Magnetic/pickup clipping?!?!

[Insomnia_Junkie]

First off, I'm not that savvy with guitar tech so forgive my ignorance. But it seems whenever I play my precision, the E and sometimes A string click fairly loud. I'm pretty sure it's because the strings are hitting the magnets but I'm not sure. whenever I play "somewhat" aggressively they click like crazy. I already tried lowering the pickups and the magnets under those strings but it still happens if I get a little aggressive playing the bass. So is it the actual pickups, or are all precisions supposed to sound like that? So what should I do? open for advice =)

-Thank you =D

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Insomnia_Junkie

First off, I'm not that savvy with guitar tech so forgive my ignorance. But it seems whenever I play my precision, the E and sometimes A string click fairly loud. I'm pretty sure it's because the strings are hitting the magnets but I'm not sure. whenever I play "somewhat" aggressively they click like crazy. I already tried lowering the pickups and the magnets under those strings but it still happens if I get a little aggressive playing the bass. So is it the actual pickups, or are all precisions supposed to sound like that? So what should I do? open for advice =)

-Thank you =D

Sounds to me like you might try raising the saddles on the E and A just a bit for more clearance. And perhaps...try not to attack quite so hard. it's not something that P's do as a normal issue.

[Johnny Crab]

Are you playing/picking down on the string are straight across?
Look at that to possibly cure or control it.

I can duplicate what you say on ANY bass here and it is actually used/heard on some tunes(some ZZ Top, Elton John). It is VERY similar to the "tapping" that John Entwistle did.

[Insomnia_Junkie]

Originally Posted by Johnny Crab

Are you playing/picking down on the string are straight across?
Look at that to possibly cure or control it.

I can duplicate what you say on ANY bass here and it is actually used/heard on some tunes(some ZZ Top, Elton John). It is VERY similar to the "tapping" that John Entwistle did.

Yeah, don't get my wrong I love that effect but I don't wanna hear it EVERY time I play. I use both pick and finger techniques, I'll try raising the saddles more. Now that I think about it, it might be my finger pluck. So I'll shy away and use picks more for that bass I suppose.

[newfuture]

I used to have this as my #1 problem I needed to work on in my playing.

+1 to Johnny Crab's suggestion.

Play across the strings, not down onto them unless you're going for that click as an effect. Before figuring that out, I'd raised the strings, lowered the pickups, put tape over the pole pieces and lord knows what else. This actually made the problem worse as it lowered the volume of the notes, and I still ham-fisted the strings into the pickups, so the click-to-note ratio was higher than before the adjustments.