Ringing (ghost?) notes on a Washburn 6er.

[squire5]

I recently bought a Washburn XB600 on this very forum.The bass is fine but there are a few anomalies that are doing my head in.There seem to be a lot of ringing notes.Let me elaborate,but bear with me

1.When I fret E (C string 4th fret) it causes the E and A strings to vibrate,which in turn causes a loud E note to reverberate,and can only be stopped by damping those 2 strings.
2 B in the G string 4th fret causes the E and B strings to do the same thing. 3The worst is the E on the G string 9th fret which cause a loud E note which seems to increase in volume the longer you leave it.Again can only be stopped my muting the E and A strings
4 A on the C string 9th fret causes the open A to ring.

So you see,playing runs and fills on this bass is spoiled by these rogue notes.I had thought of finding a way of dampening all the strings at the nut for instance,which would stop open strings from vibrating when they shouldn't (a la Scrunchie).I tried one of those but it makes no difference,because it didn't exert enough pressure.
QUESTION: Am I stuck with this problem? Has anyone had this problem and overcome it (or not,as the case may be?)Any thoughts or pointers gratefully received,as I am now reluctant to use this bass onstage in its present form.

[Bilbo]

Welcome to the world f six string bass playing. The whole string dampening thing becomes a science in itself and there are several solutions. There is a video of Kevin Glasgow on here somewhere where he has a wrist band wrapped around the neck of his bass whiilst he plays it to stop the open strings from vibrating. I foudn myself that I had to use my right hand to stop that opens strings whilst I played the upper strings. THere are other solutions and others will have something to say but, in short, you are discovering one of that hazards of Extended Range basses.

To be blunt, it was one of the reasons I never really enjoyed the instrument (mine was a Status Energy 6). Never got comfortable with it. My bad. I just didn't get anything from it that made me want to keep going.

[squire5]

Ok Bilbo.Well its reassuring,in a way,to know that it's not the bass at fault.You would need to be pretty dextrous to damp all the other notes by hand.I'll just need to find a way to damp the other strings.As I said,I tried the Scrunchie thing,but that didn't work.
I'm starting to get a bit disillusioned,like yourself,but I'll not give up.I'll see what others have to say.

[icastle]

As Bilbo says, it's all down to damping technique and familiarity with the instrument in question.
It's just practise and perserverence, but it does become automatic eventually.

I had to go away and try this out for myself before typing this because I just don't think about what I'm doing.
My fretting fingers are straight and drop onto strings to damp them as required and my playing fingers come into play as dampers if it's not possible to use my fretting fingers.
I just switch between the two as and when I need to.

I've done the transition between 4, 5 and 6 over a period of years and adapted my playing techniques to suit each transition.
I'm not sure that there are any realistic shortcuts to be had - if you like the instrument then just keep bashing away at it - it'll all fall into place and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about...

[squire5]

I hear what you're saying icastle,but what intrigues me that neither of my 5's give anything like this trouble.Is in just inherent with 6ers?And if so,how come?Thats just a generic question,by the way,I'm not asking you directly.I too have moved from 4s thru 5s and onto a 6,and it's only now I'm having this trouble.You're probably right,it is a question of technique.I'll just need to keep practising,I guess.

[icastle]

[quote name='squire5' timestamp='1317393293' post='1390303']
I hear what you're saying icastle,but what intrigues me that neither of my 5's give anything like this trouble.Is in just inherent with 6ers?And if so,how come?Thats just a generic question,by the way,I'm not asking you directly.I too have moved from 4s thru 5s and onto a 6,and it's only now I'm having this trouble.You're probably right,it is a question of technique.I'll just need to keep practising,I guess.
[/quote]

Well there are a couple of extra strings and they are generally a little closer together on the neck so more chance of passing sympathetic vibrations.

If you think back to learning how to play a 4 string, you eventually learnt how to control the strings with damping techniques to the point where you no longer realise you're doing it.
Then you made the transition to a 5, used the techniques you learned on your 4 and perhaps made a few small adaptions to them.
Now you're using a 6 it's time to use the techniques you've already got from your 4 and 5 and adapt them/add to them - it really is just a matter of practice and patience - it took me weeks of swearing to accurately pop the G string instead of the C...