Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

My bass has pretty good tone and it plays really nice. (It is a Schecter Diamond Elite-4 w/EMG-HZ active pickups).

The problem is I can hear clicks when my left hand touches the strings to the frets. I also get alot of scraping noise noise from fingertips sliding on the strings. It gets worse the faster and busier I play.

It is less noticable when I lower the tone but it is still there.

How do I keep a brite tone and get rid of the garbage sounds?

sounds like your finger position is wrong, make sure, you're using the tips, and not the pads, that'll help clean alot of it up, the rest sounds like it lies in your plucking hand, seems like you are applying pressure down on the string, as you pluck which is causing the string to touch the pickup and "click"
I had the same issue, when I went from a low grade p-bass knock off with poor action, to my new LTD with great action..I had to alter the angle of attack when I plucked, so the string moves parallel to the face of the pick up as opposed to down towards the pickup.

Try that and see if it makes any difference, assuming you don't already do this, in which case, I don't know what mechanically would cause that, maybe have the bass set up by a tech, shouldn't cost much..

Thanks Tronix. I do sometimes find myself playing too close to the neck while letting my angle of attack get too flat, but this is different. Thanks for the reminder tho.

The action is low but the neck has the perfect shape to tolerate it.

I am starting to think it is the medium Blue Steel Cryos I put on a couple of weeks ago.

When I put them on, I was high on how bright and chimey they were. But they may be too bright.

Even unplugged and trying to be gentle, there is a brite "click" when the string contacts the fret.

I may try some roto sound med-lights.

I can always put these blues on my old beater bass with 25 year old strings, I suppose.

There are 400 different bass strings at Guitar Center so I dunno?

Thanks Tronix. I do sometimes find myself playing too close to the neck while letting my angle of attack get too flat, but this is different. Thanks for the reminder tho.

The action is low but the neck has the perfect shape to tolerate it.

I am starting to think it is the medium Blue Steel Cryos I put on a couple of weeks ago.

When I put them on, I was high on how bright and chimey they were. But they may be too bright.

Even unplugged and trying to be gentle, there is a brite "click" when the string contacts the fret.

I may try some roto sound med-lights.

I can always put these blues on my old beater bass with 25 year old strings, I suppose.

There are 400 different bass strings at Guitar Center so I dunno?

The Med blue steels are bright, I used a set of those on my p-bass knockoff, because the cheap passive electronics, needed all the help they could get, and they we're tremendous for that but i don't know if I'd use a set on my active bass, for the exact reason you just said..well when you figure it out, keep me informed, I deal with the same thing from time to time, I always assumed it was my technique getting sloppy. The worst part about GC having 400 different sets, is that the store here in Tampa, is never quite sure what string would be best for various applications, when I was looking for a brighter string for my p-bass, I had to just randomly pick one, because they had no clue.

compressor would limit that noise. (not eliminate but def drop it down with no change to your approach)

also get some nylon coated strings. I have 'em on my fretless and they have an interesting tone. they def eliminate a lot of string noise... but they aren't for everyone because it's a bit like turning your tone knob down.
still, I love em for slap pop...

also, I hate eq's... but you could get a para eq or wide range graphic eq and place a shelf right up to where your high strings ring.
tone knob really drops a wide range of high freq so finding something that can drop the highs you don't want and keep the ones you do might help (assuming no 10 string bass).

All I can say is WOW.

I plugged the bass into my fender bassman250 and the noise is gone.

I was using my little Ibenez practice amp when I was getting those sounds.

It is like all of a sudden I do not sound like a caveman on the strings.

Thanks for your help fellas.