Question SR 5 electronic question

[doomster]

my stingray 5 is new. Here's my question :

-The 3 way switch seems to be a little noisy. If nothing is being played, it's dead quiet. If I have a note playing, there is a bit of a pop/click when changing the selector. Is this normal, or should I clean it out?

 

[Soulkeeper]

This is perfectly normal. The switch is intended to be used during rests.

No normal analog basses/guitars have "click suppression circuits" on the switch(es). This "lack of a feature" goes back half a century, to the beginning of the electric guitar.

You might have better luck with more modern circuitry, like e.g. the GameChanger, but I haven't tried one myself yet, so that is just a wild guess at this point. (Well, technically it's a semi-educated guess, but it's still just a guess.)

 

[doomster]

thanks for the rapid answer !

 

[jlepre]

Contact EBMM Customer Service. I have had many SR5's with that same switch, and mine never made a popping noise. I gig regularly and switch in the middle of songs all the time.

 

[tbonesullivan]

In the middle of songs is one thing, but if you switch while playing a note, there is almost always going to be some kind of noise.

 

[doomster]

maybe I can use some contact cleaner ?

 

[jlepre]

Call EBMM Customer Service. That's what BP always says...

 

[Soulkeeper]

maybe I can use some contact cleaner ?

Yeah, that'll give you cleaner clicks.

But more seriously: If you fire up some digital sound software, record two notes, remove the start and end from each of them, and paste the remaining sounds next to each other without smoothing the transition in some way (or cutting to a zero crossings), you will also get a pop/click between the two sounds, unless you're really lucky.

That does not mean that there's anything wrong with your hardware, software, or data. It just means you've created a transient. Which in many ways is equivalent to what happens when you operate a pickup switch mid-tone.

Whenever any two different waveforms meet back to back, there will be a transient, unless you do something to avoid it, and that transient will often be audible.

 

[doomster]

ok so everything is normal ! thanks !

 

[Golem]

`

If your style requires this to work,
try a volume pedal for a "manual
override" of the transient noise.

 

[jlepre]

ok so everything is normal ! thanks !

Hello? Am I invisible here? Maybe I'm in the minority, but I switch pups a few times during songs during my gigs, and I don't notice any popping sounds. Just a smooth transition to the next pup.

 

[five7]

no popping sounds here either.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I can easily make an audible click with my pickup selector if I set my mind to it. That goes for both my SR5s, my tele, both switches on my superstrat, and just about every other pickup selector equipped guitar/bass I've tried.

I don't generally hear a click in a live situation because of the ambient noise, not to mention that I almost never operate the switch while a string is vibrating. But if I sit at home noodling in front of my amp, for example if I'm checking out a new instrument, I do hear it, maybe three out of four times, provided that I let a string ring while I flick the switch.

But by all means, if in doubt, do contact customer service. I haven't heard doomster's bass with my own ears, so I don't know if the click he hears is the same, normal, click that I hear, or if it's something entirely different. I can only speak for myself and the instruments I've laid my own hands on, although I feel that what electronic schooling and experience I have, does allow me a stab at explaining the phenomenon in more general terms.

 

[doomster]

it's a small scratchy noise (no big deal) and it will only appear if a note is playing. I will take my stingray to a luthier to be sure.

 

[jlepre]

 

[tbonesullivan]

Hello? Am I invisible here? Maybe I'm in the minority, but I switch pups a few times during songs during my gigs, and I don't notice any popping sounds. Just a smooth transition to the next pup.

so, you use the three way switch while holding a note?

 

[Golem]

`

My barely edumacated thought on why some players
get a pop and some do not, without discounting the
concern of whether a string is ringing at the moment
of switching, leads me to think the pop/no-pop might
also be related to a mixture of amp input impedence,
cable length and capacitance, stray currents on the
[supposedly] neutral side of the AC supply, etc etc.

 

[doomster]

here's an example. the "click" are the same in this video Music man stingray 5 demo - YouTube

 

[tbonesullivan]

One thing to remember is that there are physical pieces of metal in there, and that when they are "in between" you can get noise, particularly if it is connecting to a new pickup, or if it is connecting the same coils in a different configuration.

 

[doomster]

golem was right I just got a brand new tube amp and no switch noise with this one ! so everything is cool ! thanks everyone !