A Little Confused

[JB1]

Rayan,

The buzz thing was weirder than some of your posts!

I think we had a technique/EQ situation there, we'll see how our man gets on.....

 

[tkarter]

The buzz thing was fret noise. A mistake I too make when describing setup. I believe I will remember the correct terminology now.

tk

 

[Melv]

The buzz thing was fret noise. A mistake I too make when describing setup. I believe I will remember the correct terminology now.

tk

Happens to me too, mistaking the 'terminology'

 

[JB1]

So how is it Melv, sorted?

 

[Melv]

Sadley no. Im playing around with the eq atm but no hope apart from an extremly bassy tone. I been in contact with strings and things about it just seeing what goes on

 

[MM Scarborough]

Hi guys, I think I confused a few folks earlier. The point I was making was that when I played my SUB through the ampeg i did get a lot of fret noise, not buzz, which is what I said. Even with the treble down I heard it a lot. As the day went on I listened to to other bands, the majority of which had passive bases and there was no noise. Now I play real heavy, but have the action high to compensate, the strings were also failry new. In short I was saying to keep to treble eq down as the ampeg seems very resposive to those freqencys, and there were a lot of crappy sounding basses on that day!

cheers!

 

[Melv]

ah but with the treble down u get a bit too much bass for ya liking and then the tone is not complete

 

[MM Scarborough]

true enough. Around 20% is just enough. Icdentally im having ashop look into a better pickup for it. I want a mid eq aswell. Quite pissed of that they've fitted it to the SUB sterling but not the stingray.

 

[Melv]

After playing my other bass the Ampeg rig does pick up on the fret noise but i cant see why it cant be eliminated and at the same time have a nice not to bassey tone

 

[tkarter]

From my take on it. You will have to find a technique that does away with it. Or set the amp differently. Unless your setup people are completely incompetent. Also you are probably a good candidate for the TI flats as they will retain mids and highs pretty good.

tk

 

[Melv]

Neva played flats but not been so keen on what ive heard about them not being ideal for slapping. Orginally i brought the ampeg head over in america from music123.com while i was over there on holiday this summer. Ill try really playing with the EQ and see how much noise i can eliminate. By 'your set up people' who do u mean by that?

 

[tkarter]

I meant by setup people. The shop you took it to get the thing setup and stop the so-called fret buzz. If I recall you have been there twice? That would be too many times for me to take a bass in and not have it playing like I wanted it to. That is if it were the bass.

I can't help on the slapping as I don't slap. Don't play open strings very often either.

Armed with knowledge that can be gained from the web. Few simple tools I think anyone should be able to handle learning to setup their own bass. Now whether or not they want to would be a different story.

tk

 

[basspastor]

basspastor..There are passive Subs as well as active.

Jon

Yes, excuse me, I knew that , just had a short lapse of memory.

 

[dlloyd]

Hi guys, I think I confused a few folks earlier. The point I was making was that when I played my SUB through the ampeg i did get a lot of fret noise, not buzz, which is what I said. Even with the treble down I heard it a lot.

I'm certainly confused now

Do you mean string noise? Like a squeak you get from the strings when you move left hand position?

 

[Mobay45]

I have a string noise from my SUB too if my treble is too high. It is a very fine adjustment to get enough treble without getting the clicking noise of the string against the fret. I don't have this from any of my other basses though. I agree that setting the treble at about 20% is the optimum setting.

 

[MM Scarborough]

i do ddloyyd. But i do change strings a lot, so that always causes additonal noise. Once the srings have settled a little it goes away, then the bastards break and i have to start froms scratch. Hope I didn't cause any offence earlier.

 

[dlloyd]

i do ddloyyd. But i do change strings a lot, so that always causes additonal noise. Once the srings have settled a little it goes away, then the bastards break and i have to start froms scratch. Hope I didn't cause any offence earlier.

Okay...

You can muffle the string noise with eq, but that's kind-of counter productive.

Muting helps and using a floating anchor is the thing that has really sorted this out for me. There was an article about this in Bass Player a couple of years ago, by Adam Nitti that was probably the most valuable lesson I've ever had. Fortunately, Adam has reproduced it along with others on his website. Follow this and you will rule all...

http://www.adamnitti.com/bass_player_02.shtml

The other thing to bear in mind is that string noise tends to get lost in the mix. The minute you bring another musician into the equation, you tend to forget about the string noise.

Also, the occasional squeak can actually sound good in context.

 

[JB1]

Melv - are you a picker, plucker or slapper?

I'm concerned about the fact that you seem to break strings regularly.

I've had it happen to me 3 times in 13 years. Are you following all the general rules of thumb (pardon the pun) when winding new strings on?

 

[Melv]

Melv - are you a picker, plucker or slapper?

I'm concerned about the fact that you seem to break strings regularly.

I've had it happen to me 3 times in 13 years. Are you following all the general rules of thumb (pardon the pun) when winding new strings on?

Im a plucker and a little bit of a slapper. Yeh it seems strange for MM Scarborough to replace you strings that regularly

 

[MM Scarborough]

im mainly a finger player, ocasionally i use a pick. normally a 0.6 and incorperate some slap. I have been noted for playing very heavily, but I've never had this problem before and i've been played for 3 years or so now. I use all three fingers. I was stretching th sring when it snapped, but I was doing it slowly and only reached D sharp before it snapped?

what do you think?

cheers!