technique for fretting low E at 12th fret

[abe]

hi i am having problems when I fret the low e at the 12th fret, the
sound is uneven and kind of booms and honking. i know part of the
issue is the harmonic resonance at that fret. i am fretting with two
fingers, trying all kinds of mute techniques. is there a best
technique for minimizing it? It is worse with certain amps. i have a
jazz bass, american made, fralin pickups

[crow]

there are a few things you can try:

lower the p'ups - sometimes a strong magnetic field can create a harmonic
that is out of tune with the fundamental note.

change the strings - sometimes a twisted string core can cause this
phenomenon (especially with round core strings). You have to be sure that
the string is completely slack before winding it on to the post. Immediately
after installation you can unwind it & pull it out of the tuner post. If it
doesn't spin around in your hand like a spring it's good. Re-install & tune
to pitch. Sometimes strings are just bad right out of the package. I
restring 10-20 basses a week on my job @ Spector. It's rare, but it's an
issue every now & then.

Increase neck relief.

Unfortunately none of these may completely negate the problem. The dreaded
Fender 'E' wolftone is well documented throughout their history.

jepp



--
if it sounds good...IT IS GOOD!
"abe" <abe.ess@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1177890750.554039.144190@e65g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...
> hi i am having problems when I fret the low e at the 12th fret, the
> sound is uneven and kind of booms and honking. i know part of the
> issue is the harmonic resonance at that fret. i am fretting with two
> fingers, trying all kinds of mute techniques. is there a best
> technique for minimizing it? It is worse with certain amps. i have a
> jazz bass, american made, fralin pickups
>

[Jim Carr]

"abe" <abe.ess@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1177890750.554039.144190@e65g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...
> hi i am having problems when I fret the low e at the 12th fret, the
> sound is uneven and kind of booms and honking. i know part of the
> issue is the harmonic resonance at that fret. i am fretting with two
> fingers, trying all kinds of mute techniques. is there a best
> technique for minimizing it? It is worse with certain amps. i have a
> jazz bass, american made, fralin pickups

Can you make a recording of your bass directly? I'm having a hard time
understanding exactly what you're hearing.

[John Doe]

> Can you make a recording of your bass directly? I'm having a hard time
> understanding exactly what you're hearing.

Me too....mine sounds fine to me .Maybe your picking too hard when
your fretting the note.

S.

[Brian Running]

> Unfortunately none of these may completely negate the problem. The dreaded
> Fender 'E' wolftone is well documented throughout their history.

That's true, even the five-stringers have it, though the fives seem to
lose the "D on the G string" dead spot. My Jazz Fiver gets that weird,
warbly sound at about the ninth fret on the B string, and there's not a
damned thing you can do about it. I'd add one more tip to your list,
Jimmy, and that's get rid of taperwound strings, if that's what's
currently on the bass. They seem to exacerbate the problem.

[Mini]

"abe" <abe.ess@gmail.com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:1177890750.554039.144190@e65g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...
> hi i am having problems when I fret the low e at the 12th fret, the
> sound is uneven and kind of booms and honking. i know part of the
> issue is the harmonic resonance at that fret. i am fretting with two
> fingers, trying all kinds of mute techniques. is there a best
> technique for minimizing it? It is worse with certain amps. i have a
> jazz bass, american made, fralin pickups

You already got good advice regarding the bass itself so I will just direct
your attention to the room/location where you actually play and possible bad
acoustic interaction with your rig.

Try to sort out if it's actually the bass, the rig, or the room.

I have recently solved an acoustic issue due to my bass rig being in a
corner of a rectangular room (about 13 feet x 26 feet).

What happened was the low G where booming - no problems with Gb or G#.

It happened on my 3 different basses plus my rig sounded great at other
locations.
So it had to be the rooms acoustics in my case.

I learned from earlier advice in this group not to EQ a rig senseless but if
there where a few specific frequencies being either too low or too loud to
try a parametric EQ.

A cheap 3 band Presonus was mentioned and thanks to who ever gave that
advice I can now actually use the low G when rehearsing (booming was so bad
I avoided the tone).

It took some tweaking to find the actual note but thanks to parametric EQ's
ability to narrow the Q it solved the problem without Gb or G# suffering.

Thanks to who ever gave that advice to somebody and I used the good advice.
The Presonus EQ3B now sits in my FX loop together with Presonus Comp16
basically a compressor for dummies :)

Mini

[frisbieinstein@yahoo.com]

On Apr 30, 10:24 am, "crow" <jeppardyPA...@msn.com> wrote:
>
>
> Unfortunately none of these may completely negate the problem. The dreaded
> Fender 'E' wolftone is well documented throughout their history.
>

Is it only the 12th fret? The wolf tone gets worse as you go up the
neck. It is due to the string being too stiff to make the bend over
the bridge. To cure it get another bridge where the string doesn't
make such a sharp bend, or use more flexible strings.

But if it is twelfth fret only, then I dunno.