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B-string and upper register playing

Santraginus

Santraginus

Apr 24, 2005
253
27
56
Frankfurt, Germany
#1
I own a Yamaha TRB and absolutely love the sound of its B-string... as long at I play the lower registers. Above the 12th fret, the sound changes. And not for the best.
I checked different pickup heights just to make sure that my bass does not suffer stratitis... The strange sound is not caused by wolf notes due to the pickup's magnetic pull.
Maybe it is just how string physics work - thick string, small string lenght and comparatively large stiffness and mass will of course change the tonal characteristics...
So, who of you out there uses the B-string for playing upper register stuff - above the 12th fret? I wonder if it is useable at all...:confused:
 
#2
Nature of the beast generally. On most 4string basses you will notice a major color change just playing the E-string above the 12th fret. B-strings are meant primarily to extend the lower range of the bass and perhaps are useful in the 7th to 9th to reduce hand shifting.
 
#5
Thanks for your answers!

Yep, I guess there's really no money up there - :smug:
but since I won't get any money for my playing anyway, I may be allowed to play up there from time to time (and: no, that ain't the reason for the lack of pay... I'm just a hobbyist and always will be).

In the meantime I went to a guitar store, picked up a couple of basses and tried their b-strings above the 12th frets.

I'm a lefty, so I'm somewhat hesitant to take a "normal" bass in my hands - but, well, who cares if I look like a complete moron, without being able to even play a proper scale. I just plucked a few notes from 12th to 20th frets. And voila: same not so nice sound that proves that you're right about the strange sound being a matter of physics...

Anyway - it would still be nice to play a bass whose strings sound nice and even all along as well as across the neck, right?

Thanks again for your answers!
 
#7
You're lucky it plays well to the 12th, most fall apart past the 5th fret. Its odd to me since I've had quite a few 4 strings that played well all the way up to the 20th/21st on the E, but there is something about that big string that keeps it from working. I've only had 3 or 4 5ers (of more than a dozen) that held it together to the 12th fret on the B. Sadowsky, Modulus, Lakland, Pedulla ... and then usually only with the right string set on them!
 
#8
I wander around up there all of the time ... ;)

I have only experienced a minimal loss of tonal quality on the B above the 12th, and frankly, in live gig situations it's not noticeable at all to me. Studio work is a different story, things get way too muddy up high when isolated and I find that I have to back down away from anything higher than the 12th.

I know, the money is in the first 5 frets, only a lazy bassist plays across the neck instead of up and down it, why don't I just get a guitar if I want to be in that range, blah, blah, blah ... :rolleyes: But in the course of my playing, most of the time I'm between the 7th and 12th frets.

Like I said, in a live setting it's usually manageable, but in the studio, well, not so cool. I seem to have less of a problem with 12th & up tonal breakdown when using neck-throughs as compared to bolt-ons, I seriously doubt there is any real fact to support this, but it has been my experience that neck-throughs give me a cleaner upper fret tone.
 
#9
One thing that I have found is that when I play up on the neck, I've got to mute the section of string between the note I am playing and the nut. This is especially true at the 11th and 13th fret, where the "ghost" note is close to, but not, the note I am playing.
 
#10
Scottgun said:
Nature of the beast generally. On most 4string basses you will notice a major color change just playing the E-string above the 12th fret. B-strings are meant primarily to extend the lower range of the bass and perhaps are useful in the 7th to 9th to reduce hand shifting.
Click to expand...
+1

If I'm really careful with intonation then I can get decent tone up to the 12th fret on my B strings... it's hard for me to play above 12th on the B string anyway, because I have smallish hands. But in general 7th to 9th fret is about tops.

P.S. IME, tapered B strings intonate better than non-tapered.
 
#12
ggunn said:
One thing that I have found is that when I play up on the neck, I've got to mute the section of string between the note I am playing and the nut. This is especially true at the 11th and 13th fret, where the "ghost" note is close to, but not, the note I am playing.
Click to expand...

only you hear that sound, it wont get to the pickups, i think.

Fuzzbass said:
P.S. IME, tapered B strings intonate better than non-tapered.
Click to expand...

ive found the opposite to be true.

generally tho, you have all that notes on the E string (and the A string, if youre playing past the 11th). you can use them. i play past the 12th fret on low strings just to get a different sound (no choice on my C string, of course.)
 
#13
Scottgun said:
Nature of the beast generally. On most 4string basses you will notice a major color change just playing the E-string above the 12th fret. B-strings are meant primarily to extend the lower range of the bass and perhaps are useful in the 7th to 9th to reduce hand shifting.
Click to expand...

Big +1.

I have had many top-notch 5-strings, and I had the same experience with all of them (Sadowsky 5-24, MTD 535, Yamaha TRB, Smith, etc.) So it's really the nature of the beast.

A nice way to make that area workable is palm-muting and playing with thumb downstrokes, for a super fat tone with plenty of fundamentals. Works well for Latin and reggae.
 
#15
After reading your posts and some thinking, I came to the opinion that the problem may be mainly caused by string physics. String lenght, mass, and material properties may be the key factors.

It's funny, anyway: Many discussions about the qualities of B-strings, definition of tone, clearliness - and most people stating that it's not all about the five more notes, but the ease of getting a grip on two octaves. So upper register playability should be of some interest, right?

So there may be an interesting poll on B-string-qualities: asking for limits regarding upper register playing... What do you think?

Yep, I know... no (or little) money up there...
 
#18
With the right B string (I often put Labella .128T with various sets) I play up into the 19th fret or beyond on the B string on my Five. On my Six it's kind of a reach though...

People often blame the string for something that's called "strat-itis" in guitar circles. That's where the neck pickup is close enough to cause overtones outside the harmonic series because it's acting as a false vibrational node on the string; the magnets simply pull that large B-string mass hard enough over the pickup to not allow it to divide into the normal harmonic sections.

This can even affect other strings as you go up the neck if the pickup is close enough and the magnetic field is strong enough.
 

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