The ESP Guitar Company

http://clyp.it/l0juicfi

I listened to the clip, and I've gotta tell you, through my monitors I didn't hear any distortion in the signal until the 0:31 mark. And that sounded more like you were overdriving the preamp than the pickup itself being overdriven.

Looking at the waveform, you can tell there's a ton more signal in the early part of the clip than in the late part. It also sounds like you're hitting the strings harder on the second bass, which makes it sound a touch overdriven to me.

What sort of monitors are you listening through? I'm using just a simple set of Mackie MR5s on this machine. I'm wondering if it's your speaker setup that can't handle the power you're sending it.

Thank you. First of all you're right: I was digging in after 0:30 to show that pushed harder the "problem" doesn't occur on other basses.

You've given me an idea I should have had before I made this post. Yes, there's some more noise in the picture, but what I see is not as bad as what I hear. What I see is extra noise that's like -90dB or even quieter. What I hear is noticeable to me but probably not to my audience. And I heard it coming from my Mark Bass 800something driving a couple of nice sized cabinets, at 10% master gain. And I also heard it through my headphones, plugged into my computer, plugged into a Zoom B3 by USB. That's what you heard too.

But you didn't hear the noise. Because it's not there.

I heard it from my amp because my input gain was too high even if the clipping indicator wasn't lit. And it came out of my headphones because they're worn-out old ATH-M30s. My desktop monitors, playing the signal acquired digitally from the B3, are not the best in the world (AV-40), but they don't reveal the sound. Oops.

Sorry for the runaround. Thanks a bunch again for listening and posting.

No problem, man. I think the tone of the clips sounds great. I have a set of EMGs in my B-405, and it's a significant difference between the level of the EMGs and my old Fender Jazz.

I'm not sure where the noise floor is on the EMGs, but around -90 seems likely. It may just be the noise in the preamp for the EMGs. You're right, noticeable when you're recording or by yourself, but when the drums kick in, who cares? You may be able to run a noise gate in your line (like an ISP Decimator or Boss NS-2) to help cut out the noise when you're not playing.