Little electric clicky noises recording DI bass

[Monkey Allen]

Hi, I've searched a lot for a solution but can't really even find anything online that matches what I'm getting so...

DI bass...Fender P bass (made in Mexico about 3 years old in great shape) into my RME Fireface...sounds great but in certain situations (especially when playing lines or runs that go from the D string to the G string - the smallest 2 strings on the bass and especially runs that are above about the 6th fret or so) I get these sharp, electronic sounding little clicking sounds particularly on the attack of the pluck/ played string. It's impossible to record like this because they just kill everything. They do record onto the track and when I hear them that's it for the take. If you're playing a song that uses a lot of D and G strings from mid to high on the fret board it's more often than not you get these clicks. Not on every single hit...and I can't reproduce them consistently. They appear to just click when they want. If you know what I mean.

My electric guitars don't do this when I record DI with them. Only the bass.

What it's not:

- it's not high pickups on the bass
- it's not the strings touching the pickups
- it's not because I'm playing too hard
- it's not the pick or my fingers coming into contact with the pickups
- it's not because I'm using a pick...it happens fingerstyle too
- I'm not clipping the inputs...not even close
- the RME input is not faulty
- the string action is not too low
- it's not sample rate issues, latency or anything like that
- it's not having my hand resting (or not resting) on the strings while I play. I've tried both ways. The same sharp electronic clicks still occur.
- it's not a lot of things

More accurately what it sounds like...it's almost like that kind of sound you might get when you've been walking over carpet and you touch a metal door handle or something and you get that little zap. Only it's a higher, sharper pitch than a zap. It's highly annoying. Sometimes its a single little sharp electronic sounding click. Sometimes you get a little series of them on top of each other. But I can not reproduce them. There's no pattern I can determine. I can play a couple of bars and not get any clicks. Then I can play that exact couple of bars and I'll get the clicks.

What I think might be causing it:

- Bad, non existent, shoddy shielding in the cavity of the guitar.
- Something about the grounding
- A dodgy connection somewhere along the line
- Cheap crap pickups (these are the ones that came with the bass)
- The devil

I've searched this online but I've never found an answer. If you have any suggestions let me know, thanks.

I'm going to open her up and have a look inside soon. I think I've read that Fender skimps on proper shielding etc. They still charge $1000 Australian for these MiM basses. In fact I think they are closer to $1300 these days. So, you know, you'd think they could put together a bass that doesn't click my brain to pieces.

Cheers

 

[JAPOV]

I once had a similar problem in my garage play-room... Found a dead bug bouncing around between my speaker cone and bell

 

[TalismanRich]

You can get static discharge if your fingers rub on certain plastic pickguards. I got lots of it on my G&L Legacy until I coated the underside in copper sheilding and grounded that. It happens a lot in the winter when the air gets dry. You can try taking a dryer sheet and rubbing it on the surface of the guard. Dryer sheets contain a conductive substance that allows the static to dissipate.

All guitar manufacturers should use a slightly conductive plastic to make the guard, and that would alleviate the problem entirely.

 

[rob aylestone]

Can we hear it? Otherwise we're guessing

 

[ecc83]

Do check that a string is not clicking against a nail on a fretting finger. Next, get a meter and check that each string is continuous to the jack shield.

But yes, as Rob says we need to harken unto thee!

Dave.

 

[Monkey Allen]

I once had a similar problem in my garage play-room... Found a dead bug bouncing around between my speaker cone and bell

Ha! Well, yeah this is DI bass so no bugs around the speaker cone.

You can get static discharge if your fingers rub on certain plastic pickguards. I got lots of it on my G&L Legacy until I coated the underside in copper sheilding and grounded that. It happens a lot in the winter when the air gets dry. You can try taking a dryer sheet and rubbing it on the surface of the guard. Dryer sheets contain a conductive substance that allows the static to dissipate.

All guitar manufacturers should use a slightly conductive plastic to make the guard, and that would alleviate the problem entirely.

Hard to say that's definitely the cause because I've done it where no part of my picking hand touches anything on the bass at all and the electric clicks still come. Shielding issues in general...personally I think you're onto something there.

