Noise on my Risa electric tenor

I recently got a Risa electric tenor, of the stick variety, and I really like playing it and the sound it makes, with one exception.

I was doing some recording the other day and I noticed some low noise on the track. A little investigation showed that this was noise from touching or moving around on the string with my playing hand.

I'm not sure if this is due to the way the pickup works, to my improper technique, or to a fault in the pickup. Has anyone else experienced this, or know the source?

BTW, I just used a high pass filter in my mixing software to clean it up, so no big deal, and I never noticed it until I recorded with it, so no big deal, but I am curious.

Thanks in advance.

I haven't played a Rissa and can't speak for their pickup, so take this with a grain of salt. However, every pickup I've used (B-Band undersaddle, K&K soundboard, Schatten soundboard, and Belcat undersaddle) has had the same noise you describe. It's barely noticeable, but it's there nonetheless. Like you, I just cleaned it up when it was a solo track; on other tracks it wasn't even noticeable. I guess that's what preamps and EQ are for, cleaning up these things. Looking forward to others' thoughts on this.

If it's sound from your hand touching the strings, this will happen with any and every amplified string instrument to some extent.
The pickup will amplify the vibrations produced on the strings, and this includes percussive noises of your hands touching them.

It's a part of instrument performance - even on some professional recordings you hear this (and sometimes the percussive noises are emphasised on purpose).

I would imagine there are ways to reduce it through playing technique.. although I think most listeners other than yourself would not notice it at all in the overall combination of sounds.

Actually this can be used as a way to practice clean playing in general. I amplify my classical guitar once in a while for precisely that reason. So I can play a piece and make sure it sounds nice and clean by me muting ringing notes as part of the technique I use.

Same with ukuleles it comes in handy to learn to strum and pick notes nice and clean without having to resort to chunking all the time.

And as pointed below, it is also part of the electric sound to some degree...

Now if it's just background noise then it could be your outlet jot being properly grounded. It that's another story...

kissing said:

If it's sound from your hand touching the strings, this will happen with any and every amplified string instrument to some extent.
The pickup will amplify the vibrations produced on the strings, and this includes percussive noises of your hands touching them.

It's a part of instrument performance - even on some professional recordings you hear this (and sometimes the percussive noises are emphasised on purpose).

I would imagine there are ways to reduce it through playing technique.. although I think most listeners other than yourself would not notice it at all in the overall combination of sounds.

Click to expand...