Hi, I am new to the bass. I was wondering if there is a way to minimize the clicking and clacking sound of the string hitting the fret. Maybe it is just my beginner bad technique, but wanted to know if this is normal to a degree. It seems to be worse on the E string, and it is simply the noise of the string hitting the fret each time. It’s kind of annoying. Could there be something wrong with the bass I have, or is it normal to have this noise. Is there a way to get rid of it, like putting different strings on? Thanks for any info. Jonathan
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- Check your setup. Josh just did a great video on this:
- Check if the sound is just local or if it comes out of the amp as well! If it doesn’t get amplified, there’s no real problem.
- Yes, technique comes in to play here. Over time you will improve in all sorts of subtle ways.
Nothing wrong with the bass.
A bass is most often like a computer: It does exactly what you tell it to do.
Don’t worry, just slow down and practice, and the bass will follow your lead, in a good way. 
play lighter and dig in less? record a video to give us a better idea. does not have to be high quality
Assuming you have a good setup, it really boils down to the fine motor skills you are developing. It used to drive me NUTS…especially string scraping. But, with consistent practice, your hands eventually find a way to navigate in order to prevent fret and string noise…and it can come and go. I was practicing one day this week, and could do no wrong, but the next day was struggling with noise coming off the the fret (with my ring finger).
I might also add that the amp and eq can really have an impact as well. I have a cheap 6" amp that is really easy to carry, brought it into the kitchen to be near my wife…and it just sucked. That little amp picked up every imperfection. So, there’s that too.
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Since I just play at home for my own enjoyment at low’ish volume levels I found this sound very annoying. On my acoustic bass the clacking is often louder than the sound coming out of the instrument itself! I tried a set of LaBella tape wound strings and they’ve been fantastic.
The nylon cures the clacking against the frets which allowed me to better hear only my playing, so I could really pinpoint when I was doing something wrong and work on it.
They are much easier to bend/fret and very slippery to slide on. Two things that I found useful as a beginner. They also are somewhat forgiving on fret buzz, when you don’t get your finger placement just right.
Oh, and they don’t gouge up your frets or have grooves that accumulate grime from your hands, which I really appreciate!
I later tried a few different sets of round and flat wound strings but the tapewounds are so smooth and easy to play. Being able to glide around without extra noise was a big help for me as a beginner and I don’t enjoy using any other string now. $0.02
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