Fret clicking problem

Royale with Cheese

Put some lighter string on my bass and tried setting it up. Had problems with the action before, but now the buzz is gone and I'm very happy with how it feels to play, but...

When I press down on the fret board with my left hand, I get this big metal against metal clicky/clunky sound. That was happening before but it's worse now. It sounds awful and I need to get rid of it if possible. However, now it's also sounding notes when I press down.

So if I fret the 3rd fret while muting the string with my right hand, it'll sound a really high pitched note, if I fret at the top of the neck it'll sound a really low pitched note. If i don't mute the string with my right hand it will sound both the proper note, and the other note... giving a high and low pitched note.

I've tried googling this to see what it is, but all I've found is people telling beginners that they're plucking the strings too hard and that's causing the clicky noise. I'm not plucking the strings at all and it's making that noise so that's obviously not it. I've owned 4 basses and this is the only one I've had problems with either the clicky noise, or weird reverse note problem. Anybody seen this before?

Doctor J

You've made the action higher? The note is, I would guess, the sound of the string vibrating between the nut and wherever you're fretting. TBH, I think that's a fact of life, it's a feature of every fretted instrument.

Are you listening to this unplugged? The pickups are on the other side of your fretting hand so you shouldn't hear it when you're amplifying the bass, you'll just hear it acoustically, therefore don't worry about it.

Royale with Cheese

Yeah I was playing it acoustically last night, will try plugging it in and playing at volume later. What about the clicky sound? Is it just because the action is too high? I don't want to lower it again because it'll probably just buzz a lot.

Doctor J

Again, wait until you hear it through an amp. If you don't like metallic click turn the treble down a bit and you won't hear it amplified. You're probably applying more force with your fretting hand since the strings are higher and that's why you're hearing it a little more combined with the added brightness of new strings. Your hand will adjust to this in time. It should be ok amplified anyway. For example, by all accounts you could fit Popeye's forearm between the fretboard and strings on Jamerson's bass, but I'll bet you never heard any click on any old Motown recording :pac:

Eoin Madsen

It's normal for there to be a harmonic from the short end of the string, but it's usually pretty muted by the fretting finger. Is the string connecting with the fret behind as well perhaps? Sounds a little odd really. Shouldn't be anything to worry about when amplified as the Doc says.

The metally click seems like you might just be hammering on to the frets a little hard. High action and lower than expected gauge might be causing you to over-compensate, perhaps?

Rustar

The answer is simple. Just file all the frets down til they're even with the fretboard! :pac:

Dord

Rustar wrote: »

The answer is simple. Just file all the frets down til they're even with the fretboard! :pac:

Or he could get a fretless, then he wouldn't have any problems with frets clicking. :pac: :cool: