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Bad tone just on E string

I

Ironderby

Jul 16, 2011
235
0
East Midlands, UK.
#1
Ok so my G, D, and A string sound perfect, just how i want them.
Bright with a little bass for the underlying punch, my E string has a wet, warm cardboardy tone and not a bright punchy one like the other strings. I've tried pretty much every combination of Low's and Mid's, Bass, Treble and Tone, nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?:hmm:
 
#3
I had that problem recently with a bass that had been in storage for five years. Before playing it, I restrung it, and the E sounded dead. I read a bunch of TB threads, and they suggested such culprits as bridges, nuts, and twisted strings. In my case, it turned out to be as simple as a defective string.
 
#8
I had the same problem on 2 basses..both were high quality USA made stuff..both were used. I tried everything I knew how to try at the time and nothing made any difference. New pickups, new strings, pickup heights, saddle heights, nuts, preamps, tuners....you name it and I did it....except for one thing....truss rod. At that time I had never messed with a truss rod and even now that's the only other thing I can think of that I could have tried on those basses. It might just need a good setup. Other than that, I finally just decided that those basses just didn't have the right woods or something. It made me sad, but I had to sell them. They were nice, boutique stuff too...but I also figured that's why I got such a good price on them.
 
#10
my low strings always lose tone before the higher ones. check to be sure the pickup isnt closer to the e string than the others, too much magnetic pull from the pickups can dampen a strings tone. or you could try boiling that string in water to see if it brings that string back to life. boiling for 5 min cleans all between the windings and they sound almost new. (unless its a defective string)
 
#11
Boiling strings is a really bad idea. It might clean the funk off, but it removes some of the temper from the metal, which could result in further deadening or breakage problems.

Having said that, if you have "bad tone", a string change and setup comes first. You talked about the truss rod. Because a tighter truss rod not only straightens the neck, but stiffens it as well, it affects the tone. A flex-y neck won't support the very low frequencies very well.

I don't know what bass you bought, so I can't make a cursory evaluation, but some woods are just not conducive to producing the tone you are looking for. Or perhaps it's the pickups. Tough to say without evaluating the instrument ACOUSTICALLY first-hand.
 

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