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So I got myself a bass again... finally

ChillinBuzz	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 10:38 AM It's a cheap sh*t thing but it plays ok. The intonation needs adjusting but that's a minor issue. The problems I'm experiencing are more to do with vibration or resonance. I've checked the frets, the heads, the neck and body screws, in fact all of it... I just can't work out what the hell is resonating somewhere around the join between the neck and body, when I play around the Ab (6th fret E string). It happens in a couple of other places but this is the worst one and yes, you can just hear it through the amp too... Really weird. So yeah, that's the main issue. I got another one. Why is it people think bassists who use picks are somehow inferior? I've always used fingers and picks (picking right now because I've blistered my fingers getting back into shape lol)... So...
ChillinBuzz	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 10:41 AM No, I don't know the type of strings or brand. They were already on it.
ChillinBuzz	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 10:52 AM Probably easier to note me with suggestions, since this thread will get buried (Thanks Zed!). Any help would be appreciated.
zedsalt	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 10:55 AM This may sound like an odd question, but have you tried playing the offending note through the same set up but in a different room? I ask because a couple that I jammed with for a while had a space where one of the dominant freq's was the G on a standard-tuned guitar. In all of the tunings I was using that had a string tuned to that G, I couldn't even set the guitar down without dampening that string!
ChillinBuzz	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 10:57 AM I'm getting the vibration out in the hallway, standing up rather than sitting down which is what I was doing in here. Doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm not amped at the moment either because the old man's taking a nap, so I can hear fretboard & string noise a lot more too.
ChillinBuzz	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 11:01 AM I'll say one thing, it doesn't happen on every note, yet I've tried dampening the other strings and even the same string before the 6th fret... But the resonance isn't consistent... Now it's driving me mad.
pog	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 7:45 PM Could be so many things. Nut groove is ready for replacing because it's too worn. String gauge could be too low for the setup... try a new set of strings in a different brand or gauge first. Action needs to be higher. Truss rod needs tweeking... to any beginners reading this, truss rod procedures are better off left to experienced, as it's very easy to ruin a neck if over adjusted! Screw loose? (in the bass, not the player... if it was me playing then okay, maybe the player ) Neck relief... maybe the neck has been treated badly and the join between the body and the neck or the screws are loosened. Good luck buzz man.
ChillinBuzz	Date: November 21, 2007 @ 7:56 PM bear in mind it's a cheap bass, Pog. good chance i may just take the whole thing apart and give it a good check. the neck seems to be straight though. nut groove? que? action needs to be higher? you mean as in strings rattling against the fretboard? no, it's not that. the strings are not rattling so it's not the action otherwise it would occur over a much wider area. truss rod adjustment - not worth the price i paid for the guitar, would be better off having a crack myself but not going to touch it. again, a badly adjusted truss rod would not exhibit the resonance issue in the manner i'm getting it. possibly a loose screw? the vibrations are not coming from the screws nor did i find any loose ones (except myself). i stated the noise is coming from around the join between neck and body... the screws are not loose and nothing else seems to be either. as for the strings, a new set soon will determine whether it is them but i don't think it is.
zedsalt	Date: November 22, 2007 @ 11:04 AM I misunderstood the problem. It's not that it's resonating uncontrollably; it's making an unwanted noise, right? If it sounds like a string rattling against a fret, don't dismiss neck adjustment just because the problem's not widespread. Eighty or ninety-some percent of the time when a string buzzes a fret, it only happens on one string at one fret. The spot where the sound is coming from probably has a lot of folks thinking neck adjustment.