Why am I having to finger notes so precisely?

[lownote]

Recently bought a fretted bass, a Cort A6, it's a while since I've played fretted, and I have an odd problem. I'm finding unless I finger notes very precisely I get 'fuzzy' notes sounding; almost but not quite 'rattly buzzy'.  Now you might say what's wrong with having to be precise?  Well, the problem is having to be that precise about the fingering is slowing me down. Unless the tip of my fingers is placed just so, and at just the right angle, and snuggily wuggly up right behind the fret, I get the fuzzy happening. Happens anywhere on the fingerboard, but more so as I go north of the 5th fret.  Strings are almost new Dunlop rounds. I don't remember having this issue in my first fretted incarnation.  Does anyone recognise these sympoms as indicating muppetry on my part, or an adjustment issue - and if the latter, what is it? Not aware of issues with the relative fret heights, relief is 0.3mm at the 8th fret, and the action ranges from 2.6mm - 2.0 mm across the fingerboard at the 12th.  I'd like it lower but I'm proscribed by the ridiculous bridge adjusters on the older A6, as this bass is. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by lownote

[Bunion]

If you’ve developed that soft ‘mwah’ fretless touch, you may need to fret a little harder, I love that growly buzz with flats but find it’s from fretting lighter than usual 

It could of course need a good fret dress 😄

Edited June 18, 2022 by Bunion

[velvetkevorkian]

I get this on my Conklin GTBD7, I'd hoped a fret polish and slightly higher action would sort it but no dice. Rolling off the treble can help a bit...

[Beedster]

13 hours ago, Bunion said:

If you’ve developed that soft ‘mwah’ fretless touch, you may need to fret a little harder, I love that growly buzz with flats but find it’s from fretting lighter than usual 

It could of course need a good fret dress 😄

Yep, I had a similar experience when I briefly returned to fretted, found I had to work so much harder to play everything. Jaco always said frets slowed him down, I guess the trade off for precise intonation is effort, at least if you’re used to playing fretless

[alyctes]

Thinking about it, this does sound familiar.  I just put it down to my shoddy playing. 

[Dan Dare]

I think Bunion has hit the nail on the head. Action on a fretless can be lower than on a fretted (it needs to be if you want the 'mwah', which is caused by the string buzzing slightly against the fingerboard), so you can use a softer touch. Your fingering doesn't have to be quite as precise, because you can slide/micro-correct if your intonation is a little out.

[velvetkevorkian]

I'm pretty sure there is a hardware element at least, I have one bass where it's particularly noticeable, even unplugged.

[Downunderwonder]

7 hours ago, alyctes said:

Thinking about it, this does sound familiar.  I just put it down to my shoddy playing. 

Same, except now I am wondering if it isn't that I subconsciously want to correct the small differences that result from frets being an approximation depending on what key you are playing in. Nah, my intonation is not what anyone would call good.

[zbd1960]

2 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Same, except now I am wondering if it isn't that I subconsciously want to correct the small differences that result from frets being an approximation depending on what key you are playing in. Nah, my intonation is not what anyone would call good.

Your ears could well notice that. I’m working on some movements from a Bach cello suite with my cello teacher. The movement is in d min, but has a crucial Eb and my teacher has me playing it much flatter than I’d expect to for fingering Eb on the bottom C string. It makes a noticeable difference using ‘just’ intonation in this case. On a fretted instrument I’d have no choice, it would have to be an ET Eb which would be sharper and not as good.

[alyctes]

9 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Same, except now I am wondering if it isn't that I subconsciously want to correct the small differences that result from frets being an approximation depending on what key you are playing in. Nah, my intonation is not what anyone would call good.

 

Ah, interesting.  Hadn't occurred to me as a possible source of "wrongness".

[Jakester]

On 19/06/2022 at 20:27, velvetkevorkian said:

I'm pretty sure there is a hardware element at least, I have one bass where it's particularly noticeable, even unplugged.

Could be higher frets on that particular bass?

[zbd1960]

I should add by way of explanation... that in some form of just intonation, flats should be 'flatter' and sharps should be 'sharper'. For example Eb (the note I was dealing with above) needs to be flatter than an equal temperament Eb and the related D# should be sharper than its ET value. ET averages them out meaning they are slightly out-of-tune compared to just intonation.