I would look at the nut. It's not uncommon on factory basses to have the string slots left a little too high.
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Mwah-ha-ha . . .
- Thread starter Lujon
- Start date
You can also coat the fingerboard with a few coats of Tru-Oil gunstock oil. The harder surface will help to bring out the buzz. Some kid named Jaco coated his fretboard with epoxy and it worked out pretty well for him.
Rick B.
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I've noticed that much of the bloom sound comes in the higher frequencies, try bridge pickup and with the tone control wide open (for passive, emphasize highs on active). Make sure nothing is filtering the highs down the signal chain.
Well that’s one solution…
According to the Wood Database, rosewood is harder than pau ferro:
Pau Ferro | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood) (wood-database.com)
East Indian Rosewood | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood) (wood-database.com)
Brazilian Rosewood | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood) (wood-database.com)
I like "mwah". Perfectly descriptive word.
I have a Rondo SX fretless PJ, I put a phase switch on the bridge pickup. Messing with phase and relative volume of the J (bridge) pickup seems to accentuate mwah. I'm still not in tune, though.
I get more “bloom” when I pluck closer to the neck. I think causes a larger wave in the string that interacts more with the fingerboard and makes more mw...a -bloom.I think "bloom" is broadly accepted
Sorry bout your bass. Not sure what to say, but that i concur the effect it's typically more pronounced higher on the neck, and i think I've generally developed my technique to get more or less of it as desired. I don't think about it, so i couldn't tell you how to do it!
Very low action, fresh round strings and ideally a hard or even a finished fingerboard would give you mwah.
The old strings might be dampening things a bit. Lighter gauge should give more mwah/bloom as they will have less tension and vibrate against the board more.
I really, really don't like playing rounds so some black tapewound strings ended up giving me the sound I was looking for on my jazz fretless. Bridge pickup on full, tone on around 20%, maybe a little of the neck pickup if I want more bottom end and.......
playing near the fingerboard if I want more mwah/bloom and a bit more upright-like sound.
It's still possible that if your board is pretty soft that you'll not achieve the sound you're looking for though. My epoxied board made a BIG difference.
Agree with Erik. Bare rosewood will give very little muah if any at all. Round wounds and a very flat fingerboard will add a little bit, but not much.
The muah is created by the part of the string under finger that’s not firmly pressed scratching against the surface. Whatever is noisiest, like ebony or hard plastic like epoxy or cyanoacrylate glue, etc, will give the most muah.
that said my Jaco jazz has a very hard poly finish on it but it hardly muahs at all, even with fresh rounds. My Tony Franklin, OTOH, is so whiny it’s almost objectionable with new strings. But as hard as the ebony is it’s not as hard as the finish on the Jaco. Go figure.
L
The muah is created by the part of the string under finger that’s not firmly pressed scratching against the surface. Whatever is noisiest, like ebony or hard plastic like epoxy or cyanoacrylate glue, etc, will give the most muah.
that said my Jaco jazz has a very hard poly finish on it but it hardly muahs at all, even with fresh rounds. My Tony Franklin, OTOH, is so whiny it’s almost objectionable with new strings. But as hard as the ebony is it’s not as hard as the finish on the Jaco. Go figure.
L
JeezyMcNuggles
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I get mwah on my ebony fingerboard fretless with flats. But only if I have the action low. So low that the strings are starting to buzz just a tiny bit against the fingerboard when a not is fingered.
Raise action just a bit and the mwah is gone.
Yrs ago when I had a Fender Jazz fretless with rosewood and rounds that thing had mwah for days. Same for my GWB35 fretless with the hard ebonol fingerboard and rounds. And no, I didn't have to slide the note. Just stop (finger) it somewhat gently and pluck closer to the neck.
Before that I had a fretless with ebony and rounds and didn't get much mwah at all.
The difference was ALWAYS in the setup. Lower the action until it just starts buzzing.
Raise action just a bit and the mwah is gone.
Yrs ago when I had a Fender Jazz fretless with rosewood and rounds that thing had mwah for days. Same for my GWB35 fretless with the hard ebonol fingerboard and rounds. And no, I didn't have to slide the note. Just stop (finger) it somewhat gently and pluck closer to the neck.
