iBudd

That's a nice tip Jon, fortunately no rattle here but that's a bummer about your Bravewood. Did you get it sorted? I've thought about getting a Bravewood before. I'll be 40 in a couple of years and I feel like I should get myself for my 40th birthday the bass I'll use for the rest of my life. Something nice from the Fender CS would be nice but I was thinking something genuinely custom built like a Bravewood too. Ah well, see how flush I am in a couple of years! For those eagerly following the exciting story of my 440Hz rattle, now that I've got the rounds back on the bass everything feels a lot more stable and sounds better. The rattle is still there but I need to hit the open A very hard to produce it - plus it now sounds slightly brighter, much like the strings. This last point initially sounds kind of obvious but it at least means that the vibrating string is the culprit, rather than something loose somewhere, or even the nut... I'll let everything settle and do a proper setup when I get time.

Well I believe in coincidences... but I don't trust them! That TI A string is only gauge 70. Light for an A string, I'd usually put an 80 on there... maybe the nut slot is the issue, not the depth but the width? Combined with the low tension..? More investigation necessary I feel...

actually that's a good point Ou7shined - my 440Hz rattle is being amplified but only slightly. Hmmm 440Hz Rattle might have been a good username. Anyway in a fit of pique I've swapped off the TI flats and put back on some roundwounds I had kicking around. Already things feel and sound much nicer. The rattle is still there but very diminished. If it's a Truss rod issue perhaps over the next day or so the neck will settle back to where it was with the rounds originally? I suspect the tech that did my setup when I got the flats didn't move the neck. (He didn't think much of the TIs, incidentally!). Also the harmonic weirdness is completely gone. Interesting because when I fist swapped back to flats it was still there but these feel like they might be higher tension ( I seem to have a collection of old strings in my tool box!). One of the things that came up through my recording sessions was that it's incredibly hard to get any high end out of the TI flats. I initially put them on partially out of curiosity but I ended up liking how they felt rather than how they sounded. Certainly they did sound quite dull on the recordings. I'd usually compensate with my amp but the engineer doing the recordings only wanted DI from me so he could take care of all the re-amping duties in his own time and place, which complicated things. It was successful eventually but I think a lot of mixing tricks were needed to make them sit properly in the track. The stuff I was recording on was a mixture of Krautrock, Mellow proggy rock, Vaguely Eastern European sounding funky rock and 70s US funky theme tune material. In retrospect the TIs weren't probably the best tools for the job. So long story short, I'm not convinced about recording with those TIs for anything other than straight up jazz. Does anyone have another experience with them?

Thanks mercuryl, that's a great little video. I've already got the string would down as low as it will go on the peg so the break angle is as great as you can get on a Fender bass. MoonBassAlpha, that's a good tip too, I might look more closely at the nut - but two things seem a bit odd about pursuing that as an idea - firstly the rattle sounds a split second [i]after[/i] the open string note, which itself sounds cleanly. You'd almost think there was some sort of sympathetic rattle being triggered by that particular pitch but I can't find anything that's not locked down! If I pitch the string up by 2 semitones it goes away. If it was a nut issue I'd expect the actual open note to sound buzzy. Secondly, I usually rest my hand over the neck pickup and pluck there. If I move my plucking hand to the neck/body join and pluck there the rattle goes away completely. Obviously that's not a permanent solution but maybe it provides us with another clue as to what's going on? Really grateful for everyone's advice and help.

Thanks guys - really appreciate your help. I'll think on and explore some of the things retroman mentioned. I'm in Cambridge by the way, I'll update my profile to show that... Thanks again

Thanks Andy, that's a wealth of good information there! My very first thought was a nut slot cut too low, I was all ready to reach for the baking powder and superglue, but on inspection it's actually alright. If I fret a B natural and look between the nut and first fret the string actually travels ever so slightly downhill from nut to 1st fret. So I reckon that's not the problem. It might even be cut not deep enough! I've checked the action a few different ways - I like your method though. Fretting at 1st and 16th fret I do have some clearance at the 8th, but not very much at all. A little tap produces a tiny click. I can get feeler gauges up to 10 in there before they start to drag. Running a straight edge up the neck doesn't seem to show any major relief either, but I only have a 15" straight edge to hand so I can't do the whole neck... As you can probably tell I'm finding the diagnostic part really tricky. There's not one glaring thing that's causing the rattle... But your advice gratefully received of course!

