P Bass has dead spot

[Len Biglin]

Hi all , I have a P bass on the bench , the G string has a spot on frets 5,6 &7 that lacks any sustain , when you play there the note dies off to a harmonic . Its only 6 months old and the owner has tried 3 sets of strings , raised the action very high , and there is plenty of break angle on the saddle.The pickup is not close to the strings , and may be too low. any ideas? Len

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

Len,

All P-basses have that dead spot, some worse than others. My 1960 bass has it. My Schecter Koa/Pao Ferro P/J is worse. Not that this will look good on stage, but try putting a small c-clamp on the peghead. This increases the mass of the neck and lowers the offending resonance (that eats those notes). This is how the "fathead", which is essentially a nice looking clamp, works. I didn't believe it would work so I tried the c-clamp. It works, but I needed to add about 1/4lb of weight to make it happen. That'll take a toll on your shoulder.

Some manufacturers add carbon graphite reinforcement under the fingerboard to lower the resonance. Warmoth tried that then went to steel reinforcement (along with the truss rod). This was in the late '80s so they may have changed since then. There are necks made totally of carbon fiber (Moses?). I tried one in the '80s when they first came out. No dead spots, but don't try to adjust the relief.

Your customer might need to get a different bass. No amount of string/bridge/pick-up/anything swapping will cure the dead spot.

Joshua

[Len Biglin]

Joshua , thanks for your answer , I will try the clamp Len

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Nothing you can do but try this clamp (most of the time, it does not have enough mass on itself to do the trick). By the way, using carbon fiber reinforcements or steel reinforcements (as Warmoth still does), shift the resonant peak to a higher freq, not lower. Adding mass to the peghead lowers that freq. For what I understand, it does not matter if you lower or raise the frequency, as long as it does not align with a note. However, raising the frequency is more interesting, because you're sure it won't interfere with a lower note (the most energetic ones), and because the interfering note will be higher on the neck, so that your playing hand won't be at the same place, so the eigenmodes won't be the same. Sorry, it's too hard to explain in english for me, I'm not sure I've been really clear.

[Len Biglin]

Yes you have been clear Pierre , and your reply has saved me a lot of time , as I would have been chasing my tail.Perhaps this is the reason for light weight tuners on basses these days ? Thanks again Len

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Better balance is a reason too. Please let us know if the C-Clamp did solve your problem. If you can afford it, a Warmoth neck would be a good cure too.

[thefishinmusician]

I fashioned a backplate for the back of the headstock out of brass for a customer who was trying to get more oomph out of a Les Paul...They used to be available known as " fatheads "....It made him happy, and that made me happy...

[Tom Krebs]

Fathead - I am having an 1980's brass flashback.

[thefishinmusician]

Yes, I guess I've been doing this a long time....