A little buzz on the New 25th, suggestions?

[coastie72]

Okay, I picked up my 25th HH last Saturday,brought it home tuned it and all was perfect. Unfortunately I only had playing time Saturday night and most all of Sunday afternoon. Monday while at work I became ill, and was in the hospital until last night. Thought I had a stroke but got the all clear after a few days of testing. Now today I start playing my beautiful new bass and notice a slight buzz that was not there before mainly on the D & A strings between the 6th and 12th frets mostly. It is not hardly noticeable if at all amplified, but it wasn't there before. This being my first EBMM I was told by many to be prepared to make adjustments on a regular basis, but I was not expecting changes this fast. South Carolina is very humid, but this week has been rather mild. The humidity is usually only an issue in the hotter months.
So what do I need to do? Leave it be for a while and see how much more it changes before trying to adjust, or go ahead with adjustments. This is sort of new too me. All my previous basses have been setup every few years at most.

 

[tkarter]

Slight turn of the truss wheel. Down or clockwise.

tk

 

[Big Poppa]

Your bass has an unfinished neck and is reacting to the climate do what t karter says

 

[laneline]

Glad you're ok, first of all,
+2, easiest truss rod to adjust, key word is slightly, the bass is new I think it's normal, I'm up in the North East and have had other brands require tweaking fairly often, I find MM's very stable once they settle in, my HSS needed a little tweak early, it's been fine since.

 

[coastie72]

I'll give that a try today, I'm not concerned because I knew it would be a minor tweak. BP, thanks for having this forum so we can openly help one another! You are the man! I am in love with this bass for certain, and look forward to many years of enjoyment.

 

[koogie2k]

Yeah...glad you are okay...that is the important part.

Yep, truss rod adjustment. Very easy to do.

 

[bizmarckie]

Here in St Louis we have pretty big temperature/ humidity swings, and I have to make minor adjustments as needed... I look at it as bonding time, like detailing a really nice car... Glad to hear you're ok!

 

[coastie72]

Thanks to all on the health concern issue and help with my bass! This forum is a great asset to EBMM, once again thanks to BP.

 

[five7]

Let us know how it turned out.

 

[MrMusashi]

hehe.. with a 25th hh, how did you think it turns out??

now he just needs a bongo, a big al, a sr4 hh, a fretless (fill in the blanks here)...

welcome to the addiction!

MrM

 

[coastie72]

Well guy's I have been trying now for a couple of weeks to get rid of the buzz? I have went both ways on the wheel and can't seem to find the sweet spot? I guess a little buzz just has to be. I ended up with the best results going counter clockwise on the wheel. That is just the opposite of what everyone was saying. I have stopped for now and just living with what I have. To get the buzz completely out I have to go counter clock wise until the action is way higher than I would like, so I have just found a spot somewhere in the middle? Maybe I am expecting too much I now still have considerable buzz from the 9th fret on past the12th fret.

 

[five7]

hehe.. with a 25th hh, how did you think it turns out??

now he just needs a bongo, a big al, a sr4 hh, a fretless (fill in the blanks here)...

welcome to the addiction!

MrM

Now what?

 

[Manfloozy]

Well guy's I have been trying now for a couple of weeks to get rid of the buzz? I have went both ways on the wheel and can't seem to find the sweet spot? I guess a little buzz just has to be. I ended up with the best results going counter clockwise on the wheel. That is just the opposite of what everyone was saying. I have stopped for now and just living with what I have. To get the buzz completely out I have to go counter clock wise until the action is way higher than I would like, so I have just found a spot somewhere in the middle? Maybe I am expecting too much I now still have considerable buzz from the 9th fret on past the12th fret.

Honestly, have a full setup done. I swapped my strings out and needed to do the same... Plays like a dream after. This in my case was due to the new strings.

 

[five7]

Honestly, have a full setup done. I swapped my strings out and needed to do the same... Plays like a dream after. This in my case was due to the new strings.

Really? New strings on a new bass were causing buzzes? Interesting!

 

[steve f]

I ended up with the best results going counter clockwise on the wheel. That is just the opposite of what everyone was saying. I have stopped for now and just living with what I have. To get the buzz completely out I have to go counter clock wise until the action is way higher than I would like, so I have just found a spot somewhere in the middle? Maybe I am expecting too much I now still have considerable buzz from the 9th fret on past the12th fret.

Counterclockwise looking toward the headstock from the bridge is correct.
You should be able to achieve relatively low action with no buzz on the bass with no problem, depending of course on how heavy you play and whether you're using a pick or fingerstyle. Sounds like the bridge may require some adjustment. If you are not familiar with that, get a set up. It will be money well spent.

 

[Manfloozy]

Really? New strings on a new bass were causing buzzes? Interesting!

Yeppers. They were non-EB flats with low tension. It was not the standard "buzzing" but similiar... hard to explain. But a professional setup fixed it perfectly. It wasn't there with the Slinkys and isn't there now. No huge change in action (which actually didn't fix it when I tried it for the flats).

Plays perfectly now though.

 

[five7]

Yeppers. They were non-EB flats with low tension. It was not the standard "buzzing" but similiar... hard to explain. But a professional setup fixed it perfectly. It wasn't there with the Slinkys and isn't there now. No huge change in action (which actually didn't fix it when I tried it for the flats).

Plays perfectly now though.

Glad to hear. Hopefully that will work on coasties!

