E string warble on my shorties

emmessevi

emmessevi

Feb 6, 2020
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#1
Hi, everyone!

I have a problem with my Mustang bass and my Höfner violin bass, which are strung respectively with Chromes and the LaBella flatwound set for Beatle bass.

On the Mustang the pitch is unstable all along the 4th string, getting much worse past the 12th fret. There's this weird chorus-like effect when I try to fret a note.
On the Höfner I only get that on the 3rd and 15th fret (E string doesn't like Gs apparently).

Both basses are perfectly intonated at the 12th fret and pickup height is fine.
I've noticed that I can still hear it clearly when I play unplugged.

Is this common with shorties? Any ideas to solve the problem?
I'm gonna try with new strings soon, but I'm skeptical.
 
#2
emmessevi said:
On the Mustang the pitch is unstable all along the 4th string, getting much worse past the 12th fret. There's this weird chorus-like effect when I try to fret a note.
On the Höfner I only get that on the 3rd and 15th fret (E string doesn't like Gs apparently).
Click to expand...

The "chorus-like effect" could be the result of a twist in the string. I would suggest you loosen the string to the point where the ball end is free to spin and untwist itself, then re-anchor the ball end and tune it back up to pitch and see what happens.

By the way, how old are those strings?
 
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#6
Your post (at least on your mustang) is a perfect description of what the super short scalers (aka guitarists) call "stratitis" - the pickup(s) on your bass are too close to the strings (their height is not fine - the proximity is precisely the problem). Get the thing(s) set up, or at least back the pickup(s) off away from the strings, and it will go away.

The Hofner - only on G's? - that's weird.
 
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#7
Interesting timing. Just yesterday I had my first "in person" bass lesson (we'd been doing a few online up 'till now - you never stop learning) and my instructor took a ride on my Mustang JMJ. He loved it and commented that it didn't have that E-string wolf tone in exactly the range the OP describes, implying it's not an uncommon issue with such short scales. As we didn't perceive the problem, we did not discuss possible causes.

Reading @micguy's suggestion here, it might make sense then that the lower range pickup came from Fender set markedly lower on the E side; more extreme than I reasoned necessary to accommodate the radius. I always wondered about that but hesitated to futz with it as it sounds great. Don't fix what ain't broke. Seems they knew what they were doing.

IMG_5749.jpg
 
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#8
michael_t said:
The "chorus-like effect" could be the result of a twist in the string. I would suggest you loosen the string to the point where the ball end is free to spin and untwist itself, then re-anchor the ball end and tune it back up to pitch and see what happens.

By the way, how old are those strings?
Click to expand...
The bass I bought a few weeks ago had a chorusing E string. Thank you for showing me the fix. I'd thought it was to do with the pickup placement on the Nordstrand Big Singles.
 
#14
OP here.

Thank you all for your advice, I'm gonna give it a go tomorrow since I haven't had the time.
Meanwhile, browsing Talkbass I've found a thread discussing this problem on hollowbody shorties with tailpieces.
Basically sometimes the portion of the strings between the tailpiece and the floating bridge can resonate with the body introducing weird out-of-tune overtones along with the clean vibrating string sound.
I think this might be the problem with my Höfner.
I'm gonna try putting a piece of foam under the strings in that area and maybe a bigger piece under the tailpiece to kill it and I'll see if I can finally get some clear Gs out of my E string.
 
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#15
My Höfner has officially recovered! Preventing the tailpiece from vibrating totally solved the problem.
I’ll let you know about the Mustang when I try restringing and lowering the pickup on bass side.
 
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