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Meet Camille!

E

easyvision

Jul 9, 2006
199
1
39
Glasgow, Scotland
#1
So after a rather drunken night...I wake up to find a big box in my room. Turns out the Douglas 5 string I ordered from Rondo came today.

She is just lovely...my first fretless and I am in love with the sound. Only problem is that playing any note below around the 5th fret mark just rattles. The sound it makes is very similar to fret buzz...but more drastic. So unless anyone here can give me an idea of what to do about this I'll be taking it to a tech n getting her fixed.

Other than that though, I am extremely happy. It's just going to take a while to get used to not having frets. I know it'll improve my ear though, I'm already starting to notice more subtle differences between notes, something I wasn't able to do before.

Anyway, I know the rules...pics or it doesn't exist. Well here you go!
 

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#2
Rattle toward the nut usually means to straight of neck, or a nut cut to low. Try giving it a bit more relief via 1/4 turn backing off the truss rod and see if that helps.

Or, depending on your preferences on string height you could try raising the saddles on teh bridge a bit.

Or, lightening up your attack on the strings.
 
#3
stflbn said:
Rattle toward the nut usually means to straight of neck, or a nut cut to low. Try giving it a bit more relief via 1/4 turn backing off the truss rod and see if that helps.

Or, depending on your preferences on string height you could try raising the saddles on teh bridge a bit.

Or, lightening up your attack on the strings.
Click to expand...

I tried changing the way I was attacking the strings as well as fretting the notes, it just changed how the string rattled.

I'm not that comfortable doing a truss rod adjustment myself so if it comes to it I'll get a tech to do it. I'm taking it up to my friends house who knows his way around basses better than I do so I'll see what he says n go from there.

Thanks for the suggestions though:)
 
#4
Sounds like the neck needs a setup. If your friend isn't comfortable adjusting the truss rod, it would be well worth the price of a tech setup.

If you want to try one more thing yourself, try loosening the strings and raising the nut, either by slipping something under the nut, or something in the nut saddles, to raise the strings at that end.
 
#5
stflbn said:
Rattle toward the nut usually means to straight of neck, or a nut cut to low. Try giving it a bit more relief via 1/4 turn backing off the truss rod and see if that helps.

Or, depending on your preferences on string height you could try raising the saddles on teh bridge a bit.

Or, lightening up your attack on the strings.
Click to expand...

I had the exact same problem with my Squier fretless. I did exactly what was described above and that fixed it right up. Usually, small truss rod adjustments are quite easy and really nothing to worry about. It's a good thing to know about since weather changes can affect the neck and minor adjustments are fairly common to do.
 
#6
Generally, if your stings are buzzing when you're fretting any note, the problem is not with the nut. When your finger makes contact with the fret board, you're taking the nut out of the equation, so buzz when fretting a note at or below the 5th fret is almost always going to require adding relief to the neck (i.e., loosening the truss), especially on a fretless.

That's no guarantee that your nut is properly cut, however, it's more common for a new bass to come from the factory with the nut slotted too high than too low. Your tech should be able to do a quick measurement to ensure the slots are the correct height and are cut properly for the gauge strings currently on the bass.
 
#7
After taking it to my friend and having a closer look at the neck myself, we found out the cause of the rattle. The neck is slightly bowed backwards, mostly noticable around the 5th fret mark. I'd guess that this would just be due to all the temperature changes it went through coming from America to Scotland.

From what I've heard, adjusting the truss rod is as simple as loosening it(in my case) a 1/4 turn then leaving it to settle overnight. Is there anything more to it than that? Should I leave the strings on or take them off? I feel like keeping them on would be a good idea so the neck adjusts to the tension that it'll always be under.

Any help would be much appreciated and what you guys have given me so far has been great:)Thank you.
 
#12
The strings were slackened anyway, had to take the lil plastic cover that was hiding the truss rod off first. Hopefully that'll do it. How long should I leave it? Is there a rough number of hours that works best?

DaveF said:
So you ordered it while drunk and it showed up the next morning? Because that is AMAZING shipping!!! :eyebrow:
Click to expand...

Haha, na I ordered it on Monday. The bass arriving the day after the drunkeness was just the icing on the cake! Great night followed by a great morning haha.
 
#16
Ok awesome. It was untouched for well over 12 hours. When I woke up I gave it another adjustment, it was still rattling a little. Not nearly as bad as it was when I first got it so I know this is working, just need to keep adjusting it until it sorts itself out. I'll try it again later on tonight and see how it sounds.

Thanks again for all your help, it's much appreciated:)
 

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