Putting this question here but I don’t know yet whether it’s more of a gear or technique thing, or a mix of both! Since starting B2B I’ve been practising on a borrowed (and well used) bass. Well I finally got my own this last weekend! Squier CV Jaguar in Black; very slick, very cool tones, very happy!
I’ve noticed something since playing around to get a feel for it, I’m hearing very audible noise when I lift my fingers off strings, as if they’ve just been lightly plucked again. Tried to do some digging online but a lot of what I find is just referring to the notorious fret buzz - this isn’t that!
Example scenario:
I pluck the D string and rest that finger on A, the action of removing that finger off A to pluck again creates an unwanted ring. Noticeable from the fret hand too but not as bad there.
The strings are brand new as it’s a new instrument. Strings and hands are clean. From what I can gather this could be linked to any or all of the following: string material/coating, temparature, technqiue, lack of calluses etc. I didn’t notice this on the borrowed bass at all, but I’m thinking that might be due to the strings being quite old and dull?
I’m just trying to understand how common this is and what the most likely causes might be so I can (hopefully) start working on improving it!
Most likely the strings are sticking to the natural oil on your fingers (just a theory), and when you lift your finger off the string it is making a sound. I would try moving my finger on a slight angle instead of straight up to see if that helps.
Again, just a theory.
I’ll add that it also has a lot to do with the strings being new. New round wound strings are much brighter.
If you prefer the thumpier sound of the old strings you could try using flat wound strings or keep playing the new ones till they collect enough oil, grime, and skin cells to get dull like the others.
Thanks all for your input! Have had a bit more time to spend playing and it doesn’t seem to be as noticeable now. @PamPurrs I’ll play around with your thought as I’m sure little adjustments like that will always have a use in certain situations regardless @howard I was actually going through every combination of pickup and bass/amp EQ tweaks to just test out the range of tones I can get from this earlier (just messing with it during my lunch break haha). Relating it to this thread though, some configs might dampen that noise but it’s not worth sacrificing the tone you want just to hide it eh. It has been really fun exploring that though! @eric.kiser I think it may just be that in this case. Been playing in my downtime and also took my kit to a mate’s last night so we could crank it all up and make some noise together (he plays guitar) so it’s definitely all getting broken in well - seems to be better now!