*tick*tick*tick

[rjgoos]

Mr Infinity brought up a good topic, that I think bears discussing.

He mentioned the little attack *tick*tick*tick that sometimes comes through when playing a tap instrument.

What makes this problem worse? Too high of action? Too heavy of strings?

What makes me aware of this, is that my wife and I were checking out a sound system at church, where we will play on Sunday. I normally don't have a noticeable *tick* through my amp or headphones with my Stick, but it did seem to come through more with the sound system we were using. So, does the sound system make a difference??

So, what makes this *tick* and how do we stamp it out???


Jay

[James]

The action and the strings can be responsable for this sound quality. One of Stanley Jordan's articles stresses the importance over a very low action. If the action isn't low enough, the attack of the finger tapping the string is heard rather than the string hitting the fret. With string heaviness there would be a trade-off in resonance if you used lighter gauges. I find the wound 25-35s tap the best, but obviously I couldn't have them throughout the whole instrument

Possibly the unwanted vibrations of the other side of the string from the nut can contribute towards this ticking sound

I have recently got into the habit of using my hand as an extra dampener nearer to where I am playing. The further you are up the fretboard, the more necessary this becomes but this can probably vary according to how good the string dampener is in the first place. The original Warr manual that I had suggests weaving the dampener around the strings for the best type of dampening, but when it passes over a string wouldn't it just let that string vibrate more? Bill Burke has made a sort of capo-dampener out of a piece of fabric that he can move around his 8-string Artist. I don't notice any ticking sounds in his recordings. Maybe you could try something similar?

James

[Jersey Ray]

One thing worth mentioning is that our instruments are percussive by nature, so we should embrace this sound to some extent and use it as a positive force in our music.

Having said that - I think I know what you mean by "tick tick". Normally I play through a guitar amp type system. But - I remember, the first time I ever played through some effect boxes right into my 4 track, and I had headphones on, I thought "what happenned?, it sounds so sterile now!".

So, I might argue that it's better to use a warm crispy tube amp and some nice guitar cabs, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, than a true hi fi system, if you fear the 'tick'. If you are playing live, mike the cabs instead of going direct.

But remember, its all subjective.

One last note, I remmeber Frank J commenting that the bolt on neck does a nuce job of suppressing the click, compared to neck through.

Ray

[murphy]

Hey RJ,

I would think at least one way to attack this problem is with EQ. If you had a good parametric EQ, or a special "notch" EQ, you could first experiment to find the main frequency of the "tick" and then squash it with the EQ. Of course this type of solution is always a trade-off. I also doubt a standard stomp-box EQ would do the trick so maybe it's kinda academic unless you've got a really nice parametric EQ in your rig that could handle this effectively. If this solution interests you, I'd talk to a real sound engineer about it because this stuff can be tricky.

cheers,
murph

[chippendale]

Hi there,

I own both a 10 string Chapman Stick and a 12 sting Warr Artist.

I've also noticed the 'tick tick' when playing but mostly on the Warr Guitar.

It seems to be the strings 'bouncing' on the rubber damper of the Warr when tapping a note. I've never noticed this sound through amplification, only when practicing acoustically. The Stick has a fur damper which fairs a lot better, (in fact I can't think of hearing a 'tick' on my Stick).

With the source of the 'tick' being behind the playing hand I'm surprised that some of you have experienced this 'noise' through your stack/PA but I suppose it is possible.

The Warr being an 'evoluntionary' step forward in touchstyle instruments I find it quite funny that the damping of the open strings still relies on a simple rubber strip. :)

I've experimented replacing such with the furry half from some velcro strip (hook and loop tape) and that is better but because it sticks onto the fretboard its less easily removed if you do want to play open tuning.

Regards

Colin