Buzz/Clicking Problem

[dogend]

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty new to playing the bass having only started about 3 months ago. To start off with I bought a cheap Yamaha bass off eBay which was fine for first few months. I then started to become irritated by the constant buzzing and clicking sounds it made on mainly the low E string especially when playing notes quickly.

So I decided to sell it and spend about £250 ($500) on a Godin SD-4 bass I found on eBay. I did my research and found generally very good reviews of it so I bought it. Now it's arrived, and as I soon as I played it, I realised it has exactly the same buzzing and clicking which I find very irritating.

Now I don't think it's my technique because playing with my fingers hitting down towards the scratchplate and playing with my fingers upright seem to make little difference and the clicking sound remains.

Is it normal for a bass to click as much as this one and my other one does? Is it something todo with the action?

Thanks in advance for your help,

James

[FL Knifemaker]

I'm no expert at setting up basses but I've been spending a bunch of time learning and working on my own. It all has to do with getting the neck/trussrod right in respect to the bridge height. Also, the nut slot height can be an issue. I've spend a lot of time working on my Electras and getting that adjustment right can be a challenge. I have several pro set up basses to use as a reference which helps. It can be done though!! I've had very noisy, clacking basses that I've silenced by getting the setup adjustments right. IMHO, putting on a heavier string to me is a cop out. I like the light gage LowRiders for their feel and if properly set up, they will play quietly.

I would have a pro look at your bass. Chances are it can be fixed.

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by dogend

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty new to playing the bass having only started about 3 months ago. To start off with I bought a cheap Yamaha bass off eBay which was fine for first few months. I then started to become irritated by the constant buzzing and clicking sounds it made on mainly the low E string especially when playing notes quickly.

So I decided to sell it and spend about £250 ($500) on a Godin SD-4 bass I found on eBay. I did my research and found generally very good reviews of it so I bought it. Now it's arrived, and as I soon as I played it, I realised it has exactly the same buzzing and clicking which I find very irritating.

Now I don't think it's my technique because playing with my fingers hitting down towards the scratchplate and playing with my fingers seem to make little difference and the clicking sound remains.

Is it normal for a bass to click as much as this one and my other one does? Is it something todo with the action?

Thanks in advance for your help,

James

There's several things you can do. One is to look at your playing style. I know that when I first started playing, I tended to pluck the strings harder than I do now; doing that makes the strings travel farther and run into the frets above the one you are playing on. Turn your bass up and use a light touch. Another thing you want to do is to place your fingers right up close behind the frets so that the string is firmly down on the fret; bass strings have a lot more mass and travel than guitar strings and will hop up and down on the fret if you put your fingers too far back.

A good setup with attention to nut slot depth, string height at the bridge, and truss rod tension can do wonders for this sort of thing, or nothing at all, depending on how well your bass was set up beforehand.

Heavier strings have less travel than lighter ones and put more opposing tension on the truss rod; going to heavier strings might solve the problem. When I first got my Alembic it clattered a lot, but it had really light strings; I put heavier strings on it and the problem went away immediately.

Good luck!

[Bass Mule]

It took me about 4 or 5 months to realize the clicking I heard was actually my technique, and another 3 or 4 months improving my technique to get rid of it. Eight years later, I'm fairly clean, but sometimes when I dig in, it will come back.

It's probably a combination of set-up and technique.

[Pilgrim]

As a newcomer to the bass, you might not even be familiar with the term "setup". It means adjusting the neck, bridge and possibly other components so that the strings are in the optimal relationship to the neck for YOUR style of playing.

A beginner who has fairly agressive plucking style may need the strings farther off the neck. An experience player with a soft touch and a careful plucking motion might have the strings extremely close to the neck - which would cause rattle and noise if the inexpeienced player used the bass.

I agree with the others that it's probably a combination of your playing technique and the way the bass is set up. I'd recommend having a tech do a setup on it.

[dogend]

Thanks all of you for the advice. I've been trying to tone it down but I certainly do pluck to hard most of the time. The new bass is active while the old one was passive so that should help.

I think I'll take it in to the nearest shop when I can.