• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

AEB dispair...

Jeff Huber

Jeff Huber

Oct 15, 2010
88
2
#1
I've had my Fender Victor Bailey AEB for nine months now. I've tried four different types of strings: Fender and DR phosphor, TI flats and Labella tapes. I've brought the string height up and down and up and down and up and down. I've tweaked the truss rod until i think I'll need a truss. I've tried different pre-amp and amp settings, different amps, you name it.

The Labella tapes have been by far the best strings. But no matter what else I do, I cannot get the rattle and buzz down to what I consider an acceptable level, not unless I play so carefully that I can't get any faster than quarter-note speed, and even then I'll pop a twanger if I have to reach a long way for a pinky note.

Is this just how it goes with AEBs? Am I expecting too much to imagine I should be able to play it the way I play my Js and not get big noise from the fingerboard?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Jeff

PS, Yeah, it's spelled "despair." Sorry. (Heh.)
 
#2
If neck relief is set properly (and string height) and you still have fret (or fretless) string buzz, it may be a hump in the fretboard. It happens.

I have a G&L fretless that I wrestled with for a while, buzz and dead spots, and the guitar shop up the street leveled the fretboard. All better.

Humps can happen on fretted basses too. Even a millimeter can be hard to see but sound icky.

My Fender acoustic electric is a little buzzy too. It forces me to fret quieter.
 
#3
Jeff Huber said:
I've had my Fender Victor Bailey AEB for nine months now. I've tried four different types of strings: Fender and DR phosphor, TI flats and Labella tapes. I've brought the string height up and down and up and down and up and down. I've tweaked the truss rod until i think I'll need a truss. I've tried different pre-amp and amp settings, different amps, you name it.

The Labella tapes have been by far the best strings. But no matter what else I do, I cannot get the rattle and buzz down to what I consider an acceptable level, not unless I play so carefully that I can't get any faster than quarter-note speed, and even then I'll pop a twanger if I have to reach a long way for a pinky note.

Is this just how it goes with AEBs? Am I expecting too much to imagine I should be able to play it the way I play my Js and not get big noise from the fingerboard?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Jeff
Click to expand...

I have limited playing time on AEBs, but this has also been my experience. To be fair, I had been using a borrowed Ibanez so I didn't do much in the way of tracking down the buzz, but it was pretty much as you described - carefully played, it was fine, but otherwise, it was rattle city.
 
#4
Immigrant,

Thanks for the info. I hadn't heard about humps in the fretboard. I'll research that some more. Thanks for relaying your buzzy experience with your Fender AE. If you get a chance, can you tell us which model it is? I test played a Kingman a while back and thought it was extremely buzzy, far more than the Bailey I also test played at the time.

And thanks to you too, Ghostdog, for the info vis-a-vis your buzzing problems.

I sat in for a couple numbers over the weekend with an acoustic blues combo. The bass player reports he had not problems with his AE (sorry, I forget the make and model), but he keeps his strings in what to me seem like an inordinately setting, so high that I suspect I'd starting having major joint pain problems if I set my strings like that.
 
#5
It's a Fender EB-32. I picked it up on eBay for the cost of the case it came in. It's a short scale, which I've hardly ever seen. It's my first acoustic/electric.

When I got it, it was clanky- like a tick that I thought was possibly electrical every note I played. The repair shop replaced the nut and saddle (it had an acoustic guitar saddle on it) and I had them restring it and set it up.

They recommended Bronze Phosforous (sp?) strings which they didn't have in short scale, so I opted for D'Addario EXL. The tick is still there, moreso when I play through my SVT than through my little Peavey practice amp.

The tick uncovers the fact my technique needs an adjustment.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back