d & g string sounding thinner

dalien · #1 07-11-2005, 04:51 PM

Hello everyone, this is my first post on this forum...

I have a mexican jazz bas `62 remake. and a warwick corvette pro line 4 stringers

I want my d and g string to sound more thicker, cause it seems there is a gap between the sound of two lower strings compared to the higher ones...the higher being too bright and trebly...

I use medium .045 .065 .080 .100 nickel roundwoud, and thought of setting the .050 .070 0.80 .100 strings on my next rewiring...

I would appreciate any help on this subject...

vic_6 · #2 07-11-2005, 06:08 PM

maybe you could try lowering the pick ups and roll off the tone a bit...

hope that helps..

vic

el_Kabong · #3 07-14-2005, 06:26 AM

Assuming you play with your fingers and not a pick, if the skin on the tips of your fingers on your plucking hand is hard from lots of playing, sand the hard bit off with an emery board. Seriously! This makes a real difference. Soft fingers = warmer tone. Also try and get lots of finger on the string (plucking hand again) when you stike a note, not just the tip of your finger. The more meat on the string the fatter the tone. The reason the technique of playing down strokes with the thumb to get a fatter tone works is because more flesh is in contact with the string. You could also try moving your plucking hand closer to the neck to warm your tone up. I know this isn't a strings/setup type response but I hope it helps.

dalien · #4 07-15-2005, 03:32 AM

It's true, I'm playing with my fingers. I notised that the sound of index finger plucking is a bit dryer and more destinct than the middle finger plucking...that has to do with the middle finger being longer and pulling the string with more meat...so when I play strait notes I try to pluck it with the same finger...

interesting remark, but I don't think my problem has to do with that...

gottawalk · #5 07-15-2005, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vic_6

maybe you could try lowering the pick ups and roll off the tone a bit...

hope that helps..

vic

I think that you should try the pickup adjustment. I have a Warwick Fortress 1 fretless I purchased recently and I had a similar problem with the upper strings. They didn't quite have the punch the lower two had. A friend of mine suggested working the pickups so that they were more even to the strings in distance. We noticed that the string distance from the upper strings was farther than the lower ones, so we raised the pickup (not a whole lot; just enough to make it even), to compensate and it really evened out the sound across all four strings. Check your pickups and see if there's ay difference anywhere and adjust to compensate for that. Should help. Good luck.

gottawalk · #6 07-15-2005, 08:49 PM

Also, check out this site.
http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass.../action.html#3

This particular page talks specifically about the pup setup.

Sonorous · #7 07-18-2005, 09:11 PM

Yes, changing the guages would help. You could also try a different kind of string, and not just a different guage.