bridge and nut slots causing and loud buzz?
 

I took some very good advice about strings which I'm very happy about. The problem that I'm having is that my silver slaps are a much smaller gauge than my previous weed wackers which is what my bass is setup for. So being a newbie to this and liable to make newbie mistakes I was hoping for some advice. There is a little room for play in the nut and bridge slots, is this the main reason why I'm getting such an atrocious buzz out if my e, a, and d strings? My g is fine, but its the other 3. I've adjusted the bridge slowly higher and lower to try and get rid of the buzz but no such luck. What can I do?

Greatly appreciated,
Benny

Try making small shims out of pieces of matchbook cover and placing them in the nut slots under the strings. If this makes the buzz go away, your nut slots were cut too low. You can make a more permanent fix by placing a drop of superglue in each nut slot. It's a common guitar repair, but not exactly a legit repair in the doublebass world.

If cheating the nut slots higher doesn't fix the problem, it could be a technique issue or your fingerboard could have inadequate camber. A luthier can fix that for a few hundred bucks, but go to a bass luthier or a good violin shop, not Joe Bob's Geetar Fix-It.