Noisy SUB

[FarrisGoldstein]

I have an SUB Sterling I bought about 8 years ago (I think). SN: X10526. Black head & body, silver diamond plate pickguard.

I've always liked the way this thing plays, but the pickup (or more likely the active preamp) is very noisy. If I turn down the first volume knob about half-way, I can get rid of most of the noise, but I also lose quite a lot of punch.

Is this common? Is there anything I can do to kill the noise?

 

[tbonesullivan]

is that one of the EQ knobs? Might want to contact CS.

 

[jlepre]

Call Customer Service

 

[FarrisGoldstein]

Yeah, it's the High EQ knob. I'll call CS and see if they can offer any help. I still play the thing live, but for recording our engineer (also our singer) just can't handle the hum.

 

[Gravesend Black]

Yeah, it's the High EQ knob. I'll call CS and see if they can offer any help. I still play the thing live, but for recording our engineer (also our singer) just can't handle the hum.

I have the same problem with my SR5. Please PM me if you will find out something.

 

[FarrisGoldstein]

Called CS. After some troubleshooting, they think I might need to replace the preamp. I've tested the grounding as best I can, and everything off-board seems to be grounded properly. My fear is that I'll pay for a replacement preamp and still have the hum.

 

[tbonesullivan]

are you sure all the coils are working correctly? I have found that tapping is hard to use as a method for telling which coils are on. taking a piece of wound guitar/bass string and scratching it with a fingernail directly over the pole piece seems to be a much more accurate method.

 

[georgestrings]

FWIW, I also have a SUB Sterling, and it doesn't have any of the noise you described - so I'm sure it's something that can be fixed... I'd pull out the pickups and make sure there aren't any issues in there before buying a preamp - it's actually 2 separate single coils that are jumped in parallel, in a single housing...


- georgestrings