Loose headstock furniture was my thought too, but everything seems as it should be. I suspect the open string is rattling against the 1st or 2nd fret - plus if I look closely the string isn't vibrating uniformly, as if something is impeding it's vibration. I experimentally pitched the whole bass up a tone and and a half (except the A string) - to simulate the effect of greater tension on the front of the neck - and the rattle almost went away, which makes me think that it might be a truss rod issue after all - if the TIs are very low tension strings then they're not exerting enough pressure to counter the truss rod force, hence release the rod a bit = everything fixed. Maybe? I had the bass set up when I first put the TIs on but in all honesty it wasn't a great job. Which kind of made me want to get better at doing this sort of stuff myself. Perhaps the tech underestimated the amount of rod adjustment the bass would need going from roto rounds to Ti flats. Also that might account for the odd overtone - perhaps the vibrating strings are interacting minutely with the frets... It all sort of makes sense I guess. Thanks for all your input so far guys it's much appreciated.

I did try swapping off the flats for an old set of roundwounds I had kicking about. Curiously both issues actually got slightly worse, the rattling open A and the whistly harmonics. The whsitly harmonic issue is a really odd one to describe - it's like a faint harmonic overtone related to the actual note I'm playing, or the finger noise associated with it! It lends the note a slightly 'hollow' quality. I've been really watching my technique and I can limit it with better fretting and so forth. I can also dial most of it out with the tone control. It's actually a very minor issue but my instincts tell me that the two things are connected so it might be a clue to the rattly A issue. I think because of it's harmonicy nature I'm sort of thinking it must be something to do with proximity of strings to frets in the lower register, but I might be well wide of the mark! Thanks for your help Steve!

Thanks, I hadn't thought about shimming the neck, I think I'll look into that... but it's only the open A that rattles, and fretted notes doesn't, as I understand it the shim would allow me to lower the action more uniformly... but if it's only the headstock end of the neck, is that a clue that it's the curve of the neck rather than the angle that's the culplrit?? I tried raising up the nut slot a little, little temporary shim with folded paper, and that achieved not very much. I usually play with a pretty medium action anyway, not Jamerson-height but I do like to have room to dig in a little for more r&b stuff. One very odd thing I've noticed is that if I hold the headstock moderately tight with my hand and play the open A it doesn't buzz. What on earth could that mean? As for the other issue, I do have a feeling they're connected as the strange harmonic sound is only really audible when I play on the lower frets. It's actually very faintly audible acoustically so I don't think it's an electrical issue but I'll be happy to get in there with the soldering iron after I get the rattle sorted out. That's territory where I do feel a bit more comfortable. Actually now I think about it I have basically replaced every bit of wiring since I first noticed the odd noise (it turned up on a recording I did some time ago) since I had a pot that died and I took the opportunity to tidy up the harness. So I suspect it is mechanical rather than electrical - but I'm not ruling anything out! It's all a bit of a mystery, I guess I'll have to start experimenting! Thanks again for your help. I had a lovely 4 years living in Brighton (Hove actu.... ), enjoyed it greatly.

Hi guys – long time lurker here, there’s a lot of expertise in these forums! I hope you’ll be able to help me with a couple of niggling issues on my bass. I have a ’95 MIJ Jazz. Always strung it with rounds 40-60-80-100 (Rotos or, um, bass centre own brand ones) until a couple of years ago when I tried some TI Flats and liked them. I had the bass set up professionally when I switched to the flats, as I figured the low tension would need a bit of fiddling around and didn’t fancy doing it myself. Since then a couple of niggling issues. First the open A string rattles when it’s plucked hard(ish). A split second after the note there’s a rattle as the note decays. I thought it might be that the slimmer string was rattling in the nut slot but when I experimentally switched back to the old rounds the rattle was still there. If I pitch the string up a couple of semitones it goes away. Similarly if I raise my action up very high or pull the headstock back (gently!) to straighten the neck the issue goes away – I presume because the string is under more tension and has less liberty to flap about. I’ve got a good break angle on the string with plenty of winds so I don’t think it’s the classic Fender design flaw! So I thought I might need to turn my truss rod so maybe the strings would be under more tension? – To find out I lowered my action right down and it’s the notes above the 12[sup]th[/sup] fret that choke first, the lower notes still ring out. So do I need to actually tighten the rod and get less bow? I thought the lower tension TIs would have meant that I needed to loosen the rod? Presuming the tech who set me up didn’t do it. I’ve totally confused my diagnostic brain either way. The other issue is an odd one. I can’t hear it acoustically, but when amplified there’s a strange metallic sort of scraping or clanking sound when I play low down the neck, almost like a slight harmonic overtone. Hard to describe. It’s not loud but it is a bit irritating. Rolling off treble helps but doesn’t entirely cure it. I was wondering if these two issues were connected somehow. I’ve lived with these two niggles because in truth I haven’t been playing much but recently I’ve got some recording work and it’s highlighted these problems so I want to straighten these problems out before I take on any more. I’m happy to do any bit of fixing that is within the realms of the enthusiastic amateur. Got tools and not afraid of a truss road. These days I actively want to learn more to able to do these kinds of things myself. (Plus my nearest tech is a couple of hours away!). All advice and wisdom gratefully received.