BZZZZT! That obnoxious “electric
shock” sound of the string buzzing against the fingerboard
is not only ugly, it is absolutely unacceptable sound in
good bass playing! But how do we prevent it?
Many times it is caused by an improper set-up of the instrument:
The strings are too close to the fingerboard, and/or the
fingerboard is not well-planed. The fingerboard is not completely
flat. There is actually a very gentle “scoop” along
the length of the fingerboard. If you are having persistent
problems with string buzzes and you have an adjustable bridge,
try raising the strings a turn at a time (on both bridge
legs) and see if that helps the situation. If you don’t
have an adjustable bridge, or if you feel you have to raise
the strings much to high to avoid the buzzes, take to it
a good repairman to adjust the string height and perhaps
re-plane the fingerboard to make a more pronounced scoop.
But let’s not blame the instrument entirely…
Even with a well set-up instrument, many players have problems
with this awful sound. And if your bass is not ideally set-up,
there is still something you can do with how you use the
bow that can go a long way toward alleviating this problem.
Have you ever noticed that it is always the outer strings
(the G and E strings) that buzz and hardly ever the middle
strings (the D and A)? That is because you are drawing the
bow too close to the C-bouts of the instrument. The string
vibrates approximately parallel to the bow hair, so if you
angle the bow too far over for the G string and too far in
for the E string, you are directing the vibrations of the
string right into the fingerboard. BZZZZT!
Instead, when playing on the G string, try to keep the bow
hair as close to the D string as you can without actually
sounding the D string (of course). Likewise, when playing
on the E string, keep the bow hair hugging as close to the
A string as you can without playing the A string. Another
way of thinking of this is to imagine you are playing a 6
string bass. When playing the G string, don’t angle
the bow so far that you hit the imaginary “C” string.
And when playing on the E string, don’t angle the bow
too far in so that you hit the imaginary “B” string.
This way, the string is vibrating more parallel to the surface
of the fingerboard, and you can play surprisingly loud without
getting that awful BZZZZT!
Mark Morton
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