New to sterlings. A question for the experts. Series and single mode hum, normal?

[dannyt]

I'm new to sterlings so I'm still discovering the possibilities and differences from the stingray.
I noticed that at moderate volumes I'm getting what sounds like single coil hum from my sterling 4 H.
It only does it in series and single mode. It is dead quiet when I switch back to parallel mode.
It's more noticeable when I turn up my eq pots. It's loud enough that I can feel the grating on my amp vibrate.

It struck me as odd because my HH stingray is dead silent at all volumes regardless of how high I crank my eq, and regardless of switch setting.

At first I thought it might be a ground issue with the phantom coil, but then it seems like it would be quiet I series mode, so now I'm confused.

Is this something to worry about or is it just the nature of the beast?

 

[five7]

I have a sterling 5H and have owned a few 4H's including a USA sub sterling and no hum with any of them. Something is up.

 

[SugarMaple]

That doesn't sound normal.

I don't have a Sterling H, but I have a Sterling HS, as well as a Stingray HS and two 90's Stingrays. In a practice room where the hum from my old MIM Jazz Bass drives me batty, all 4 of my EBMM's are dead silent, even on headphones.

Hopefully someone can help you out with ideas....

 

[sanderhermans]

Contact customer service or visit a good luthier. This is not right...

 

[dannyt]

Well crap.
That's what I thought.
I've only had the thing 5 days now. I just noticed the sound a day or two ago bc it was my first time turning it up any.

I guess I would rather start with customer service rather than have someone start messing with it.

In the case that any warranty work should need to be done, how does MM usually deal with this?
Do they typically have you send it back to them, or take it to a local authorized repair location?

 

[tunaman4u2]

My Sterling HH has far more hum in series mode. Parallel takes it away. Par for the course a little bit. Keep it away from electronics like laptops, power packs etc & its reduced. NEVER had a problem at a gig where it was louder than the normal PA hiss etc. Dont even think about it... I emailed EBMM customer support & they said its normal to a point.

 

[dannyt]

Hmm. Now im unsure what to think. I kinda suspected id get a response similar to this if i called customer service. This was my reason for asking here for other peoples experience.

When i play sitting in my chair just a couple feet from my computer and my amp, playing at low volumes i get a very low level of hum.. almost unnoticeable. When i crank up to mid level volume, at the same at the same sitting position, the hum becomes more noticeable. I would say at this point i have no hiss out of my amp, but the hum from series and single mode is about the volume of amp hiss i'd have at high volumes. If i crank up my eq, the volume of the hum doubles the level of hiss id have if my amp was cranked, i still have no amp hiss at these levels tho.
The real issue happens when i stand up and move about. Depending on which direction i face, the volume of the hum changes. As i move around the room the volume level of the hum fluctuates by about 4 times.
At this point it goes from a hum to more of a buzz that sounds sorta like a low feedback, but its not feedback.

If really crank my amp to where im getting a good amount of hiss, the hum is about double the level of amp hiss. If i crank up my eq pots, it goes to about 3 times the hiss level. And the hum volume fluctuates as i stated.
The second i switch to parallel it goes totally silent.

Would you say your hum is about this level, or would you say mine worse?

I appreciate all your responses btw

 

[tunaman4u2]

Ive done your same tests with ALL my basses

Bongo- ALWAYS dead silent, no matter what setting
Carvins x2- UNBELIEVABLE noise, had to return em
Jazz bass- If centered quiet if off center by a 25% or more, you get that 60 cycle hum that was fairly mild & equivalent to my Sterling
Sterling- Parallel nothing, in series mode different parts of the room would make noise.

ONLY ONCE did I experience bad noise at a gig & that was a VERY VERY old building with horrible wiring & lighting. Had to run in parallel the whole gig, no biggie

Its honestly a characteristic of ceramic pickups in series to a point just like 60 cycle hum with single coils. Nothing I hate more than non-single coils in my jazz, sound like ass. I'll take some hum to sound way better especially when I can kill it at a gig if the wiring stinks.

 

[SugarMaple]

Okay, I just did similar tests as yours, with my basses. I was able to get a little noise/hum out of my Sterling, but only when I got within a couple feet of an old projection TV, actually holding the bass up to the TV. It became more pronounced if I cranked the EQ, which is something I don't normally do when playing. I didn't get anything out of my computer monitor or my LCD 40" TV. Interestingly, I was able to get a little hum (but less) out of my '97 Stingray, also with the old projection TV. When I tried the MIM Jazz, there was hum of varying annoyance level in all directions, all locations of the room, no matter where I stood.

Just one test, in one room, so take it for that, and YMMV. Hope that helps, though.

I've never had a problem with hum or noise on a gig with my Sterling. I will, however, change my previous opinion from always "dead silent" to "almost always dead silent."

 

[dannyt]

Ive done your same tests with ALL my basses

Bongo- ALWAYS dead silent, no matter what setting
Carvins x2- UNBELIEVABLE noise, had to return em
Jazz bass- If centered quiet if off center by a 25% or more, you get that 60 cycle hum that was fairly mild & equivalent to my Sterling
Sterling- Parallel nothing, in series mode different parts of the room would make noise.

ONLY ONCE did I experience bad noise at a gig & that was a VERY VERY old building with horrible wiring & lighting. Had to run in parallel the whole gig, no biggie

Its honestly a characteristic of ceramic pickups in series to a point just like 60 cycle hum with single coils. Nothing I hate more than non-single coils in my jazz, sound like ass. I'll take some hum to sound way better especially when I can kill it at a gig if the wiring stinks.

