Completely off the mark on this thread, but pickup covers?
I guess i need a little insight. When playing on the Ibanez es 300-it plays like a dream. What a great instrument for the price, super looks, great tone-it ticks a lot of boxes…but
It has the open poles on the pickups. Meaning when playing slap ( most noticeably on the E and A strings ) the string will occasionally contact one of these poles. This obviously leads to a clicking or popping noise from the amplifier.
It’s clearly a technique issue, and my slap is rancid- but the only way to improve that is practice, and it’s hard to want to slap when it’s doing that.
Has anyone else had this? Is it me, or is it just the open pole pickup thing? Heights are great, fingerstyle and picking are good, strumming and fast play are fine. It’s only on the slap.
To be clear, my schecter has plastic covers, i never get the popping/clicking noise from the pickup. I play the same on both. If i slap with less impact, it’s only tone-there is no fret contact sounds.
Ok, so i get what you’re saying there. And the only reason i can play slap at all is the info from the slap module and @JoshFossgreen video about slap on YouTube.
Here’s the sticking point-when i originally tried to slap on this almost a year ago, i couldn’t get anything happening near the bridge-to get any tone are all, i had to play all the way back at the bridge. Which is fine, there’s really great tone in that neighborhood. You gotta beat the thing to get slap tone, but it can be done
As time has gone by, my ability has increased. I can can play slap ( poorly ) on both shecter basses and i can even pull it off a little on the frank n. Fretless monster i built.
The only issue i find is with the es 300. And i don’t get it. The pickup height seems good Guess I’ll Just play with it for a while and see what’s going on.
:::::returned to add that string height off bridge pickup is about .150 when held at 24th fret.
You should be slapping the string against the heel of the neck. If you can’t get the right tone there, keep practicing. It takes a while. But slapping along a string far away from the neck will only lead to beat up hands and pickups.
I have to say that while it’s great Newtone has a huge variety of gauges with lots of “in-betweens,” w/ out a tension calculator it’s sort of useless in some ways
If you fingers make contact with the pickups or the pole then it’s just refining your technique, and fast because when your hand improve speed you are going to get hurt, lol.
You should take a look at the wiring and grounding though, it should not be making any noise.
I kind of think it could be a technique thing as well.
you say you get the noise when you are slapping your thumb on the fretboard? how hard are you slapping to get the volume you are looking for? you shouldn’t have to slap hard to get a good tone off the E or A string
But also, it could be a little bit of a set up issue. how high / low is your action?
do you get that same kind of noise if you pluck the E string hard over the fretboard, or right at the end of the fretboard just past the last fret? do you get that sound if you pluck the open E and A string really hard anywhere / everywhere between the necking bridge? if so, a simple set up could do wonders.
sometimes, just a 1/4 to 1/2 turn on the saddle screws to raise them just a tiny bit will make all the difference in the world.
I basically use my music man pick up as a finger ramp, and play right onto of the poles and I never have any issues with strange popping / buzzing/ or just unwanted noise, and I play with relatively to super low action.
Just looking at all my basses the closest thing I have to what you are playing is my ESP LTD B-4E, and it has pick up covers, so I couldn’t do a test for you with any neck pick ups that don’t have covers. My other one with a neck pick up is my Danelectro and those are lipstick pick ups which are bar magnets and obviously covered in a lipstick tube
I have a Toby Jazz bass (Thanks again @Al1885 ) but the are two single coil pick ups and both are covered.
I have the Yamaha SBV-550 that has P/J pick ups and exposed poles, maybe tomorrow I will play around with it and see if I can recreate what you are getting, and if so, see if I can find a work around for you. beyond getting pick up covers.
Even if everything everybody suggested (and all of them are good suggestions), that just doesn’t seem normal and getting pick up covers feels like a bandaid on a cut that needs stitches. we need to eliminate everything one by one, see if it is technique, or the set up (possible pick up height??) and try and fix this problem and not just cover it up for you.
Just my 2 cents, but they are only worth about well, about what 2 cents are worth in todays economy, next nothing.
I’m glad for your two cents, toby. I always value your input. Setup is medium. About .022 at the first fret.
capoed at 5th fret, string height is .150 at 24th fret. Capoed at 12th fret it’s .135.
Sting height at pickup is .150 when held at 24th fret.
Slap point is between neck pickup and heel of neck.
When you slap the string with nothing underneath them you lose the percussive sound of slapping from your contact but get some residual “slap” tone from the string below the slap point from heel to nut. It’s a technique but not the same one you wanted.
Your slapping point on a 24 fret bass should be between 17th-22nd fret closer to 22nd if you are popping with index finger, further down if you have longer thumb or popping with middle finger on the G string…
Usually, your wrist will naturally makes a small figure 8 or small circular motion and move down the neck( unless you are Victor Wooten) my aim is about 4-5 frets before the last frets, you don’t want to aim at the last fret, potentially lots of dead notes, lol.
