Best Way To Keep Strings from Clacking on the Fretboard When Playing?

[joergkutter]

It took me a while to find this ('cause it is buried somewhere deep in the “wrong” thread), but I posted a little video a while back where I have a similar issue.

Help choosing a second bass

Thanks for elaborating on this, @Gio! This is something I have been “annoyed” by as well, and I am still not sure what exactly to do about it. There are situations when this “clacking” seems to be almost unavoidable, like when you switch from the open E to, say, the C# or D or so higher up on the E string (9th, 10th, and so on fret). If it is a slow change (in a slow tempo), I can mitigate the effect, but when you have to switch fast between open and fretted notes, like on might have to do when …

I am overdoing it slightly here, but is this the same kind of clanking/clacking that you also experience? If so, it is really almost unavoidable, but also only heard by you at home, playing at low volume, and shouldn’t be heard much beyond that.

Still, proper technique can minimized these extraneous noises, but they will probably never go away entirely. Here is something related that @T_dub had shared a while ago:

Finger Scraping

listen to these two videos. Listen to the play thru first, then listen to the Bass ONLY. There are slides, clanks and all sorts of noise that goes un noticed in the mix, but when listened to alone, it has it all. However, if the bass were not played with this type of grit, the mix would sound weak IMO. I use this as an example because I have used this to learn the song (even tho I know some of the main slide riff part is incorrect, most of the “FUN” part of it is legit), and the first time I…

All that said, this “extra noises” can also be used as effects or part of your personal style!