Before that I had a fretless with ebony and rounds and didn't get much mwah at all.
The difference was ALWAYS in the setup. Lower the action until it just starts buzzing.
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My maple neck fretless has mwah to spare. I use LaBella flats but I've used others. Do you practice vibrato?
Observations and thoughts:
Onomatopoeia. Words that when spoken sound like particular non-linguistic sounds or environmental sounds. Mwah is legit like boom and ka-pow. It's an accurately real enough word that yes, sounds a lot like a fretless bass can sound. Call it whatever else you want, that's fine, but nothing changes it.
Also note that the extended long version Mwwaaaaaahhhh itself implies a change is happening over time. The sound it describes is not something constant. And it's more than an ADSR envelope for volume, it's more like one for timbre.
Listen to the word (or the sound, either way,) it sounds like the lows are emphasized at first, and then the high mids become more predominant before the note fades out sweetly. That is Mwah, right?
Let's look at a couple of things:
A fretless bass makes a subtly unique sound when individual notes are played because of there not being a definite sharp point that the string vibrates from like sitting on a fret. There's always a hard contact point that doesn't move, but there's also a short length that vibrates against both the hard fretboard and the soft finger. I don't know the mechanics, but; perhaps an initial emphasis and then muting by the finger of longer, lower harmonics by, followed by the sound of higher frequencies 'sizzling' on the fretboard, and tapering off as that energy is lost? Or by some other method.
A fretless bass can ALSO make a modified or at least related version of that sound when moving from one place to another while sliding, as the change is linear (actually movement starts, accelerates, decelerates and stops) vs going discreetly from one frequency to the next on an fretted board. The sliding changes the length of active string, accelerating or decelerating the vibration rate of the string when moving, and changing the magnitude (volume) by adding to or removing energy from the string. Maybe the Mwaaa when moving (movement induced?), and the ah when stopped? Or at least something akin to that, anyway, that doesn't seem exactly right.
Anyway, I see some people posting here about both how to emphasize the sound of playing notes to get a mwah; and others are mentioning the mwah effect as being when sliding from one note to another. Two different but directly related things, methinks.
Or I'm just babbling again, it happens.
Onomatopoeia. Words that when spoken sound like particular non-linguistic sounds or environmental sounds. Mwah is legit like boom and ka-pow. It's an accurately real enough word that yes, sounds a lot like a fretless bass can sound. Call it whatever else you want, that's fine, but nothing changes it.
Also note that the extended long version Mwwaaaaaahhhh itself implies a change is happening over time. The sound it describes is not something constant. And it's more than an ADSR envelope for volume, it's more like one for timbre.
Listen to the word (or the sound, either way,) it sounds like the lows are emphasized at first, and then the high mids become more predominant before the note fades out sweetly. That is Mwah, right?
Let's look at a couple of things:
A fretless bass makes a subtly unique sound when individual notes are played because of there not being a definite sharp point that the string vibrates from like sitting on a fret. There's always a hard contact point that doesn't move, but there's also a short length that vibrates against both the hard fretboard and the soft finger. I don't know the mechanics, but; perhaps an initial emphasis and then muting by the finger of longer, lower harmonics by, followed by the sound of higher frequencies 'sizzling' on the fretboard, and tapering off as that energy is lost? Or by some other method.
A fretless bass can ALSO make a modified or at least related version of that sound when moving from one place to another while sliding, as the change is linear (actually movement starts, accelerates, decelerates and stops) vs going discreetly from one frequency to the next on an fretted board. The sliding changes the length of active string, accelerating or decelerating the vibration rate of the string when moving, and changing the magnitude (volume) by adding to or removing energy from the string. Maybe the Mwaaa when moving (movement induced?), and the ah when stopped? Or at least something akin to that, anyway, that doesn't seem exactly right.
Anyway, I see some people posting here about both how to emphasize the sound of playing notes to get a mwah; and others are mentioning the mwah effect as being when sliding from one note to another. Two different but directly related things, methinks.
Or I'm just babbling again, it happens.
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