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Bass string rattle/distortion

G

gabezylo

Mar 16, 2010
99
3
#1
Hi everyone, my bass is a Schack unique 5 fretless and until recently it has been perfect.
Suddenly, my E and A strings began rattling, and making this awful distortion sound even when not plugged it. It sounds horrible. I tried changing the strings, batteries, and got the neck adjusted, but the problem persists. I am wondering if it could be the electronics? I have a pair of bartolini jazz pups in there.. I don't know what it could be.
Thanks,
Gabe
 
#5
How would I adjust the pot? That's part of the preamp right? Sorry for the noob q. Nothing seems to be loose, my neck pickup however could be screwed in more. Should I try screwing it as tight as I can? Also, my low b, d, and g strings are not affected.
 
#8
Could be rod, but check your tuning keys, too. If you have Fender-style elephant ears, it's possible the paddle could break free of its brazing and rattle on the shaft. It happened to me about 20 years ago and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. I ended up solving the problem with packing tape ;)
 
#9
I had this happen to me on my fender jazz. Right after I changed strings. What I found was I had cut my e and a strings too short. What this did was result in the strings parallel to the headstock from the nut to the tuner. I figured it out by applying pressure to the string above the nut during the rattle. It would go away. It didn't happen on the d and g because of the little angle thing that's there.

My fix, leave the strings longer and loop them under the initial 'hook' into the tuner. This gave it a large down angle and the buzz went away.
 
#10
TinyE said:
I had this happen to me on my fender jazz. Right after I changed strings. What I found was I had cut my e and a strings too short. What this did was result in the strings parallel to the headstock from the nut to the tuner. I figured it out by applying pressure to the string above the nut during the rattle. It would go away. It didn't happen on the d and g because of the little angle thing that's there.

My fix, leave the strings longer and loop them under the initial 'hook' into the tuner. This gave it a large down angle and the buzz went away.
Click to expand...

I had this happened to me too, made me nuts till I replaced the string!
 
#11
gurensan said:
Could be rod, but check your tuning keys, too. If you have Fender-style elephant ears, it's possible the paddle could break free of its brazing and rattle on the shaft. It happened to me about 20 years ago and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. I ended up solving the problem with packing tape ;)
Click to expand...

Had this happen to me... found a TB forum fix was a tiny amount/blob of super glue in the join where the key and shaft meet... it worked very well, although I got a replacement tuner for piece of mind...
 
#12
Ahh, I don't have fender jazz style tuners, and the strings weren't cut too short.
Anyway, thanks for all your quick replies, I'll play around with it first before I bring it to a technician.
Thanks again.
 
#13
Did this noise start happening right after getting the bass set up?

If so, was the relief / action lowered?

Does the noise happen on only open E & A strings, or all up and down the neck on those strings?

Can you take pictures of the headstock (from tip to nut), and also the bridge (looking from over the pickups towards the saddles), so we can see how the saddles sit?
 
#14
Check to see if your strings are rattling BEHIND the fretted note (between the nut and the fret) Since you just had your truss rod adjusted, the strings could be rattling against the frets in that area. This would be minimal through the pickups though. Do you ONLY hear this when amplified? Could also be saddles, nut, and a few other things. Let me know first, if this happens amplified and un-amplified.
 

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