SX J Bass Pup Question

Rick Martin · #1 02-12-2009, 09:52 AM

I have an SX Jazz Bass that looks, feels and plays just great, but I am having trouble with the sound. I get too much string hitting fret type clicking noise unless I turn the tone knob all the way down and turn the treble down on my amp.
Some of this is probably poor technique on my part, as I've had this issue to some extent on all of my basses. I use the Fender nylon tape wound strings which helps a lot and I keep the tone knob all the way down, but my sound is kind of muddy. I'd like to put round wounds back on this bass.
Any suggestions to eliminate all that finger string fret noise?

troyus · #2 02-12-2009, 11:00 AM

That's technique more than anything, do you play with a pick? A lot of guys who do tend to strum the bass and it makes a lot of racket, less movement of the entire are/more control will help alot. Failing that, move to flatwound strings, also bring the pickups farther into the bass so they are less sensitive, and maybe bring your action up as a last resort...

Rick Martin · #3 02-12-2009, 08:33 PM

I play with my fingers and the noise comes from fretting. Open strings sound OK. I lowered the pups and that helped quite a bit. I use the Fender nylon tapewound strings.

troyus · #4 02-12-2009, 11:15 PM

SX basses dont have the best fretjobs obviously... you may want to raise action. Supposedly that was one of Jamersons things to get a really nice, blooming tone.

Also are you massaging the volume knobs for your tone as well? Pretty essential with the J bass setup... If you dial in the neck to '10' and the bridge to '9.5' you will get a fatter tone, but still "J" bassy.

htharp · #5 02-13-2009, 04:33 AM

On one of my old Jazz basses I had a lot of these noises. When working on the bass one time I put foam spacers under the pickups for adjustment purposes. A byproduct of that was greatly reduced "clank" it seemed. I never thought about why it happened, but it worked for me.

MichaelVee · #6 02-13-2009, 04:51 AM

Part of that is the SX Jazz pickup itself. To a lot of people, judging from recent posts, the pickups sound great. However, they are pretty 'live' sounding and are sensitive in the frequencies where fret clank is prominent.

Check your frets and get the high ones leveled off, raise your action a bit, and if your amp has the right kind of EQ, cut in the area of 800K-1.5K.

LoveThatBass · #7 02-21-2009, 10:54 PM

I had that problem. I changed the pickups to Seymour Duncan's. Problem 70% better. As technic improved it is now about 95% better.
DR HighBeams Rounds helped too. Not as much clack as some rounds I have tried.
I use Stainless version. The way they have the sharp edges smoothed on the wrapping is a significant reason they do not eat frets like Roto Stainless and they are quieter. The Nickel have even less noise issues.