1st post, I joined around Christmas. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the course.
I want to talk about Dead spots. I’m talking about sections on the fret board where when playing the note, it doesnt really ring out and sustain, its more of a hollow thud. According to my tuner, it’s relatively “in tune” maybe a touch high. not different than my other bass when comparing.
The bass in question is an Ovation Celebrity Acoustic/Electric that I bought new in the late 1900’s. It basically sat in a friends house for 20 plus years while life happened. I recently picked it up, had it gone over, pro set up, and new strings. The tech who did the work pointed it out to me and now I can’t unhear it.
While researching the problem, I learned alot P-Basses also suffer from this sort of thing as well. The answer I was seeing were live with it or find one that bothers you less. Is this the only way?
I remember reading a post on here where someone had a similar issue and they attached a tuner or capo to their headstock and it went away. Something about the way harmonics of the neck were cancelling out a note.
I don’t know if there is anything to that but it’s worth experimenting with.
If you find another way I’d be interested to hear it. I can’t comment on the Ovation as I’m not familiar with it at all. Two P Bass clones I have do have lesser sustain, one is the seventh fret the other is the fifth. both on the G string. Not a huge thing but noticeable to me. I doubt in the mix if you ever play in a band that it would be very noticeable. YMMV.
That was me, and yes it’s absolutely a thing. Here’s one of many available writeups about it, though they are also selling a fix:
Exactly where I generally hear about it happening. Mine was 7th fret. Drove me crazy. First song I tried playing with that bass was Soundgarden’s Outshined. It’s supposed to have a sustained note right at the dead spot, and it was immediately obvious in the context of the song when it in fact did not ring out.
This was my experience with adding mass to the headstock to remove the dead spot:
I have a similar thing - dead spot on the G string at the 5th fret. It wasn’t there initially but appeared after I adjusted the intonation and action. I’ve tried various tweaks since but can’t seem to get rid of it. It’s a cheap bass (Harley Benton JB75) so maybe not super surprising but it’s a bit frustrating as it plays really quite nicely otherwise.
It’s got me thinking about my next bass, which will likely be either a Squier CV P-bass, Yamaha RBX304 or Sterling Ray 4. Just need to save a bit more cash first.
Thanks for the info. Pricey for a little piece of gear. Thankfully neither of my P basses are nearly that pronounced as the bass in the YT video you’ve posted.
