• 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.

Do Basses Chirp?

S

sulu

Aug 20, 2008
54
0
#1
OK, new to bass - working on my seventh day as a bass player - and I just bought a new Fender Rumble 60 watt. Playing it moderately loud and I hear chirping, like insects, as the note fades. I plugged my bass into a smaller amp and the chirping is there again but very faint.

Do I have bad amps?
Do basses create some frequency that is doing this to my ears?
Is it just the acoustics of the room creating this?

Thanks for any answers.
 
#6
Do you have another instrument cable? It would be a good idea to see if the problem goes away with a new cable. It's always good to have at least one spare cable anyway, so it would be a good investment. Ask for good quality cable, such as Monster Cable. They guarantee their cables and will replace one if it becomes defective.

Regards, Joel :)
 
#7
Don't worry man.

Some part of your gear... be it your bass, your cable, your amp... it could be any of the above... is picking up wireless signals. I'm guessing you have a cell phone on you while you're playing? Try turning it off. If that doesn't help, maybe someone in another room has a cell phone, or maybe you've got a radio playing. My sound system used to pick up my cell's signal because I used crappy, thin-gauge speaker wire. I switched to some good heavy duty stuff and it stopped. Make sure your bass is properly shielded and grounded, and make sure you're using a quality cable.
 
#9
It's not feedback.

Darkstrike said:
Does it only happen on certain notes?
Click to expand...
Yes! A at the twelfth fret and then an A on the D string 7th fret produce this strange after-something.
Other high notes produce residual frequencies, but those high As really get in my head.

Can it be the amp not handling these particualar frequencies or is it my ears picking up something that it is not used to -- I've never played bass and certainly not through a 60 watt amp.
 
#10
JEBassman said:
Do you have another instrument cable? It would be a good idea to see if the problem goes away with a new cable. It's always good to have at least one spare cable anyway, so it would be a good investment. Ask for good quality cable, such as Monster Cable. They guarantee their cables and will replace one if it becomes defective.

Regards, Joel :)
Click to expand...

Yeah,can't go wrong with Monster.I got two replacements for free already.(Don't worry,it was my fault when they broke.)
 
#13
sulu said:
It's not feedback.


Yes! A at the twelfth fret and then an A on the D string 7th fret produce this strange after-something.
Other high notes produce residual frequencies, but those high As really get in my head.

Can it be the amp not handling these particualar frequencies or is it my ears picking up something that it is not used to -- I've never played bass and certainly not through a 60 watt amp.
Click to expand...

given that youve said 7th and 12th, im going to go ahead here and say harmonics.

edit: i should add to this.
those are the easiest harmonics to produce because they are at equal divisions of the string.
this, coupled with the sympathetic vibrations of other strings, slightly out of tune would create beating frequencies.
Basically because they are just out of tune, they go in and out of phase. so they make a chirping kind of sound.
 
#14
Sulu, you said you were new to playing bass, I don't know if you play any other instruments besides bass. Could your problem be what most of us call string buzz, or fret buzz,rattle etc, and ' chirping' is the term you came up with to best describe your problem? Without being able to play your bass and amp, I advise that it may just be a set up issue where your bass may need a minor truss rod tweak for proper relief along with some possible minor bridge adjustments. If it's not that, there could be something else on your bass that is putting up a sympathetic ring on certain frequencies and over the course of my close to 40 years of playing experience I've seen some strange things happen with instruments, but most problems end up being simple to fix more often than not.
 
#16
No, not string buzz at all.

It is just the high A notes. The low A on the E string is fine. I looked around and am learning a new term - "resonant frequency." Whatever this high A puts out, it creates this weird sound from the amp that gets in my head . I hear it too when I play my bass through a smaller amp; obviously it's more pronounced when I turn up the 60 watt amp. I seem to lessen it by tuning down my high and low mid dials on the EQ,

I tuned up properly and that seemed to help. I think part of it is coming from sympathetic vibrations. But who knows? It really is just the high A notes that the sound comes from.

Thanks all again.
 
#17
EagleMoon said:
It might be interference from something. TV, computer, CB radio. Or it could be your cable, your pickups or your amp. Hard to tell for sure.

EDIT: ^^^ Great minds think alike. :D
Click to expand...
yeah, my amp picks up my wireless computer frequencies sometimes. It used to be worse when I had the amp near the wireless set up thing and when I moved it to the other side of the room, it isn't that bad..does it every now and then.
Then again, maybe you have bees in your cab?? lol, thinking of the bee story...:hiding:
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back