advice needed please?

I have decided to learn to play bass and brought myself a Fender Mex P. I tuned the strings and everything was fine. However I have noticed that a couple of the strings, the A string in particular, are vibrating a hell of a lot when plucked!

Could this mean it needs tightening up? Or is it the way I am plucking the strings?

You could be plucking them too hard. Loosen up a little, see if that helps.

I'm not too sure of any other causes of excessive vibration.

Thanks. I will give it a go!

Are you getting fret buzz at all while playing?

You will have to forgive me for being a complete dumkopf! I presume that by fret buzz you mean the strings vibrating on the frets? If that is the case then yes!

It makes a buzzing noise through the speaker instead of the note you're trying to play, sounds damn awful

Do you know what string you put on?
If you still have the packet could you also tell us the numbers on the packet, they correspond to the gauges (thicknesss) of the strings
Cheers

With the bass you should have got a small hex key. Use this to raise the saddle on the A string. That will slightly increase the tension, reducing how much the strings vibrate, and also help against the fret buzz.

The saddle screws are these ones:

Many thanks for the answers!

The strings were pre attached to the bass when I brought it so I am not sure what they are, sorry!

I will attempt to tighten the string as per the instructions above.

My other half and I thought it was my fault as in not holding the string down on the fret properly.

Another question I have is regards tuning. The bass came with an electric tuner which has proper bamboozled me. I sort of understand how it works but cant work it properly. It came with a lead and clip attached to it. Where does the clip attach to tune the strings? Also how often should it need tuning? I ask as I have noticed after two/three days the D string seems a bit flat!

Stick it on the headstock. Personally, I tune my bass all the time. I hate having my bass out of tune, even only slightly

Just check the tuning before you start playing. Once a day or once in two days is more than enough.
My strings usually get "fixed" after a week of playing and I never need to retune them.

About the fret buzz. Don't pluck TOO hard. You can pluck hard, just don't overdue it.
For that suggestion that Smaz gave you, check how close the strings actualy are to the fret board. Mine are very close and they DO make a lot of noise when I pluck them, but that disappears in the amp.
Bass strings tend to vibrate more than guitar strings...so keep that in mind as well.
Finally, if you get a lot of fret buzz a good idea is to keep your fretting finger as close the end of the fret. From the head towards the end of the neck the notes are divided by those metal lines, by the end of a fret I mean closer to the line thats away from the head (If you get what I mean). Keep your finger as close to it, but not ON the metal line and you should get a cleaner tone.

Smaz wrote:With the bass you should have got a small hex key. Use this to raise the saddle on the A string. That will slightly increase the tension, reducing how much the strings vibrate, and also help against the fret buzz.

The saddle screws are these ones:

I haven't got a key for them so I used my fingers once. Ouchy.

to add to the above posts, Check how your plucking hand is positioned when playing the bass, sometimes I get this problem when my fingers are slightly angled at the strings instead of directly down, when I pluck the strings its gives a weird sound. I just reposition my hand to accommodate.

All that help will be put to practice later.

As to the above my plucking fingers are at a bit of a funny angle!

The problem could be a combo of all things mentioned.
If you havn't watch Dman's lessons and watch how he frets and plucks the strings...there are several good ones. Also think about taking a few lessons from an experienced bass player that can give you some pointers in person...these technique lessons can really get you started with some good skills that you can then practice. get a book and play the beginner exercises...these usually come with a CD that you can listen to and try and emulate...most of all have fun.

froom a noob my self , was getting slight buzz had a fiddle with set up (dont do unless confident and plenty of good vids on youtube)improved it a lot as this is one of the cheapies bass too see if i wanted to learn, but the best thing i done wich not so much changed the sound but the playing was better on the thingers and and much less string noies , was to put Ernie Ball silky smooth on ,yes and they are smooth too, so much better than the nasty strings that came with it.
just a fought!!

kasief64 wrote:I'm a noob myself and I had problems with fret buzz too. I messed with the setup (don't do this unless you're confident and have plenty of good video's on YouTube) and improved it a lot. It was a cheap bass, you see (I just wanted to see if I wanted to learn bass). The best thing, however, was something which didn't change the sound that much, but played easier, with a lot less string noise. I put Ernie Ball's Silky Smooth Strings on the bass. They're so much better than the strings that came with the bass

Fixed, now it's readable.

^ well done my good sir, you made that post readable (it is actually helpful now, no offence to the original author)