do start tearing into it

[jaymi]

In this case, the jacks were so badly corroded that I had a feeling. The real test came when I took them out and cleaned both of them and they still would not work. For now, the bass has a single mono jack that will be replaced shortly by the correct dual setup. For now I can play it and that is what I wanted to do.

[jingle_jangle]

Jaymi, if you cleaned them and they still didn't work, that would be a first. The only corrosion that would atop a jack would be if the contacts were completely eaten away...

Chances are, that after a thorough cleaning, you would just have to have bent the tip contact a bit to get more pressure on it.

Oh, and stay away from cheap Asian cords, if you've been using them at all. Sleeves tend to be loose and tips are undersized; some are a tad short as well.