Dissonance toward the bridge

lenosgood · #1 03-12-2011, 08:04 AM

I'm wondering what is causing this...I have an Affinity P-bass. When I pluck the strings about halfway between the pickup and the bridge, it almost sounds like a double tone or two notes played at once. From the pickup forward, it sounds fine. What could be causing this? I never noticed it before, but I just put a set of flats on it and I noticed it sounds weird when plucking behind the pickup. All the strings are seated properly on the bridge saddles, and everything else seems okay--intonation, etc. What do you guys think?

giacomini · #2 03-12-2011, 11:42 PM

I might start asking the obvious: Isn't it that you're hearing the sound of a harmonic?

lenosgood · #3 03-13-2011, 03:29 AM

I never got a harmonic before from just plucking an open string...it should sound just a little more tinny closer to the bridge, not like I'm hitting two strings.

giacomini · #4 03-13-2011, 05:22 AM

All 4 strings do that?

I'm asking because I've had a couple basses that had some strange overtones going on when I played open E and A, and it got worse when I plucked closer to the bridge...

The first one had that issue on both E and A, and it started after I replaced the bridge of that bass, so I changed back to the original bridge and the problem was gone.

The other bass I got a "chorusy" sound on the E string, but it turned out to be just a (badly winded) twisted string.

When I was trying to figure out those problems I took those basses to a local luthier and he said that the problem was either in the bridge/saddles or in the nut, because it affected open strings.

I'd check those things:

-bridge saddles
-bridge screws (if they're a bit loose they could be rattling and creating funny sounds)
-tuner screws (idem)
-nut (you got a new set of flats there, maybe they're a little thicker than the previous strings and they're not sitting even at the bottom of the nut slot)
-too many winds in the tuner post
-pickup height (try lowering them to see if it helps, it could be a problem caused by too much magnetic pulling, who knows?!?)

It would be helpful if you post pictures of the bridge, nut and tuners.

Good luck!