RF Interference When Using Pan Pot - 95 Essence

[ajdover]

Folks - I just received a ‘95 Essence via trade, and it has terrible R/F interference when the pan pot is rotated all the way back to use the bridge pickup only.  I can literally hear a radio station broadcasting.  The weird thing is that it occurs when I have it completely back - if I move it slightly back (and I mean slightly), the R/F interference pretty much goes away (I can still hear it faintly).  I had this issue with my ‘91 Essence, but it’s been a while and I don’t remember what we did to fix it.  Any suggestions?


Alan

[ajdover]

Update - I took the Essence to my local Guitar Center (yes, Guitar Center) so see if maybe it was a location thing.  Rotated the pan pot to the bridge pickup, and no noise whatsoever.  Maybe is a location thing?

[edwardofhuncote]

You might try looping the pickup leads through a ferrite bead, if they aren't already.

*link- https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=219.msg1026#msg1026

[mica]

You should already have the ferrite shielding bead on the pickup leads. I will send you one to try and put on the lead from the pan pot to the rest of the circuit.

It's likely the issue will be resolved by switching to the new Pan Preamp board, but you can try this out first and that will be helpful to know if it works for other people with older Essence basses.

[ajdover]

Mica,


      I’ll give that a shot and let you know how it goes.  Thanks for the help!


Alan

[keith_h]

Alan, Good to see you around. Hope things are going well.

I had that problem with my fretless Orion. It was a lower power station south to south east of me and could only be picked up over a few degrees of turning. Though once found the reception was great. Unless you are right on top of the transmitter radio station interference tends to be location and frequently direction specific. In my case replacing the preamp board fixed it.

[ajdover]

Keith - great to hear from you, and I hope all is going well!


Mica’s going to send me a ferrite bead, and I’ll try that.  If that doesn’t work, then I’ll go the route you did.


Alan

[ajdover]

Update - an Alembic Club member contacted me after seeing my post about RF interference.  He had a pan pot preamp that he’d purchased to use on an Essence, but ended up not doing so.  He very graciously offered it to me.  I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said basically not to worry about it, and that he’d be sending it to me, gratis.  I will use it on the ‘95 Essence and see how it goes, along with having a 3-way Q switch installed.


This, my friends is what makes Alembic owners so special in the nearly 20 years I’ve been playing them.  It’s also a reason I will always be an Alembic player.


Alan


P.S.  Anyone have a link to the instructions for installing the pan pot pre and the 3-way switch?  I need to give them to my tech for installation.

[lbpesq]

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

Bill, tgo

[adriaan]

The pan preamp comes with printed instructions.For me it was all plug-and-play, although not everything was immediately evident to my muso brain.

[keith_h]

That's great to hear.

To install the Q switch your tech might have to remove some wood to allow the threads to go through the front (I did on my Orion). They should repaint the area with shielding paint after removing the wood.


The Q switch is easy to connect. I recall soldering one or two connections but it has been a very long time since I installed one. I'll look around to see if I still have the instructions and email you a copy if I do.

[rv_bass]

Here is a link to a PDF of the Q switch installation instructions

http://alembic.com/club/messages/393/025-001-13735.pdf

[pauldo]

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

Bill, tgo

Same

[ajdover]

Is this the same for a 3-way switch?

[rv_bass]

Is this the same for a 3-way switch?

I believe so.