When i do hammer on's, why do i hear the note i intend to play and i also hear the sound from behind the fret to the nut being played. Hope i described this correctly. i repeated the factory setup and still have a issue. thx for your help
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??? weird noise
- Thread starter apollo18
- Start date
So, when you play the note, your strings are so close to the back frets that they're hitting them slightly. It might help to describe which frets, when played, create this back noise. If you play with loose, fat strings, and hammer on aggressively, you're probably getting a lot of string vibration, which could factor into what you have to do to fix it.
But I'd try adding a small amount of relief to the neck -- 1/8th turn, loosening the nut. Give it a day (normally I don't worry about that, but here I think you might just need a very small adjustment, so just give it the best chance of being stable). Retest the hammering on all frets, and see if you still get the same noise in all of the same places.
If it's just ONE fret, maybe you have a high or low spot -- but then I'd expect you to get other buzzing in that location.
Post back if you work on it a bit and have new info!
ltt
But I'd try adding a small amount of relief to the neck -- 1/8th turn, loosening the nut. Give it a day (normally I don't worry about that, but here I think you might just need a very small adjustment, so just give it the best chance of being stable). Retest the hammering on all frets, and see if you still get the same noise in all of the same places.
If it's just ONE fret, maybe you have a high or low spot -- but then I'd expect you to get other buzzing in that location.
Post back if you work on it a bit and have new info!
ltt
Turnaround
Commercial User
When doing hammer-ons, you need to damp the string behind the note you are hitting. For that matter, you should be doing this on plucked notes as well.
wadr I can't think of ever having seen a bassist mute behind the note when doing any sort of hammer-ons. I think it's reasonable to expect a well setup bass to allow for hammer-ons without this sort of back-noise (or a noticeable amount of it).
Turnaround
Commercial User
If you are hammering on wouldn't you just use the finger that played the previous note to kill the string vibration behind the hammer-on? Or are we talking about two different things?
Confusing. I think I know what's happening. I'll try to explain it with an example. If you play the 7th fret of the G-string and then hammer on the 9th, you may notice a disharmonic sound. The 7th fret of G is one octave above D, so the D-string resonates sympathetically at its second harmonic. Normally you wouldn't notice, but as the 9th fret on the G-string (an E) sounds before the harmonic stopped, a D an E will sound simultaneously, which we don't like. 
If the D-string is properly muted before sounding this fret 7 to 9 hammer on, it'll sound clean. Of course there are many more positions where other strings will resonate sympathically.
If this is not the cause of what you're hearing, something magic may be going on...
If the D-string is properly muted before sounding this fret 7 to 9 hammer on, it'll sound clean. Of course there are many more positions where other strings will resonate sympathically.If this is not the cause of what you're hearing, something magic may be going on...
I gotcha -- yeah, when I read "mute" and didn't immediately think about a fretted note. I was thinking of cases where, say, the open note is played, then other notes are hammered on that same string without any further plucking.
So to your point -- if he got that buzz with, say, 7th fretted, and hammering on 9th fret...that would be odd -- as you said, I'd expect that whole back portion of the string to be muted.
For the situation I was describing, assuming the buzz is from the same string as the notes being hammered on, I'd still consider a little added relief.
And I think for the case Jay2U mentioned, yeah, muting with a free finger would probably be the only option.
I tried adjusting some things (relief & action) but i still get the same noise. To maybe help describe this better here is a example.. Hammer on the 12 fret of any string, hold that string down and now with your other hand play that string on both sides of the hammer on and i get both of those sounds at the same time on ANY fret of ANY string. Could it be strings? They are factory Ibanez strings.
Depending on the type, the Ibby factory strings can be quite crappy. My cheap GSR200EX was fitted with dramatically bad strings. I replaced them within a week. The more expensive Sound Gear types come with a decent set of D'Addarios.
I'm not thinking this is a string issue, but you should give it a try -- you never know!
A couple of other questions:
Do you get both tones through your amp, or is it just that you can hear it from the strings themselves un-amped?
Is the behavior the same on all strings? And all frets (or most -- I doubt you'd get much in the lower registers)
Try this: hammer on the 12th with your MIDDLE finger, and simultaneously let your index finger hit the string right behind the middle finger -- so directly mute the back half of the string. If you're still getting that secondary tone, this is probably the sympathetic resonance (other strings being caused to vibrate.
Another experiment -- you could eliminate relief (so get the neck more flat), and see if that secondary tone changes. If it gets more zingy, maybe it's the strings lightly hitting frets behind the fretted note. If you do this, BE CAREFUL -- don't wreck the truss trying to get the neck flat just to experiment.
Have you checked for any high frets?
A couple of other questions:
Do you get both tones through your amp, or is it just that you can hear it from the strings themselves un-amped?
Is the behavior the same on all strings? And all frets (or most -- I doubt you'd get much in the lower registers)
Try this: hammer on the 12th with your MIDDLE finger, and simultaneously let your index finger hit the string right behind the middle finger -- so directly mute the back half of the string. If you're still getting that secondary tone, this is probably the sympathetic resonance (other strings being caused to vibrate.
Another experiment -- you could eliminate relief (so get the neck more flat), and see if that secondary tone changes. If it gets more zingy, maybe it's the strings lightly hitting frets behind the fretted note. If you do this, BE CAREFUL -- don't wreck the truss trying to get the neck flat just to experiment.
Have you checked for any high frets?
If you got a cheap Ibby, it might be worthwhile anyway. The Soundgear types are equipped with decent d'Addarios, which should be good.
I did a little research at the local music store and test drove some other more expensive bass's ($500-$750) range and found that these bass's do the same thing. So i was there already and bought some DR Low riders anyway lol Noticeable difference in sound! i like them
