Wolf Tones/Stratitus and New Fender American Deluxe Jazz V

[esxmac]

I just got my Fender American Deluxe Jazz V (Alder/Maple, Sunburst) last week, had my tech set it up (with DR Lo Riders SS 45-125), and noticed what I think are wolf tones on B and E up past the 12th fret, getting more pronounced as I go up the neck.

I have searched all over various forums, but I don't really know what wolf tones sound like. Is it just odd harmonics, dual notes, etc.? Does anyone know where I can hear a sample of what they (wolf tones) sound like?

I have been messing with the pickup height but I lose a lot of the tone as I lower them. Lowering the pickups does help significantly, but doesn't really get rid of them. Could it be the strings or something else?

[esxmac]

bump

[Thor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_tone

Man, I love the internet!

Cheers,

Edward

[bard2dbone]

That's the traditional definition. But it mostly only happens on bowed instruments.

Unfortunately. something very similar and a few roughly equivalent things happen on electric instruemts so we call them Wolf Tones as well.

If you are getting ANY wierd changes in your tone that only happen at certain pitches, then nowadays that gets called a wolf note or wolf tone as well.

There is typically a pretty dead spot on the G string of any Fender bass, somewhere between the 5th and 7th frets. That's actually the reason Leo made the 3+1 headstock on the StingRay and Sabre. The traditional cure is to add mass to the headstock. There are products like the Fathead and FatFinger to do that.

Are you hearing the string behind your finger resonating? When you go further up the fingerboard, does the 'extra' note get lower or higher? If that's what you're hearing, the answer is improved technique and a properly cut nut.

Less predictable are body resonances, which is what I think you might be describing. These really only get in the way at high volumes. Does the body vibrate when you're hearing the extra sounds? I mean vibrate a LOT, like someone put a marital aid in the pickup routes? That's body resonance. I don't have a fix for that... Just get a different body. Maybe a whole different bass. The answer to changing a resonant frequency would be the same as on the headstock, but the body is enough larger that to make the same difference would require a LOT of added weight, too much too be comfortable on a strap afterward.

[walterw]

in general, the low E and especially the B are just not going to sound that good past the 12th fret. you've basically got a too-short length of too-thick string at that point, so it will vibrate more like a bar than a string.

that being said, make sure the bass side of the neck pickup is not too close, as that will add to the wobblyness of the low strings played up high.

[tkozal]

I know this is the gear page....but this is the BASS area...so what the hell you doing above the 12th fret anyway? Stop it now.