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

[NickA]

What manner of bass is it?  

 

Mine is a quite old carved jobbie and has several repairs inside ( glued across cracks)  some of those came loose and rattled... also the fingerboard wasn't well fixed to a wedge between it and the neck, that buzzed a bit till it fell over and the whole fingerboard came off.

 

On my cello it's usually seams coming apart ..you can find those by going around the edges and giving the front / back a sharp tap every few inches with fingers or a small rubber mallet.

 

Current most common rattle is the piezo pickup or several  times the screw up bit of the jackplug in said pickup not being screwed up tightly ( IE not the bass at all).

 

Tuners are a common issue but wouldn't be fixed by what you did with the cushion.

 

 

[jonnybass]

At the moment it’s a very pillowy bass  It’s a plywood zeller. I’ll have a closer look on Monday when it’s out of the studio. If I can’t figure it it’s a trip to the luthiers…

 

Jonny 

[Burns-bass]

So many questions…

 

Is the E rattling only on an open note or when you finger a note?

 

What does the rattle sound like? A metallic rattle will be very different to a woody “buzz”. 
 

Everyone says the same thing that you need to work though the bass from top to bottom. Start with the tuners, nut, string action, bridge, any pickup(s), end pin and then the structure of the bass (seams, etc). Then pick it up and shake it to make sure nothing is rattling around inside.

 

If you’re still experiencing a buzz, who knows!