Can we hear it? Otherwise we're guessing

Yep, I've just recorded a couple of clips as examples. I'll upload them to this reply if I can.

Do check that a string is not clicking against a nail on a fretting finger. Next, get a meter and check that each string is continuous to the jack shield.

But yes, as Rob says we need to harken unto thee!

Dave.

Nope, no string on nail or finger. I have not done the meter check. Defo will note that suggestion, thanks.

The files attached are straight up DI. Took me a little while of playing before they started to make themselves known. The sound to me is like a little electric tearing sound. The tracks were recorded nowhere near clipping. I've increased the volume by 8db or so. There's nothing on the tracks. Listen for the little electric sounding clicking/ tearing sound.

 

[JAPOV]

Sounds like a thin pick raking the string slightly to me...

Also sounds like you may be obsessing just a bit... lol

 

[Monkey Allen]

Sounds like a thin pick raking the string slightly to me...

Also sounds like you may be obsessing just a bit... lol

No it's not that, there's no raking of the string. So you think all those clicks are acceptable and normal?

 

[Monkey Allen]

So here's a brief discussion from 2011 that is similar to my issue:






So, I might have to go get some meters and what not. I don't know anything about measuring ohms and all that. But this guy seems to have corrected the shielding basically and he had success. If anyone can kind of interpret what this guy did and add to it here, then thanks a lot.

 

[JAPOV]

No it's not that, there's no raking of the string. So you think all those clicks are acceptable and normal?

I would certainly have trouble hearing them in a full mix.
However, that check I get from the VA every month for the ringing in my ears may have something to do with that lol...

Seriously though, are you sure your monitors aren't exaggerating that frequency somehow?
Also, if it is an electronic/grounding issue, would it be keeping time with you?

 

[Monkey Allen]

I would certainly have trouble hearing them in a full mix.
However, that check I get from the VA every month for the ringing in my ears may have something to do with that lol...

Seriously though, are you sure your monitors aren't exaggerating that frequency somehow?

That's just the thing JAPOV...when the bass is mixed and part of the full mix those little electronic tearing sounds stand out even more. They can't be surgically removed from the bass track because they are baked in and attempted removal ruins the overall bass sound. If I couldn't hear them in a full mix I wouldn't bother worrying about it. But they are there. The 2 clips I posted are just bad. Anyone having tracked like that would just say do it again those tracks are unusable. For one thing, they stand out in a full mix, for another, they totally put you off when you're playing.

No, all my monitors and headphones are not exaggerating the sound. It's just blatant bad sound. It's an electronic clicking/ tearing sound that just shouldn't be there. If you think it's fine that's ok. I just think they are objectively bad and a solution is in order. You can't play bass like that with all these electronic clicks. And you can't mix such a track into a full production full of little electronic tearing clicks. That's crazy.

I don't know if it would be keeping time with me if it's an electronic grounding issue. As I said, I can't reproduce the issue consistently. For all I know there's some kind of intermittent or even random shielding thing going on. I don't know. That's why I'm here.

 

[JAPOV]

What effects are you using. I sometimes get a weird sound when I use a limiter...
Describe the entire line up in those recordings.

 

[Monkey Allen]

No effects. The clips I posted are raw tracks. As described.

 

[RFR]

You can get static discharge if your fingers rub on certain plastic pickguards. I got lots of it on my G&L Legacy until I coated the underside in copper sheilding and grounded that. It happens a lot in the winter when the air gets dry. You can try taking a dryer sheet and rubbing it on the surface of the guard. Dryer sheets contain a conductive substance that allows the static to dissipate.

All guitar manufacturers should use a slightly conductive plastic to make the guard, and that would alleviate the problem entirely.

Here’s your answer.

Copper shielding tape can be costly and you have to order online and wait..... but aluminum tape such as Plummer’s use is readily available at most any hardware store and it’s relatively inexpensive.

The static charge is looking for a way get to ground, and without shielding, it chooses you as it’s path to ground..... and clicks.

