Double bass buzzing…

[jonnybass]

Hi, my bass seems to have developed a buzz/rattle when playing the E string…has my sound post moved???

 

jonny

[NickD]

Not necessarily, it could be many things. I developed one when I played an A, but nothing else, and it turned out to be the endpin. Tuners are quite common too. I'd play it and do a top to bottom check to try and isolate where it's coming from.

 

I found this useful, plus there's a video up by Jason Heath that covers some other things.

 

 

[simonlittle]

Ah the endless joys of the mystery rattle!

As @NickD said, could be one of many things. My bass develops weird rattles all the time and rarely can I pinpoint where they come from. They always seem to resolve themselves. It does help to have someone else listen to the bass and see if they can find it whilst you’re playing, because guaranteed you’ll never get your ear next to wherever the problem is…

[Beedster]

Make sure your kids haven’t dropped/inserted a small plastic toy that came in a McDs Happy Meal through the F-Hole. Obvs not speaking from experience 🤔

[NickD]

1 minute ago, Beedster said:

Make sure your kids haven’t dropped/inserted a small plastic toy that came in a McDs Happy Meal through the F-Hole. Obvs not speaking from experience 🤔

Or 3 Calpol syringes, a number of Lego figures, and a 18 inch pheasant tail feather. That's what I retrieved from the F hole of my mandolin when my firstborn was a toddler.

[Beedster]

6 minutes ago, NickD said:

Or 3 Calpol syringes, a number of Lego figures, and a 18 inch pheasant tail feather. That's what I retrieved from the F hole of my mandolin when my firstborn was a toddler.

Glorious, that’s quite an eclectic selection! It might be an urban myth but I heard about a guy spending weeks removing a set of Top Trumps cards his lad had seen fit to store in his DB 😀

[jonnybass]

44 minutes ago, simonlittle said:

Ah the endless joys of the mystery rattle!

As @NickD said, could be one of many things. My bass develops weird rattles all the time and rarely can I pinpoint where they come from. They always seem to resolve themselves. It does help to have someone else listen to the bass and see if they can find it whilst you’re playing, because guaranteed you’ll never get your ear next to wherever the problem is…

Helpfully (or not) it happened in the studio, the engineer and I found it went away if we increased pressure (just a little) on the back, near the treble side, roughly opposite the bridge..thanks to a cushion and a battery pack holder for a wireless mic we eliminated the rattle for the session…I’ll check the tuners and endpin in the studio tomorrow…

 

jonny