 

[Hellboy]

Well guy's I have been trying now for a couple of weeks to get rid of the buzz? I have went both ways on the wheel and can't seem to find the sweet spot? I guess a little buzz just has to be. I ended up with the best results going counter clockwise on the wheel. That is just the opposite of what everyone was saying. I have stopped for now and just living with what I have. To get the buzz completely out I have to go counter clock wise until the action is way higher than I would like, so I have just found a spot somewhere in the middle? Maybe I am expecting too much I now still have considerable buzz from the 9th fret on past the12th fret.

There are a couple of things that you could check.

Might be that you need to raise the A and D string on the bridge saddles just a hint if these two strings are the only ones that are buzzing.

To see if the truss rod needs adjusting, do the following. Press a string down with one finger on the first fret and another finger (with your other hand) on the last fret on the fretboard. Do this when you have the bass hanging on you in a strap. There should be around a 1/2 millimeter gap or alittle less between the string and the frets in the middle of the neck on each string when doing this. A minor gap. Go over each string and check the space between the string and the frets. If the string is flat onto the frets then you need to loosen the trussrod. If the gap is too great, then you need to pull the truss. Make small adjustments and let the neck rest awhile and go over the strings again and check the gap til it´s fine.

One thing that can happen is that a fret can let go in it´s slot and raise alittle on the fretboard. This can create a buzz on certain strings since that fret will be higher than it should so you´ll get a buzz when playing notes lower on the neck than that particular fret. I would guess that if this is the case then it´s probably a fret located around the 12th - 14th fret. If this has happended then you need to take a small hammer and hammer the fret down again. If you are not familiar with this kind of work, then take the bass back to the store where you bought it and let them help you. You don´t want to ruin your new beautiful instrument. It´s not hard to do if you know how to thou and not much force is needed. Can be wise to use something between the fret and the hammer when hammering. A ice cream stick (is that the right word for it in english?) or something

Worst case scenario is that something has happend to the neck itself and then you´ll need help to solve this. But that is not very likely. Start with these steps above first and inspect the frets and the neck closely.

One note regarding fret buzz. I´m personally not very concerned with fret buzz. All of my basses has quite alot of buzz and I don´t care too much about this. You might hear some buzz then playing your bass not plugged in or even through a amplifier but you´ll never hear the buzz when you play with others. Not even when recording in a studio. My own personal opinion is that people are too concerned with this. I was hired to work with the VST/AU software instrument BroomStickBass some years back. I recorded some basses and Chapman Stick together with the guy that was in charge of the whole thing and one thing that we really did concentrate on was to keep as much fret buzz as possible to make the samples as natural and organic sounding as possibly. We even re-recorded some notes that were just too clean to make them less "perfect". A bass guitar is not a synth. It has strings and frets and it makes strange noises and this is in my world a part of the beauty with a bass. Might sound strange to some but that is how I feel. BroomStickBass got some great reviews back then and quite many commented on just the fact that it sounded organic and natural. Less "perfect" than some other similar software bass synths but very musical.....

Broomstick Bass - About

My two cents....

Sincerely//Jan

 

[Grand Wazoo]

Well guy's I have been trying now for a couple of weeks to get rid of the buzz? I have went both ways on the wheel and can't seem to find the sweet spot? I guess a little buzz just has to be. I ended up with the best results going counter clockwise on the wheel. That is just the opposite of what everyone was saying. I have stopped for now and just living with what I have. To get the buzz completely out I have to go counter clock wise until the action is way higher than I would like, so I have just found a spot somewhere in the middle? Maybe I am expecting too much I now still have considerable buzz from the 9th fret on past the12th fret.

First of all coastie72, like everyone said glad your health is ok and you are doing well.

As for your bass, you've said this is your first EBMM and "someone" warned you about these basses needing frequent adjustment, I disagree, they might need one adjustment every year if someone is really picky. Any bass, no matter what brand will suffer from temperature drastic changes.

But I've read in your first post that this buzz is barely noticable when played through an amp. I think this is where you are going to focus on, playing the bass as it is intended through an amp with your band or in a studio session.

Have you played it with your band or live and noted the buzz actually coming through the speakers?

You see: most basses buzz specially when set with the notorious low action that EBMM instruments are famous for.

It's not a defect, it's a characteristic of the roundwound strings as opposed to flatwound. How hard, do you pluck or play with the pick is the cause for the buzz.

My bongo buzzes more in the summer than in the winter, I put it down to the way in which different temperature affects the neck, but I've played it live and on rehersals and never actually noticed it over the 2 guitar players in my band. The StingRay 5 instead, seems to be more stable to temperature shifts, maybe because its a whole maple neck/fingerboard but it doesn't change as much as the Bongo does. I love it anyway and I leave it as it is because: a) I am too lazy to adjust it and B) it's not that noticable once you play with your chums!

If you play the instrument unplugged or even plugged and you are on your own you are likely to notice the buzz more but in a live or studio situation, unless things are really bad, you don't need to dig so hard into your playing as the amp will do the job of providing the volume necessary to prevail over the drums, the guitars, they keys, the horn section etc etc.

Your local dealer should be more than happy to have it set up for you, under the warranty coverage, and that would be my first port of call if the buzz is that bad.

Cheers and good luck.

 

[bovinehost]

I really, really hate these kinds of threads.

But don't mind me! If I deleted/closed all the "I want strangers to solve a problem they cannot see or hear and which may in fact only exist due to my technique", it would be a very empty forum.

The only thing I'll say is this. You're getting advice that is worth every cent you've paid for it. The fact is that if you don't understand how a truss rod adjustment and bridge height variation affects your instrument - and how to make these minor adjustments yourself - you're doing yourself a disservice.

String buzz, front-loaded output jacks, what's next.