After setup, bass has infinite sustain

DaveP · February 27, 2021, 5:38am

I’ve got a Yamaha TRBX304 that I’ve been playing since Christmas. Recently took it in to get a setup done as the action seemed a bit high, and the E string was much louder than the other three

Setup made a huge improvement to the feel and evened the string volume, but I couldn’t get it to sound good again (loved the tone beforehand). Been playing with knobs and settings for about a week now with no joy, and I think the problem seems to be my bass now has almost infinite sustain

I’ve got a Fender LT25 amp which I use on “Clean studio” (#1) setting. I’ve tried turning the gain down to almost nothing, as well as removing the compressor from the setting (it’s a modding amp) but with no success

I’m very much a beginner and this is all new to me, so any advice welcome

Thanks and greetings from West Australia

howard · February 27, 2021, 5:42am

Could you record an example?

DaveT · February 27, 2021, 5:55am

Hire that person! You will make a fortune off guitar players!!!

JT · February 27, 2021, 6:50am

I just want to make sure we’re using the right terminology here so we can understand what is going on. You mention that you are struggling to get the tone to sound right, but you might think it is due to the sustain. These are different beasts. The sustain is just how long the note rings for. Long sustain is usually a good thing because you can just mute it to stop it (or get nut wraps or something), but you can’t add additional sustain without a pedal.

So are you saying the notes you play sound different or they just carry on longer than before?

howard · February 27, 2021, 7:04am

Yeah - TBH I would love to have infinite sustain

DaveP · February 27, 2021, 9:16am

Not really, sorry

Imaging plucking a string, say G, and the sound carries on for what seems like ages. Seems to be more pronounced with the higher strings

howard · February 27, 2021, 9:18am

This sounds normal? Or do you mean it continues even after you mute the string? Because that would be odd

Or put another way - what was it doing before that was different?

DaveP · February 27, 2021, 9:22am

Hi JT,
Yeah, sorry, it is two things but they seem related. The sustain is definitely very long (I think, but like I said I’m new to this so it may be normal) and it may have been like this previously, but I hadn’t noticed it because it sounded good. Now it sounds like it’s lost a lot of the richness (sorry, don’t know the terms to use) and seems to have less complexity to it - thinner? not sure how to describe. It’s not bad at all, just that it used to sound better to my ear

howard · February 27, 2021, 9:23am

Can you post a picture of the side of the bass to show the distance between the strings and fretboard, say at the 12th and 24th fret?

Mike_NL · February 27, 2021, 9:23am

What’s the distance between the strings and the pickups? Was this distance altered in any way?

howard · February 27, 2021, 9:24am

yeah it sounds to me like they lowered the pups and/or raised the strings

DaveP · February 27, 2021, 9:27am

Muting stops it, but it does seem to need more effort to mute the strings than before. Not physical effort, but rather it seems the other strings are ringing (not sure the word) more often/easier than before when they’re not being played

Don’t mean to take up people’s time too much, just thought I’d ask in case it was something stupid I’d done that jumped to you guys

howard · February 27, 2021, 9:28am

My guess is what happened is they either lowered your pickups or raised the strings. or both.

Higher action or larger distance from the pickups will increase sustain as well.

JT · February 27, 2021, 9:28am

Just for clarification. Long sustain is a good thing. So if that improved after the setup that’s good news. Like the others are saying, your string height might have changed. Also, did they change the strings themselves? If so, to different brand/model strings?

DaveP · February 27, 2021, 9:29am

Hi Mike_NL,
Yes, he (guitar tech) did say he raised the height of the pickups. I’ll try and get a photo (is there a recommended way to upload one here?)

DaveP · February 27, 2021, 9:32am

Figured out how to quote someone so the comments have some context. Yay!
No, strings are original. Bass is as good as new - less than 3 months old, played about 1/2 hour a day

JT · February 27, 2021, 9:32am

To upload a picture, just get it onto your computer/phone first. Then use the icon that looks like a picture (the grey one in my pic below) and you can upload it.