strange vibe

gryhund666 · #1 03-26-2011, 05:25 PM

greetings, I just am finishing up hot rodding a basket case squire VM Jazz. It now has a Badass II, new MIA Fender pups and D'Addario black nylon coated ECB82 flat wounds (BTW the black strings look great contrasted w/ the maple wood). I have done the set up as per Fender specs that I found here on Talkbass. The truss, string height, and pups measure OK. My problem is that I get this weird vibration when playing centered around the D on the G string. It seems like something is loose and vibrating but I can't find anything. Open string G is OK. I get the bad vibe when unplugged so I know it's nothing to do w/feedback.
Any ideas woulds be welcome.
Thanks

OOZMAN · #2 03-26-2011, 05:28 PM

Fret buzz on a single high fret?

Phendyr_Loon · #3 03-26-2011, 05:48 PM

Sounds like some kind of harmonic vibration. I've had that happen to me a few different times with new strings. It mysteriously disappeared one day.
It could also be caused by loose saddle springs, tuning machines, truss rod. Whatever is loose enough to move at that frequency.

mikezimmerman · #4 03-26-2011, 05:56 PM

Is this different from the classic/notorious 7th-fret G-string dead spot so common to Fender-style basses?

Mike

whatitstrue · #5 03-26-2011, 05:59 PM

Sounds like a dead spot, fret, note or whatever you wanna call it.

whatitstrue · #6 03-26-2011, 06:02 PM

Have you tried stabalizing your head stock, like against a wall to see if it goes away or moves if so its a dead spot?

mpdd · #7 03-26-2011, 06:36 PM

now that you mention it while playing on the e string today my p pickup was vibrating?

gryhund666 · #8 03-26-2011, 07:22 PM

It's not fret buzz. Playing w/ the neck against the wall didn't change anything. Saddle springs seem OK. Tuners are tight. It's not a dead spot, the bass seems to resonate by the body. The neck is tight to the body. I've tried touching both pups while playing the D and the buzz is still there.Tomorrow I'll pull out my old mechanics stethoscope and try to find where the buzz is.
Thanks for the suggestions however.

gryhund666 · #9 03-29-2011, 05:36 PM

THE FIX!!!
I had a co worker (who is much more experienced w/ basses than I) look at it and he noticed the neck curve looked weird, not a uniform curve. He thought the 19th fret was too close to the string. Almost like a u shape rather than a slope. I could adjust the string height up but then was too high by the 12th fret area.

Anyhow the solution was to add a shim by the neck screws holding the neck to the body. Now I have proper truss adjustment, proper string height and no weird vibes. I suspect either the pocket on the body wasn't milled quite right or the neck did not bend uniformly when the truss was adjusted.
I think I'll go practice some more.