Weird rattle in my stingray neck

[DoublebassTim]

Every time I pluck the e string on my 1991 Stingray 4H I hear a rattle? The screws on my bridge are all with their feet on the body. The trussed turns nice and not striped. What could it be?

 

[danny-79]

Anything loose in the control cavity?

 

[tbonesullivan]

Check every screw to make sure that it is snug. See if you can isolate exactly where the sound is coming from.

 

[nhbassguitar]

Open E only, or fretted also?

 

[drTStingray]

Usual reason I’ve found for this is if one of the tuning pegs is loose on the shaft - you can easily tell by holding the tuning peg whilst plucking the open string - if the rattle goes you either need a new tuning peg or to try and tighten the joint on the existing one. I’ve had to replace several over the years - it’s usually where the bass has fallen over or been knocked over and caused the damage - which often doesn’t appear immediately or for some time - I currently have the problem on one of the pegs on a US Sub 5 - the pegs are unbranded on the US Subs and I don’t want to buy a complete set to overcome the issue !!

 

[Bert]

Thighten the trussrod nut a bit and see if the rod was loose.

 

[DoublebassTim]

I had the e string up high on the peg. I pushed it down and rewound it and no ring.

 

[Golem]

I had the e string up high on the peg. I pushed it down and rewound it and no ring.

An E string too high on the peg is not well pressed down into the nut, and the rattle is usually the string rattling in the nut. Same can be heard if a nut is cracked at the string slot.