Dead strings/poor sustain

[John McDonald]

I built a baritone uke and tuned to GCEA with the aquila strings for that tuning.  The instrument has great balance and projection with strings 2,3, & 4.  The first string is simply  dead.  Can I improve the sound by changing strings?  I can detect no separation between the saddle and bridge, so I doubt poor contact is the problem?

Thank you

John

[Greg Mirken]

John, run your fingers along the string to see if you feel any unevenness. Also you could swap 1 and 4, tune them to their correct pitches just to see if the deadness follows the string or stays at the #1 position.

[Doug T]

If it stays at position one, is it dead when fretted? This could be a situation with saddle seating. If there is not good contact directly under that string, check the saddle. If it does not remain dead when fretted, try that note in other octaves and on other strings. If they are "deader" than other notes in that octave, it is possible that you have a dead note on the instrument. If this is so, then there's a whole other set of issues going on, and placing patches or shaving braces through that little whole is bound to be a pain.

[John McDonald]

Hi Doug, Thanks for the reply. The string is dead open and fretted. The worst locations are the Db,D and E notes. I can't detect any space between the saddle and bridge bottom and I doubt that's the problem, since I had to remove the bridge and replace it for another problem. I have tried several diameter strings, and the worth clear (0.0225) is the bests. Larger diameters are even more clunky. I intend to try a smaller diameter fishing line to see the effect. It appears that something is dampening that string, bu the problem is how to locate it??
Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

John