Scratchy E String

[RobbieBass]

Hey Everyone,

I play German and French Bow. I have had two sets of strings, and no matter what I do, my E String sounds like %$^ until I get it going. It sounds very airy and scratchy. It requires a lot of pressure to start, and the first half a second of starting is an awful sound. My bow has plenty of rosin. I have tried little to a lot of rosin. I clean the strings regularly with a cotton cloth and sometimes ethanol, but it continues to sound awful. I would LOVE any suggestions. A D and G strings are fine however...

[Andrew McGregor]

That could be a technique issue, or it could be that there's a sharp edge on the bridge or nut touching the string, or the nut could be too high, or the soundpost could be wrong... take the problem to a teacher first, to check the technique, and then take the bass to a luthier and get them to debug the problem.