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Post subject: Rattle on E and A fretted notes
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 4:05 am
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Hi all,
I bought a Fender pro P. a month ago, awesome bass and it sounds very nice.
I did swap stock strings with roto 77 flats with the same gauge as soon as i opened the case. I noticed that there's a weird soft rattle when i play fretted notes, this rattle is not amplified, it's there with the bass unplugged.
It's more evident between 1th to 5th frets and becomes subtle the more i play down the neck.
If i play with a soft cloth between the fret and the string it stops, i just don't know what is going on.
I believe it could be a loose truss rod?
Anyone with more experience than me could hint what the problem is
Thanks


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Post subject: Re: Rattle on E and A fretted notes
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:19 am
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:14 pm
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Location: Linningrad
Bleak9 wrote:
Hi all,
I bought a Fender pro P. a month ago, awesome bass and it sounds very nice.
I did swap stock strings with roto 77 flats with the same gauge as soon as i opened the case. I noticed that there's a weird soft rattle when i play fretted notes, this rattle is not amplified, it's there with the bass unplugged.
It's more evident between 1th to 5th frets and becomes subtle the more i play down the neck.
If i play with a soft cloth between the fret and the string it stops, i just don't know what is going on.
I believe it could be a loose truss rod?
Anyone with more experience than me could hint what the problem is
Thanks

I seriously doubt the truss rod is just loose rattling around inside your neck. Take your bass to a competent luthier or technician as four ears are better than two. He should pick up on the source rather quickly and have a fix. It would be a good idea to have your bass professionally set for that flatwound stringset anyway.

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Post subject: Re: Rattle on E and A fretted notes
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:48 am
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I was hoping for a fix by myself, but oh well it's time to bring it to a luthier i guess yeah.
It's not that much of a problem as i can live with this subtle rattle, but at least he should be able to sort it out.
Thanks for the reply


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Post subject: Re: Rattle on E and A fretted notes
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:28 am
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Rock Star
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:14 pm
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Location: Linningrad
Bleak9 wrote:
I was hoping for a fix by myself, but oh well it's time to bring it to a luthier i guess yeah.
It's not that much of a problem as i can live with this subtle rattle, but at least he should be able to sort it out.
Thanks for the reply

You're welcome Bleak9. If it were a loose truss rod it would rattle all the time with every note. You could shake the bass and hear it. With high tension flatwounds you'd have so much bow it would be hard to fret and the intonation would be all off. Also if you knew how to set up a bass properly you would have already done so. The first thing is to set your neck relief. On your bass it is twelve thousandths of an inch (0.012 ") at the 8th fret. If you knew how to do that you would have also adjusted your truss rod to acomplish that setting. Then on to string height adjustment and finially setting the intonation at the bridge. Since you haven't mentioned doing any of this yourself, it truly is time to take it to a professional for a complete set up. Ask for the action to be set at the nut too. Some include this crucial step and some do not, so be sure to ask.

Another thing is Rotosound 77 flats are very stiff and should be strung through the bridge and not the body.

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2012 Lefty American Standard Jazz
2017 Lefty American Professional Precision
2018 Rumble Studio 40 Combo
2016 Rumble 200 Combo
One day they shall name a GREAT city after me, and they shall call it LINNINGRAD


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Post subject: Re: Rattle on E and A fretted notes
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:03 am
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yeah sorry i omitted that i went through the whole setup process first before making a post here.

Neck relief is about 0.31 mm (0,012 inches) at 8th fret, and action at 16th fret is about 3.5 mm (0,13 inches).
Intonation looks fine aswell (12th harmonics are at the same pitch of 12th fretted notes).
No "typical" buzzes on fretboard so far, the bass itself sounds a beast when i play through the amp or headphones. It's just this subtle rattle that ruins the perfection, but again it's quite impossible to hear it when i play with the bass plugged.

I made sure every screw is tight as much as it can, i took off strings 1 by 1 to see if it was some winding issue on some peg, but i'm clearly missing something at this point. The weird thing is all open notes are perfects, not a single trace of rattle, that's why everything at the headstock should be fine i think at least...

One thing left to try is to restring them top load the bridge instead through the body, as you suggested. Although Rotosound said these RS77 flats can be stringed through the body without problems, but who knows at this point.

If that fails aswell, it's time to get it to a more competent person.


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Post subject: Re: Rattle on E and A fretted notes
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:00 pm
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One thing you might want to check is that the hex screws for the string height adjustment are all making contact with the bridge plate. I have experienced where if both screws are not evenly adjusted, that can sometimes give you a buzz or rattle. This is easily cured.

What you need to do is use the correct hex wrench and make sure that they are all snug against the bridge plate. Not so much that you change the string height, just enough to feel they are making contact. As I stated before, this has happened to me a couple of time with different instruments and was easily remedied. I hope this is helpful.

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