Phasing sound on Ibanez EHB1505MS

[Murphys Law]

Hello Bass folks,

I have an Ibanez EHB1505MS which has the old string phasing sound issue that is driving me nuts.
I've attached a soundfile where I pluck the open strings. The A and E strings are the worst offenders, sounding like an auto-wah effect on the bass. (The recording is neck pickup only, no effects/EQ)

I have searched for solutions and have tried the following:

• lowering PU height: Pole pieces are a good 4mm (5/32") away from the strings and don't want to go much lower. This is a good few mm lower than before, no difference.
• Check Bridge/Nut: I have checked every screw on the bridge and straightened the bridge saddles. The Nut is basically stock, strings sit snug. The break angle of the strings at the nut is quite shallow though.
• Check for twisted strings: I've tried. The Headless construction means the string gets clamped at the top, and then pulled straight from the bottom. There shouldn't be any twisting, as the string isn't wound.
• properly set witness marks: not really possible with this construction. Can't set a mark at the bridge really, and the nut angle is too shallow to bend the string.

The Bass is strung with Elixir nickel plated strings, 45-105 and and a taperwound 130. The Bass is stock, except that I removed the preamp and installed a dingwall-style 4-way switch and a passive tone pot instead. The sound occurs on both pickups and is less noticeable with both pickups on and in series/parallel.


Any more thoughts on what might cause this? It's driving me nuts and the bass plays really well otherwise.

Thanks!

 

[Murphys Law]

lowered the pickups some more, reseated the strings. It's a little better but not much.

Funny thing: I have a second EHB1005MS with bartolini PUs and it does kinda the same.

I'm beginning to believe it might be my plucking?

 

[Type-55]

If you put your ear on the body and pluck the strings do you hear it on all strings?
Don’t plug the bass in.

 

[Murphys Law]

If you put your ear on the body and pluck the strings do you hear it on all strings?
Don’t plug the bass in.

Yep, it's there.

 

[Type-55]

I had that happen on a bass I had years ago and I had no way to fx it.
I sold the bass. In my findings it had nothing to do with strings, pickups, loose neck,
Truss rod, bridge, tuners or any associated hardware.
I concluded the wood of the body or the neck was bad.

 

[Turnaround]

When you measure the pickup height are you holding the string down at the last fret?

 

[Murphys Law]

When you measure the pickup height are you holding the string down at the last fret?

No, but I rarely play down at the last fret either.
When I hold the string down around the 7-8th fret (where I usually play), the height over the pickups doesn't change much.
Holding down on the 24th fret, the height gets a lot less, of course.

 

[Turnaround]

You should be measuring the pickup height with the string depressed at the last fret. Then start with 1/8" clearance between string and pickup and increase if needed to avoid the phasing effect. It doesn't matter if you play high up on the neck or note, iyou need to do this to get the correct spacing.

 

[Murphys Law]

You should be measuring the pickup height with the string depressed at the last fret. Then start with 1/8" clearance between string and pickup and increase if needed to avoid the phasing effect. It doesn't matter if you play high up on the neck or note, iyou need to do this to get the correct spacing.

Thanks for the answer.
New year's vacation got in the way of things, but I have lowered the pickups to the required height. It seems to have helped the wah-like phasing sound.

Onto the next problem. I can hear weird atonal overtones when I pluck the strings at different frets. I tried to put together a best-of of the worst offenders:

(Please excuse my horrific plucking...)
The B-string seems to be worst off, the E string sounds slightly better, but has the same problem, especially higher up.
strings are 45-130 Elixir nickel steel.

I own another EHB, a 1005MS. That one I have strung up 32-105 (also elixir) and tuned to drop C#, so: C#-G#-C#-F#-B

It has a very similar problem on the low C# string:

I have since tried a third bass with the same strings, with similar problems, so I switched strings to some "De-Salvo" Brand strings I had laying around. Literally the only unused non-elixir strings in my box. It seems to have helped a little, but not much:

It still drives me nuts. These basses feel great, but somehow there's always something sounding weird or off about them, which keeps me from practicing and makes me fuss about the tone.

Any ideas on what might cause this?