Okay, I just did similar tests as yours, with my basses. I was able to get a little noise/hum out of my Sterling, but only when I got within a couple feet of an old projection TV, actually holding the bass up to the TV. It became more pronounced if I cranked the EQ, which is something I don't normally do when playing. I didn't get anything out of my computer monitor or my LCD 40" TV. Interestingly, I was able to get a little hum (but less) out of my '97 Stingray, also with the old projection TV. When I tried the MIM Jazz, there was hum of varying annoyance level in all directions, all locations of the room, no matter where I stood.

Just one test, in one room, so take it for that, and YMMV. Hope that helps, though.

I've never had a problem with hum or noise on a gig with my Sterling. I will, however, change my previous opinion from always "dead silent" to "almost always dead silent."

These are very helpful. It gives me some good point of reference.
I'd say I'm somewhere between a jazz bass off centered, and your bad noise experience, and I get more noise around lighting probably like your projection tv.
I'm sure the old wiring in my house is playing a factor I hadn't considered.
I did not know the ceramic magnets in series be sensitive to this.
I was comparing to my stingray and was caught off guard bc I was expecting the same silence.



I think I need to try it in a different setting before I do anything else

 

[Kong]

Try changing your guitar cable.

The only hum out of my Ray 5 d.o.b. 1995 and equipped with ceramic PU appeared when I was using an old cable. Later I noticed that it made noises when I was stepping on it.

It was the cable I had at home, plugged into my practice amp. It didn't get much love and layed on the floor in front of the amp.

Changing the old cable made anything dead quiet again.

 

[dannyt]

I will definitely look into this too.
I'm sure every little thing I can do will help

 

[Golem]

Two things.

1. Sitting near your computer. Bad.

2. Moving about and changing direction effects noise.
That means intrusive "airborn" noise, NOT generated
by your ax .... but RECEIVED by your ax. Check your
ground wires and trash your bad guitar cable.

Thaz the general drill. But the odd element is that the
StingRay is immune to all this ! All I can think of about
that aspect is that your guitar cable's 1/4" plug doesn't
seat well in the Sterling but it's OK in the SR. There is
no precise standard for the "tulip tip" shape on the plug.
And likewise no precise standard for the jack [in the ax]
that mates to that shape. So, occasionally, a particular
plug's shape mates poorly to a particular jack, and thus
a poor ground connection results. A different brand of
cable may have a slightly different shape. Try that. You
could bring both axen to music shop and try different
cable/plugs.

BTW, having many brands of instruments and cables in
my house, I've found that the absolute WORST plug is
the metal right-angle plug. The molded ones tend to be
OK but the METAL 90 degr plugs are a troublesome fit.


`

 

[dannyt]

It's interesting that you say it might be the plug to jack fit. I do notice that the cable does not "snap" into the sterling the way it does in the stingray, it feels more springy and tight.
I tried several cables but the sound is the same. I have one cable that has a slightly longer plug, that snaps in a bit better but is slightly noisier. My original cable seems to be most quiet. It's a shielded planet waves cable with straight plugs. I don't know if it's quieter bc of the shielding or my imagination.

I have one question related to this tho. Would I have hum in all three settings if poor cable grounding is the case?
I still have complete silence in parallel mode.

 

[Golem]

If a weak grounding is allowing your ax to receive noises
that doesn't change the fact that parallel mode tends to
kill noises. The strings and electronics receive RF noise and
the strings are a directional/steerable antenna. The job of
the ground connection [in addition to completing the 9VDC
power circuit] is to ground/nullify the antennae. Though
the strings are the major antenna, every run of wire in the
ax is also an antenna. The control cavity is painted with a
conductive paint to create an RF shield, but for best result
the shield needs to be grounded.

`

 

[tunaman4u2]

Just came back from the gig with my "noisy" Sterling... not a hiss to be heard in all settings.

Dont sweat it bro

 

[five7]

have you looked inside the controls

 

[dannyt]

Ok, so I took a good look under the hood.

All I can think of about
that aspect is that your guitar cable's 1/4" plug doesn't
seat well in the Sterling but it's OK in the SR. There is
no precise standard for the "tulip tip" shape on the plug.
And likewise no precise standard for the jack [in the ax]
that mates to that shape. So, occasionally, a particular
plug's shape mates poorly to a particular jack, and thus
a poor ground connection results.


`

I think this might be the closest thing. When I looked at the wiring, I could see no flaws. But when I plugged in the cable with the cover off, I could see that it looked like the metal tabs on the jack were not sitting right against my cable end... On any cable. It seemed like one tab would not make good connection with the metal. I gently gave it a little tweak with some needle nose pliers. I still get some hum, but to me it seems more predictable

 

[Meypelnek]

Ups. Notices this thread fairly late. I have a Sterling 5 HH - all wired in series. Only position 3 has a parallel "sub"-wiring (1&3)+(2&4) but is still a series wiring. I have experienced hum with my bass, too. I was quite shocked when I noticed the hum in all 5 positions standing within 1,5 m distance to my Glockenklang Soul II Amp cranked up. With another amp the hum was significantly less noticable. I have the hum, too if I am too close to an electronic source, e.g. Mac.
Since my Bongo is deadly silent, and the same applies to my two StingRays, I contacted customer service. The answer is easy: The coils are wired in series and have a very high output which makes them more vunarable for external noise. Believe it or not: Since that I do not use the Glockenklang anymore and I take care not to come to close to my other amp. And: I don't do research for hum. I just take it as it is - and it works fine for me. Good luck with yours.