Bass returning my voice when speaking

[Lau Rent]

If there is no foam under the pickup or the foam isn’t very stiff, you could try putting some foam under them. In the states I’d say go to the hardware store and get some weatherstripping foam. Not sure what you’d have that’s similar in Germany. Anything to help stop extraneous vibration in the pickup. That may or may not help, however. It’s a cheap DIY and worth a try but the ultimate answer might be to wax or epoxy pot the pickups or install new ones.

Thanks Matt for your support

I found another thread where It reads that the screws are actually creating the microphonic
I will try to do test with or without screw aw aw (sing it like U2 would) and will see next.

where I’m a bit annoyed is that the bass is brand new and I own it since less than a month ...

 

[Lau Rent]

If youre saying you hear it on all your basses there is something else going on.

Actually I’ve seen it caused by metal pickup springs too, the voice vibrates the string which is picked up by the pickup. If you have metal Springs can try replacing with surgical tubing. Unfortunately that might not fix it, but I’d start there since you have multiple instruments exhibiting this.

On my older bass it is so low that I never heard it in 20 years. To hear it I had to exaggerate my voice and putting my face very very close to the pickups

on the newer bass, 50 cm from the bass and I hear a low voice
20 cm distance and it’s noticeable
Meaning when I’m playing with a drummer my bass amp will return some drums sound
I contacted someone who has the same bass, if it’s a general matter for this model it might be ‘intentional’ and I could as well learn how to deal with it.
Let’s see

 

[Ric5]

Hello there,

I discovered an issue today, in the band room.
I was talking to the drummer, and I realized I heard my voice from another direction.

I suspected this to come from my bass pick up, so I started to speak directly in it. and the drummer told me he could hear my voice from the amp.
While plugging the bass to the recording device, from the jack output of the bass of course, I also could hear my voice saying "Test Test Test This is my voice which is not the bass but my voice through it if you can hear that on the record". Yes, I heard it on the record file 0.o

Why is that?
I tried other basses, it's the same but not as loud.
Can I get rid of this? I can also hear very loud any noise while touch the bass, such as my fingers on the volumes/sound settings knobs... It's annoying.

BH2 Bartolini with 3Band Eq and 3way MID switch made by Ibanez.
Thanks a lot for you help

EDIT: the other bass where its not that loud is DX5 with Ibanez 3band EQ from 2000 (produced in 1997 I believe)

Yep microphonic pickup … the pickup is acting like a microphone …

I modify a lot of pickups and it happened to me once where the pickup became microphonic

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

A lot of PUPs are micro-phonic. Some worse than others. I can even remember putting a set of headphones, playing a walkman player, onto a couple of basses, with the ear cups right over the pups on the strings. And playing the music from my amp, in order to re-listen to a song that was being worked on in a pinch.

 

[Mosfed]

Technically they are roughly the same price. $600 from 1997 is worth $955 from 2019

I love math

 

[Turnaround]

A lot of PUPs are micro-phonic. Some worse than others. I can even remember putting a set of headphones, playing a walkman player, onto a couple of basses, with the ear cups right over the pups on the strings. And playing the music from my amp, in order to re-listen to a song that was being worked on in a pinch.

THat's not a microphonic condition - the electrical impulses in the voice coils of the headphones are activating the magnetic field in the pickups. In a microphonic condition the coils of the pickup are vibrating from an outside mechanical force (vibrations in the air) and generating an internal signal. So a microphonic pickup will respond to your voice and to the electro-magnetic forces, but a non-microphonic pickup will not respond to you voice, but will still pick up electro-magnetic interference.

 

[Neon Scribe]

About ten years ago I had a G&L L-2000 that picked up the local NPR station. The transmitter is close and powerful, but somehow I didn't expect a magnetic instrument pickup to receive frequency modulated audio at 93.9 megahertz. It got louder or softer depending on what direction I was facing.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

That has to be an incredibly microphonic pickup to sense voice at normal speaking volumes. Are you sure it wasn’t a snare tuned around the same frequency as your voice?

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Your bass is possessed by evil demons! It could be dangerous. I suggest you send it to me for an exorcism.

 

[Lau Rent]

Your bass is possessed by evil demons! It could be dangerous. I suggest you send it to me for an exorcism.

well the voice out of it is mine
Meaning it’s possessed ... by me and will stay so

 

[Lau Rent]

That has to be an incredibly microphonic pickup to sense voice at normal speaking volumes. Are you sure it wasn’t a snare tuned around the same frequency as your voice?

I can’t be sure of that, but I know my voice reflected in the bass amp got louder when I spoke while holding the bass like Hendrix was holding his guitar

only the hands were reversed and ... sadly ... only one person watching me

 

[Lau Rent]

Some news about the topic:

today I made some recording with the same gear on garage band but this time on my iMac instead of iPhone.
Now the voice is much less to hear and other noises are not reflected, unless there’s a contact with the bass, I’ll explain:
My right hand fingers tapping the bass body or tip of knobs while blocking the strings with the left arm and hand
-> I hear the knock knock

Left arm and hand stay there and I tap the desk in front of me
-> I don’t hear any knock knock

I realized using the effect noise gate on GB will cancel any “microphonic” effect.

next step will be without the screws on the pickups.
But for now I’m skeptical on the fact that this is a “real microphonic” effect. But would rather say that, maybe, the empty part of the body is wrongly acoustic insulated and causes some vibration of the down part of the pick ups, that would then ignite the microphonic effect.
I will try the screws thingy first cuz it’s easier
Then I’ll see if maybe using some noise reduction foam, like that used on the walls of the band room, will help.
I’ll keep you ... posted

 

[Humbled]

I ran across a Whirlwind Imp 2 (cheap DI) once that was microphonic. Surprised me enough to remember it. I don't know if all Imp 2s are microphonic though.

 

[StatesideRambler]

About ten years ago I had a G&L L-2000 that picked up the local NPR station. The transmitter is close and powerful, but somehow I didn't expect a magnetic instrument pickup to receive frequency modulated audio at 93.9 megahertz. It got louder or softer depending on what direction I was facing.

Years ago I lived near a broadcast antenna field and the old gas stove in the house next door played that radio station about half the time. I don’t think they turned the stove around to see if it helped.