Rattle issue on multiple basses when playing both E and G in the 7nd pos.

[harmaes]

Hi,

I'm playing Sire, Yamaha and Squier basses. I noticed an issue where I get a rattling low E when only playing 2 specific tones in the 7th specific position. Both on 4 and 5 string basses BTW.

If you firmly play (pluck) both the 7th position of the E and the 7th position of the G string the E string will rattle between the 7th position and the nut!
You can diminish the issue by setting the thrusrod looser to get more relief but on most basses this pertains except on my fretless Squier.

Is this something others have found and what is the best solution to get rid of it totally. I use a string damper sometimes to get rid of it but that's not the ideal solution.

BTW, the issue is not there if you only play the E or the G separately.
I still don't know why this happens exactly?

Cheers,
Harry

 

[Turnaround]

You can get the same effect by fretting the E string at the 7th fret (don't pluck it) and pluck the open D string. The E string will rattle between the 6th fret and the nut. Now try fretting E at the 7th and pluck it lightly on the nut side of the 6th fret. The note you hear will be D. What's happening is that when you play a D note while fretting E at the 7th, it sets up a sympathetic vibration on the E string at the same frequency. The E string rattles against the frets.

You can deal with it by damping, by raising the E string slot in the nut a hair, or by adding more relief. Usually the sympathetic vibration is quite strong and the only truly workable way to deal with it is by damping. Otherwise you end up with too much relief or an excessively high E-string nut slot.

 

[harmaes]

Thanks for your explanation which helped me investigate the issue some more.
It indeed is the D open string or 7th position G that's causing the sympathetic vibration on the E string.

I used a folded rice paper underneath the E string on the nut and the vibration went away even after lowering the E bridge saddle and decreasing the relief of the neck again.
So it's solved for the moment. I will either let my tech change the nut or fix it by raising it with some substance.

Thanks again for your help.

This does seem to be a generic problem for a lot of basses where especially Sire tends to file the slots of the E string on the nut too deep.

 

[harmaes]

I noticed on a Fender RW Precision when changing from the stock Fender strings to D'Addario EXL170 that the issue with the sympathetic vibration on the low E (when playing it together with the open D or G 7th pos.) started to happen also on the Fender which wasn't there before when first playing!

So could this be related to the Hex-core of the D'Addario strings and the way it vibrates? Are Fender strings not Hex-cores?