Help: Buzz sound on Bongo 5 HS

[Néal Zheimer]

Hi everyone

I noticed something this week-end: my Bongo has a background buzz sound
I don't know if it is new really, it is very discrete and I noticed it when I plugged the bass into a sound card for recording a prototype.

I went back on the amp and it IS present, it is not loud but it is there. The buzz sound is quieter when my hand touches the strings and disappear when the volume pot is down.

Any clews about the source of the problem and how to fix it?

Regards
Guillaume

[MrMusashi]

hello guillaume and welcome to the forums

the problem with internet diagnostics is that none of us can put our hands on the bass to find out what is causing it. this means that you will get wild guesses that might or might not be correct.

sometimes they are spot on, but they might just as well be harmfull for your bass.

to resolve this problem i would try the following things:

1. contact the dealer where you bought it from and have them help you. they can contact their distributor which will help.
2. if the dealer isnt helping you, id go directly to the distributor and ask for their help.
3. if all that fails you could try contacting ernieball customer service directly.

hth!

MrM

[Rick Auricchio]

I will offer a couple of suggestions, unrelated to the actual instrument.

1. Your body acts as an antenna, picking up hum and noise from the AC mains in the walls of the room. Some of this gets coupled into the pickups. When you touch the strings, you ground your body and reduce the antenna effect. This can happen with any bass. Try moving about the room to see if you can mimimize the effect.

2. The inputs on your sound card probably expect microphone or line-level signals. Neither of these inputs is properly matched to a bass guitar. A bass should connect to a high-impedance input; its signal level is higher than a microphone and much lower than a line-level signal. Connecting a bass to a low-impedance input (e.g. a microphone or line input) will create a load on the bass signal, reducing its level and overall quality. Using a direct box (DI) will properly match the bass signal to a microphone input.

[stoneboy26]

I've been getting the same thing. Happening no matter how or where it's in.

Just dropped it at the local shop this weekend so will see what they come back with.

[Néal Zheimer]

Thanks for your responses.

I would have gone back to the dealer but since I bought it used from the USA and that I live in France, it's a long way.

I know that plugging directly into a sound card is not the best way to do but that was just to tell how I heard the buzz sound in the first place.

I will have a closer listen to the bass plugged in the amp in other locations to eliminate the room/antenna effect and will act accordingly. I keep this thread updated in case someone else has the same problem.

I've been getting the same thing. Happening no matter how or where it's in.

Just dropped it at the local shop this weekend so will see what they come back with.

Could you keep me posted?

Regards

Guillaume

[Moose308]

Keep in mind, you did specify you were running an HS Bongo. That S is a single coil pickup, which from the dawn of time have been notorious for picking up electrical hum. The H is a humbucker, which by it's very name should tell you it is designed for the specific purpose of "bucking the hum", or mitigating the hum of electrical fields.

Try this, plug in as normal but turn the blend pot all the way back to the H. I am willing to bet the hum mostly disappears. If it does, you can be pretty sure your S pickup is just picking up stray electrical fields. The only thing for it is to move. Even just turning in your chair 90 degrees is often enough to solve it.

Now, if that doesn't work, and you are still getting huge amounts of hum in your signal, you may very well have a ground-loop. This is quite common when plugging into a powered electronic device. Using a decent DI box or something like that to break your signal between your bass and your soundcard could solve this.

[stu42]

I thought all the EBMM bass guitar Single Coil pickups had a "dummy" coil (probably not the technically correct term) connected to the pickup which essentially eliminates hum in a similar way to a humbucker pickup.

??

[melvin7822]

I thought all the EBMM bass guitar Single Coil pickups had a "dummy" coil (probably not the technically correct term) connected to the pickup which essentially eliminates hum in a similar way to a humbucker pickup.

??

On the Bongo, there is a small device inside the control cavity that couples with the single coil pickup to eliminate hum.

[supadave]

You guys are freakin unreal! No matter what the problem - you all have a dam good crack at trying to help out...and you generally get the job done too.
I just sit here nodding my head as though I had come up with your solutions.
I want to thank you all for being so dedicated and so accomodating. Thats on behalf of all the EB players you've helped out...and I am one of them. Cheers

[OldManMusic]

Hi Guillaume - If this is my former Bongo 5, I don't think I ever heard it buzz. Like Stu42 mentioned, I would get a little hum on the single coil pickup sometimes, but it was usually due to a monitor or other electrical device causing interference. I would move my body or shut off the device and it would go away. The worst offender was any kind of cellular device or neon overhead lights. I used that bass for many recordings and loved the single coil tone.

If the band can hear it, just blame the guitar player. They are always buzzing.
Kevin

[bovinehost]

Something else to consider is geography. I lived in 220 countries for a while there and everything I owned, including my toaster and my golden retriever, produced some kind of hum. My humbuckers did not buck hum. No hum was bucked. Bucking hum? Forget it.

I know some countries have more reliable power than others, but there is that to consider.

[JayDawg]

We live in an older house that was built in 1959 so it only has the 2 prong outlets in it. As a result, I sometimes get a hum through my amp as well but I know it's a grounding issue from the houses outdated electronics. When I play anywhere else with modern outlets and such I get no hum.

[melvin7822]

I hate to beat this thread to death, but I think there's one simple check to determine whether the bass is at fault or the surround environment is at fault. If you still hear a buzz when the pickups are panned all the way to the humbucker, then the bass is most likely not at fault. At any rate, speaking with customer service is probably your best bet.

[Golem]

`

Coupla tings ....

Digital devices generate audio buzz/hum/zizzle. PUs are very
vulnerable. Try putting a device between the ax and the PC's
audio input to generate a less vulnerable [stronger] signal, as
with an active DI or such.

Also, touching the strings can reduce "broadcast" ["airborn"]
noise but it's not that you are grounding the antenna [strings].
The effect works even if you are perched on a wooden stool.
What happens is your body changes the capacitance of the
antenna, usually retuning it's reception to frequencies that do
not result in bothersome audible noise [or at least much less
of that noise]. Actually grounding an antenna can make that
antenna MORE receptive ... in cases where the ground wire
and distance to actual earth happen to be too long. So ... in
most indoor environments, an actual grounding wire [to some
safety ground connection] may cause more noise ... altho the
safety effect remains. Safety is about stray line current while
noise is usually about reception of broadcast signals, two very
different contexts.


`

[five7]

like when we use to play sam's on lookout mountain. aluminum foil almost would work. lol