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hello

i have a harley-benton hbb500tbk electric bass. it's a cheap one, but it's active and ok for me. the problem is that the one pickup makes a humming noise (like some ground problem), which makes it kinda unusable. i can use the other one, which doesn't make any noise (at least no unwanted) but i like the sound of the other one better (except for the humming of course).

does anybody know what i can do to get rid of the noise?

the other thing is, that the output of both pickups is really high. way higher than any other bass i've heard. i have to pull the gain way down, when i plug it into a bass amp so it won't clip.
that's not a big problem. it's just annoying when i have to use someone else's amp ("don't touch my dials!")

maybe somebody's had the same problem and found a way to fix it.

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moonbaby Wed, 02/08/2006 - 11:08

An active pick-up system will, in general, be a much higher output than a passive one. Chances are you have a broken ground wire connection between the noisey pick-up and the internal preamp circuit. This may be in the form of the plain metal wire running from the pick-up to the bridge/tailpiece (through a small tunnel in the body), or since it's an active circuit, it may be the shielded wire from the pick-up to the little preamp circuit board.
Bottom line is that you will have to open up your instrument and do some detective work on your own. Good luck!

ouzo77 Wed, 02/08/2006 - 12:49

that's what i thought, too. but i'm not good in electrics so i will have somebody take a look.

with the volume issue, i don't think it's because of the active pu's, cause most bass players i know have active basses, too. but like i said before, that's not a big problem. guess i'll just have to live with it.

thanks anyway!