Need suggestions for acoustic bass problem...

[Tedster]

Okay, if no one here hates me too much now...

 

Our bass player just bought an acoustic bass w/piezo, with the intention of using it on our acoustic set. Never have been exposed to these beasts much, it just always seemed cool.

 

Problem: An inordinate amount of string noise, fret clicks, etc. Any ideas on reducing this? I'm sure flatwound strings would help. Anyone else successfully attacked this problem?

[Guest]

Well, i hate to sound like a wise guy, but if he looked into the new Yamaha BEX4C Hollow Body he might find that will work better as it has both a piezo and a humbucking pick-up with active electronics. Dialing in the humbucker will probably squelch the string noise. But i have not tried one of these beautiful looking instruments, and have yet to find a review of one, so proceed with caution.

[SteveW]

I play an ABG for some songs in our 5 piece band, and use it full time for the occaisional trio gigs we do (acoustic gutiar, sax/flute and me). I would suggest going with flat wound strings - I have a set of Thomastik-Infield Jazz Flats on my Taylor AB-3 fretless and they sound great. I have some rounds on my fretted Taylor and tried using it the other night when I was under the weather and not feeling up to maintaining intonation all night, and it wasn't much fun - lots of fret and string noise I was not accustomed to. You should also try rolling off the highs - that usually takes care of finger noise for me. With an ABG in an acoustic setting you're probably going for a fat, thumpy URB type of sound anyway (or at least I do ;-), so you don't need a lot of highs anyway. My only ABG experience is with my Taylors, which I love, and I run their preamps with the bass almost all the way up and the treble most of the way down, otherwise they get to brassy bright and "bluegrass guitarish" - not what I'm looking for in a bass. Hope this helps,

Steve