pickup problem

[Mike Dawson]

My brother just moved to Florida and gave me his old e bass that he hasn't played since high school. The nut was broken and the pickup had a really healthy hum, so I took it to a local repair shop. I knew I was in trouble when the guy made a joke about 'busting a nut.' When I came back a week later to pick it up he pointed out that the headstock said it was a Fender jazz bass, but he didn't think it actually was and had to make a custom nut for it. When I took it home the buzz was as healthy as ever, and when I called the guy he told me it was because humbuckers buzz as part of their nature.

 

So I've been messing around with it ever since, and today I noticed that the buzz goes away almost entirely when the bass is laying on it's back (actually just a little further back, a few degees past parallel to the floor). There's still a slight buzz, but THAT"s the normal buzz you get from humbuckers.

 

So today I unscrewed the pick guard and turned it a little and found the buzzing is only in the neck pickup. Has anyone ever heard of this, know what's causing it, or know what I should do about it? I'm a little hesitant to go out and get a new set of pickups, becaues the guitar has some other problems and I'm not really interesting in pumping a ton of money into it. if I could go out and buy a brand new bass about the same amount of money. I really just want something that sounds like a bass for recording song demos.

[The Fonz]

sounds like a loose connection might be making your grounding hinky. i find most buzz problems are grounding/sheilding related.

[PETE_COMBS]

try lowering your pickups, my friends guitar did the same thing and he lowered the pick ups and it cut down , but i dont know if it will help you though.