 

[Monkey Allen]

Here’s your answer.

Copper shielding tape can be costly and you have to order online and wait..... but aluminum tape such as Plummer’s use is readily available at most any hardware store and it’s relatively inexpensive.

The static charge is looking for a way get to ground, and without shielding, it chooses you as it’s path to ground..... and clicks.

Thanks, yeah I think it's something really close to this. I have tried picking the strings with no part of my picking hand or fingers touching the pickguard, pickups or any part of the guitar...only the pick itself...and I still get the clicks. The transfer leading to static could be occurring from the pick itself. Dunno. It's plastic so I wouldn't think it would carry static...WAIT...it could be coming from my fretting hand too. Didn't think of that. But I think you're right about the static. This sounds extremely likely to me. I mean, static...that's pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

I already have copper tape a-plenty so I might try getting in there and shielding things as best I can. I'll look up some guides online etc.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[ecc83]

You can buy an anti-static cleaning foam. Don't spray the bass! Put some foam on a cloth and wipe the strings and pick guard with it. If it is static even millions of "Ohms" will kill it.

Amazon.co.uk

Ambersil! That's the stuff, used tons of it in the TV trade. Not really expensive since it is really good cleaner for lots of things. Tolex on amps being just one.

Dave.

 

[Monkey Allen]

You can buy an anti-static cleaning foam. Don't spray the bass! Put some foam on a cloth and wipe the strings and pick guard with it. If it is static even millions of "Ohms" will kill it.

Amazon.co.uk

Ambersil! That's the stuff, used tons of it in the TV trade. Not really expensive since it is really good cleaner for lots of things. Tolex on amps being just one.

Dave.

Interesting. It's currently unavailable. But I can look around. So what does it do? Prevents static? For how long?

 

[ecc83]

Interesting. It's currently unavailable. But I can look around. So what does it do? Prevents static? For how long?

Oh, it's not permanent but I would guess several days. We used it on TV screens because CRTs were glass and if you rubbed them with a clean cloth WHOOOOSH they sucked up all the **** in creation (the lady of the house was often very interested in this industrial product and if she was fit I would often give her one..A CAN OF SPRAY that is!)

I saw other a-s sprays on the net other than Ambersil. OK I would think but test on a back corner of the bass first.

Dave.

 

[rob aylestone]

You've got a gremlin in the works. The waveform has lots of nasty little miscoding in it - the ones that line up with starts of notes are just more obvious - but they seem to be random bits of noise, or VERY steep jumps in the levels - and speakers cannot cope with these nor the electronics so the little clicks are the harmonics from the very sharp almost square wave start.

Cause wise? probably not levels, because those clips were modest in amplitude - so probably either a dodgy driver, which could always be removed or updated as a start, or a proper hardware fault - but that would be rare, I think. If you plug the DI output into some other device that would either click or not click. Not clicking points again to the AD process but if it did click, then if it's an active DI - could that be the problem? I don't think it's static, despite sounding like it - but the waveform suggests something else. If both pickups do it, discount the bass, and look for electronics.

 

[RFR]

I had a listen. Now I’m doubting the static theory being the cause of the clicks.
(Although, shielding the p/g is still a good idea)


So now, it feels like we’re in the twilight zone episode.


I remember back in the earlier days of cellphones weird stuff happening.

I’d be working while listening to the stereo and would hear some strange electronic noises coming through the speakers.

Then 2 seconds later my phone would ring. I started noticing this being quite a regular phenomenon. This would do this with any visitor’s phones as well.

So fast forward to late 2023. A buddy stops by with the latest iPhone in tow, as he always does. A walking loyal Apple advertisement he is.

But let’s get to the point. We’re checking out a new guitar of his........and wait for it......

I hear a ticking noise coming through the amp!!! Twilight zone stuff.

He says, “oh, that’s just my phone” and moves it away. The ticking immediately stops

So in closing, I don’t know what your clicking problem is, even though I thought I did yesterday.

I do know, in this time and space, we are bombarded with all kind of electronic garbage floating around.

Just food for thought.