I wrapped my bass strings with electrical tape just above the pickups to eliminate pops...

...is nice.

oh and BTW,

I suggest that you put the electrical tape on the pickup and not the string.

It is transparent to the pickup's function and it will not dampen the string vibration.

Hi, Mike. I was actually moaning about this a couple weeks ago to the forum. SOMEBODY broke the housing on the pickup so I can't lower it on the low E side. I am ever so pissed about it and can't afford to replace it right now. I raised the action up but it wasn't enough. I was actually going to put the tape right on the pick up as you mentioned but I opted to put it on the strings instead. It actually gives it a very nice soft tone to the sound which is great for the blues track I'm currently working on. However when I REALLY dig in I'm still getting a the odd pop because there is still just a little bit of the strings exposed above the pickups so I might go ahead and put a couple of strips above and below the poles to eliminate that as well. When I use a pick they aren't really any problems so I may remove the tape on the strings for heavier stuff like my metal tunes to get more attack. Just thought I'd share with the forum. :-)

note: when I first started to read the topic..... my mind saw it as....

I wrapped my bass strings with BECON!!!!

what a disappointment to see it was electrical tape....certainly not as delicious.

Yeah... you know how finicky and hairy bass can be on recordings sometimes (especially for a guitar player such as myself). This seems to reign it in a little. I want to avoid a lot of limiting/compression if at all possible because I think that really takes away from a performance. Also... BECAN!!!

@jonbouy... As I was doing it I started having vague recollections of reading about this technique. One other nice side benefit is you know how sometimes on bass, especially on the low E, when you play a big open note the string will start to vibrate out of control and start contacting the the frets causing a little buzz or unwanted harmonics... or even wobble pitch? This seems to help reduce that as well. Still wish that assclown hadn't broke my pick up though. So annoying. The thing was covered in shmootz too... even blood. I essentially had to sterilize the whole guitar. It was gross.

I've been assuming you were using the tape as an electrical insulator.

Was your primary interest actually in dampening the sting vibration?


best,
mike

@mike... That was the original purpose but it ended up having all sorts of neato side benefits I did not anticipate. Like I said... is nice. :-)

@old55 and craig... Ya'll sillay. ;-p

And where the heck is bapu? I figured he'd be all over this... unless he's being muffled with duct tape. *eyeballs craig with suspicion side glances*

Beepster


And where the heck is bapu? I figured he'd be all over this... unless he's being muffled with duct tape. *eyeballs craig with su****ion side glances*

craigb


I wrapped my bass player with duct tape.  That eliminated lots of noises.

Heck, Tony Levin is known to have used ... diapers!

Naw... even with an ideal set up I think I'd be getting the occasional bad pop (pickup... not intentional fretboard pop). I'm used to playing with a pick so sometimes when I get a little over excited with my fingy's I hamfist my way into the pickup. I'll learn though. My index and middle fingertips are quite raw at the moment. lolzerz...

It sort of reminds me of the tea towel drum thing.

Since a couple of drum libraries have come out featuring this what they call 'vintage technique' that was the 'trade secret' of many studio engineers, I've even seen discussions of whether towelling or Irish linen has the best tonal qualities to achieve this effect....lol

I always thought the idea was to use whatever you have at your disposal to get the thing you're after down, now you need a certificate of approval from Berklee and some planning permission from the experts before you are allowed to get creative now it can seem.

Man, I've even had to run out of a recording down to the nearest radio shack to get a £5 PZM mic so the engineer could play out my last take into a public toilet block and have me sit and record the 'room' there because it wasn't sounding right from the studio mics.  I had to time it right so we could play out the entire track without somebody flushing from the next cubicle...lol.  We weren't worried about phase issues and stuff, somebody taking a dump next-door was far more of a concern.

I wonder if I should share that tip in the Techniques forum?...I'd probably get ducked for promoting some kind of witchcraft...

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my future ex wife... http://www.youtube.com/wa...PFaIfU&feature=related (...and no I don't mean Jeff Beck lulz).

That was a joke. I've never met Tal nor do I have any plans to divorce her. I just like her playing.

I don't see any apparent modifications but you can never tell these days.