New E string is dull and full of overtones

[Frank Orlando]

Bought a 75 Jazz Bass right before Christmas. The strings on it were not playable. I put on a set of Chromes (.050 to .105) and set it up and the bass has a real nice tone on the A, D and G but the E is dull and has a lot of overtones when plugged in and unplugged. It sounds ok open and down to the 5th fret but then it gets dull as you go down the neck. The E doesn't ring like the others and the fundamental is buried in overtones. I pulled the .105 set off and put on a new .100 set. It plays easier with the lighter set but that E is still dull. String is not twisted. Pickup height was varied and made no difference. It's not the string because I tried every string I had in the house and they all were "thuddy" and dull compared with the A,D and G. I did a search and found several others on TB with a similar problem but nothing offerd as a fix has worked. Anyone have this problem and fix it?

[orestes71]

In theory your neck might be warped. Did you mess around with the string height?

[jworrellbass]

Have you checked the fret ends on the E side? They might have become lose and raised a little.

[Frank Orlando]

Thanks for the replys... last night I made sure all the strings were making solid contact with the witness point on each string saddle by bending it slightly on each side of the saddle. I also pressed down at the point where each string exits the nut as it looked as if the strings left the nut with a slight upward angle. I played it for the last few hours and the E is coming along much better. Not nearly as dull. The frets all seem to be firm in their slots. No string buzzing and the action is fairly low (3/32" on the E). I am going to play it for a while and see how they break in. The .100 set seems much easier to play and much more musical than the .105 set I had on. Very punchy and I don't see any loss of bottom. Matter of fact it's got plenty of bottom and is noticably more defined. I need to try it with my gig amp. Thanks again...

[Chasarms]

You might also tinker with the pickup height on the E side. If it is too close to the string, it can behave as you described.