Double Bass Over-resonate G string: over-resonate A string.

[Jerry Dee]

I have a Juzek from the 1930's. I had a buzz at the C on my G string. My luthier shaved and shaved the fingerboard, but could not fix the buzz no matter how much scoop he gave it. Eventually, after hours in the shop and him shaving the fingerboard over and over, my bass took on a whole new horrible sound. It seems like the G string is very loud and over-resonate, and the A string over-resonates and sounds whenever I pluck hard at the A on the G string as well as other places. If my A on the G string is slightly out of tune, the out-of-sequence phase(?) is extremely loud and creates what I would call a horrible thunderous wolf-tone. My luthier thought it was being caused by the way he carved-out the fingerboard scoop, that the loss of mass on the fingerboard changed the overall tone of the bass. So he replaced the fingerboard, but the problem is still here. It's horrible. There are no noticeable signs of anything wrong on the outside. My bass is completely changed. I'm not even sure if its a wolf-tone because when I use my bow is seems fine. When I pluck the G string it creates thunderously loud overtones and sympathetic vibrations, most noticeably on the A string. Please help.

 

[bigolbassguy]

Did your luthier remove the strings to do the original fingerboard work when trying to fix the buzz?

 

[Jerry Dee]

He didn't completely remove the strings, he just loosened them and moved them out of the way.

 

[forester]

you have a new FB and the buzzzzz is gone ,i'd look elsewhere...starting with the soundpost.

 

[360guy]

I would also try switching out some or all of the strings. Start with some simple things first.

 

[bigolbassguy]

My first thought was that the soundpost probably moved while the strings were loose. It's worth having it checked out by your luthier. When the fingerboard was replaced it's very likely some repositioning of the post had to be done.

 

[William Hoffman]

what about the bridge centering? if the bridge is off center toward the G side, the E string can't drive the bass bar and you get an imbalanced sound, like a louder G string. a difference of millimeters can matter. also, if you have adjusters on the bridge and one side is higher (set too high or even cut too high) than the other, same thing can result.

 

[Jerry Dee]

thank you all for replying.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

I experienced this effect when playing the wolftone note of my bass, Ab, last night. I mistakenly changed out my D string with an Evah weich G string tuned to D, and played one set like that. I got the loud resonance you describe. On the break I put on an Evah D string and problem gone. From this, I'm guessing it's an out of balance string/tension thing. What kind of strings are you using? Maybe trying something heavier would tame that resonance.

Interestingly, the low tuned G string blended pretty well with the gut G next to it, although the difference in diameter felt very strange.

 

[basdanne]

Hi! I have almost the same problem with my old bass (built ca 1890-1900). I have this boomy sound when playing the g (90-100 hz). This over-resonate sounds appears this frequence on all the strings. Could it be because of the old cracks on the bass?