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What the - ?

R

Reverie

Aug 1, 2006
42
0
36
Nicosia, Cyprus
#1
I have a Fender J. USA Deluxe, bought it about a year ago, brand new. I dunno if it's because of my evolving ear abilities (I'm still a noob), but when I play an open E, I notice a weird fuss. So, I mute the E string to find out that my A string is producing a harmonic note... by itself! Same goes for all strings but that E string is a pain in the ass.

Sorry in advance if you found my description poor.

Hope you guys are able to help... hehe, it's driving me nuts. :help: :hmm:
 
#3
Train your hands to mute the strings you aren't playing.

It takes time, and there isn't really a right or wrong way to do it, but it's really worth it once you get it sorted.

I usually use my left (fingering) hand for strings above the one I'm playing, then use my little finger on my right (plucking) hand to mute the strings below. This probably isn't considered as "orthadox" but it works and my technique is all over the place anyway:p
 
#5
sympathetic vibration...I'm currently studying a career where I had lots of string physics...

every string in your bass when plucked produces A LOT of harmonics...harmonics are different ''notes'' that are obtained multipying (?) the fundamental note for different numbers(always int numbers eg:1,2,3,etc)

in the case of your E string the harmonic that is note ''A'' that is 3rd harmonic I think...is causing your A string to vibrate because it's fundamental frecuency shares a lot of the E string harmonics...


you'll have to mute the strings if you don't want that to happen... ;)
 
#9
Reverie said:
Well. I've been playing the f***** thing for 2 years and I've never noticed such a thing. And I'm sure I'm not the only bass player that doesn't mute the strings.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you're not. Only the good bass players mute the strings they're not using, and there's a lot fewer of them out there ;)
 
#10
I can play with the floating thumb technique as well, but that's not the point. I've seen many bassists that do not mute the strings and have the clearest sound in the world, despite the fact that they play alone and use a lot of (crystal clear) harmonics.

Does anyone have anything different to suggest? I know what the problem is. The question is: Why did the S.V. climb at such high volume level all of a sudden?
 
#12
olalo said:
sympathetic vibration...I'm currently studying a career where I had lots of string physics...

every string in your bass when plucked produces A LOT of harmonics...harmonics are different ''notes'' that are obtained multipying (?) the fundamental note for different numbers(always int numbers eg:1,2,3,etc)

in the case of your E string the harmonic that is note ''A'' that is 3rd harmonic I think...is causing your A string to vibrate because it's fundamental frecuency shares a lot of the E string harmonics...


you'll have to mute the strings if you don't want that to happen... ;)
Click to expand...

:)
Actually the 3rd harmonic of the E string is a B. None of the harmonics produced by the E string is an A. However the 3rd harmonic of the A string is E, so perhaps the fundamental of the E string is exciting the A string that way, but I really don't think that's going to be a very powerful connection.

Many people in the world of music theory still consider the perfect 4th to be a dissonate interval... because of the lack of connection of the overtone series.

If playing the E string does in fact set the A string in motion, its more likely the case that the vibration is from another source... striking the instrument or something like that.

In any case.... as others have said, mute the strings, you'll be glad you did.
 
#14
I think the salient point here is to mute your unused strings. However, everyone seems to be concentrating their efforts on the plucking hand. You can mute with the other hand as well. If a bassist is muting with the fingering hand it would not be visibly apparent. If you really want to know how much extra noise it makes to not mute at all, record something & play back the bass track soloed up. All that extra noise builds up on a track & makes it muddy. There is usually extra noise coming from the guitarists & vocal mikes too. Most engineers try to clean that stuff up, but if you can stifle it in the beginning it's much easier.
 
#15
I do almost all my muting with the left hand. The picking hand I will use to mute for articulation almost exclusively.

Reverie, I don't know what you want. Everyone's told you the solution and you're choosing to ignore it. It's not like there are a million solutions. There is only one.
 
#17
You said it was right after you changed the strings. Bingo.

Your new strings, being new, produce much more high frequency content, therefore allowing the harmonic induced on the A string to be much more audible.

Solution is still the same --> mute the unused strings.
 

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