Clicking Sound When Playing, what am i doing wrong and how can i stop this? Options

[Jollygreengiant1]

ive recently noticed that sometimes when i pick the strings a clicking noise is produced, ive tried different positions on the body when playing but it still continues, could you please give me advice on how to resolve this problem?

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[Bogdan Radovic]

Hello,

Hmm that clicking sound is pretty common when playing bass and a lot of bassist have it and produce it intentionally (Steve Harris).Its my preference as well so I try to make it click as much as I can when I play. Depends a lot on the bass type, on the my Jazz bass clicks are very "loud" and hard to get rid off but on my Peavey Cirrus they are less produced and everything, so it has to do with the pickups type too. In order to remove them (if you don't like them so much) you can try picking softer with less force, also try to keep your picking fingers very close to the string when picking.When I want to make a loud click I move my picking fingers away from strings in order to get a head start (throttle) and then go down the string hard.So you want to do opposite of that and keep your fingers close to the string when picking.If you lower the force you are picking with they will disappear. You can try pushing your picking hand forward so that you are picking kinda upwards towards your resting thumb and not towards the body of the bass - that will remove clicks as well. Last you can try a higher action on your bass to remove clicks some more. Lowering treble on bass/amp could help too.

This is an interesting topic, I never thought much about it (I love clicks ). Tell me if you can make them disappear using these tips and if tips are clear enough for you. (its hard to describe in words some motions I covered here).

Cheers,
Bogdan Radovic

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This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Jul 6 2009, 12:07 PM