Fret clank

[Cowboy in Latvia]

I spent a couple of months refining my left hand technique to minimize fret clank. I think the sound is truly unpleasant unless it is a stylistic feature of the music. So, I work to avoid it but realize that it happens sometimes whether I want it to or not. I don't stress over it anymore but that could be because its mostly under control.

Another part of fret clank I find to be EQ. I can be as clean as possible with my playing but if the EQ is way to treble-heavy, I will get more clank than I care to accept.

YMMV, IMHO and all those letters.

 

[callofcthulhu]

There's no option for wishing you had more clank....

 

[basslicks]

Depends on the bass. With my P-bass strung with flats I want absolutely 0 buzz, but on my J-bass geared for rocking and rolling, bring it on!

 

[Flatwoundround]

Yes. Ignore it. String noise is inevitable at times. Even the best players have it. It always sounds great to me...it's what makes it sound like a bass instead of samples. About the only thing I can think of to minimize it is to not do slides.

Or you can try Flatwounds and problem solved.

Yes, I heard Jeff Berlin playing on youtube and I heard the string scratchy noise sound since he uses rounds. My wife used to tell me it sounded like nails on the chalkboard when I played roundwounds. Switched over to Flats and love it now.

However, my wife forbids me to play slapbass in the house as she says it gives her a headache! She even heard Wooten doing it and did not like it. Good thing the funk band I just joined plays almost all songs that did not have slap in them.

 

[JimmyM]

Wow, you must totally love your wife. I wouldn't last 5 minutes with a girl who said that to me!

 

[Flatwoundround]

Wow, you must totally love your wife. I wouldn't last 5 minutes with a girl who said that to me!

The good news is that she loves funk and R&B without any slap bass going on and so do I. But I have to admit she has definitely brainwashed me not to like slap bass anymore. But I think slap sounds great when people are really good at it. There is this girl they interviewed on the bassmint in detroit that sounds amazing as she sings melodies and plays slap and it sounds wonderful. I think her name is Judia or something like that, I think she is from the Netherlands.

 

[JimmyM]

Lydia. She IS really good. She got a gig playing with sax legend Candy Dulfer out of those vids.

 

[Flatwoundround]

Lydia. She IS really good. She got a gig playing with sax legend Candy Dulfer out of those vids.

When I heard her playing on that video (I was not watching it but just listening to it) I thought she was playing with a drum machine but she was just making that nice sounding rhythmic noise by ghosting/tapping the dead notes in between the groove. So she was singing beautifully and had a nice bass groove and filled it out percussively it sounded fantastic.

 

[pintspiller]

The clank gets me down sometimes. It doesn't seem to happen when I use a plectrum, so I assume I just dig in too much when I use fingers. Sometimes you can hear a tapping when I tough the pickup.

I have arthritis and carpal tunnel so I can't play with a plectrum for long periods. Sometimes I'll switch to using fingers during a song.

I remember playing a gig where the sound guy got me to unplug from my amp and DI straight into the PA. He never clarified if that stopped the noises irritating him or not (I was using a valve Sound City bass head into a Hartke aluminium-speakers 4x10).

I've changed pickups a couple of times thinking they may have been the cause (musicians typically thinking buying/modifying gear would solve problems), but now thinking fret material or size (mine appear low and flat) or possibly fingerboard material (maple on my VM Jazz and my modified Westfield P).

 

[chris_b]

I have arthritis and carpal tunnel so I can't play with a plectrum for long periods. Sometimes I'll switch to using fingers during a song.

With these issues I'd be stroking the strings as lightly as I could. I imagine digging in would be the worst technique.

My hands can get tired after a long gig, so I'm playing lighter. It makes me feel better afterwards, gives me more control and just makes playing easier.

 

[MaidenVT]

I been using it as a dynamic when I want to express certain bass lines especially when I get aggressive but try not to over do it.

 

[Watchootognbout]

When tapping on my N/S Stick,I expect it.
When playing my fretted BTB,I could go either way depending on my plucking angle.
When playing my TWB fretless.................