Radio station interference on alembic

[Bob Tait (bobtait)]

I have a Mark King sig. med scale bass and its great. The only other bass i own is a Japanese Fender 62 reissue Precision. My problem is occasional pick up of radio stations on the Alembic. I live beneath two relay towers and its impossible to even play the alembic at home. The fender doesnt have this problem. I can actually only remember one gig where i couldnt use the Alembic at all. Unfortunately it was a festival setting on a full concert stage. I had to play the Precision that day. Ironically though there have been times where the fender picked up alot of buzz from bad AC and neon, but the Alembic was totally quiet. I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this problem, and if anyone knows if it is possible to eliminate it.
 
Bob Tait - Memphis

[Randell W. Curry (hifibassman)]

I have had that experience when i built my own pickups for my bass.
I don't know if their circuits have this feature, but it probably needs a capacitor with a certain microfarad value (maybe a frequency cut off a little higher than 6khz) wired in parallel across each pickup, which will eliminate radio frequency pickup and still leave all the high frequency audio content in place.  Never had a problem with radio frequency since I did that.  Hopefully this helps answer your question.

[mica]

What will help identify the solution is if you can tell us  the frequency of the radio signal you are receiving.  

[Bob Tait (bobtait)]

mica ... when i play the bass under the booster towers that are a couple of hundred yards from my house i can pick up several frequencies depending on how i hold the bass (as in turning in a circle) but i suspect that the stations are withing a narrow frequency band. of course the booster tower im sure is extreme overkill to diagnose this problem cause it affects electric guitars and amps as well in my house. guess i should have built in a better music location. however i will try to narrow down the problem range and post the frequency. i do remember that when i played in downtown memphis on the river the frequency was somewhere around 106, if that is a help. i know i always seem to pick up a country station that broadcasts at 106mh. and as i said before this has only happened at home and once on a gig. other than this occurance the bass is dead quiet. even when other instruments are buzzing like a bee on the same stage.

[Derwin Moss (bassdude63)]

Bob, I'll be watching this thread to see how your problem is corrected. This is especially interesting for me, I'm presently hitting the books, learning radio theory and morse code so I can obtain my Novice-Class ham radio license. Please keep me(us) posted.
Thanks. D.M.

[Michael Delacerda (dela217)]

When I bought my first Alembic in 1977 I had a similar problem.  I lived near an auto body shop.  Every time they would run their electric grinder, my bass would pick up the noise of the grinder.  I moved, problem solved!