Dead spot - deal breaker?

[metalheadUK]

He and I are both skeptical that it's a set-up problem, but he's going to take it in. The guitar plays beautifully, and no other string or fret is affected - it's just this one spot, dead-center on the neck. The note starts off fine, but fades to zero about twice as fast as any other note played at the same position. I wonder if mentioning that it's a Gibson would change anyone's diagnosis...

 

 

We knew that anyway!

 

[Virgman]

I've had this on a couple SX guitars.

 

Took it to a good tech who polished the frets. The dead fret was high. EZ fix. $50 including setup.

 

What's the big deal? The string vibrates and hits the high fret which kills the note.

 

This ain't rocket science.

[Oldskool Texas]

 

What's the big deal? The string vibrates and hits the high fret which kills the note. This ain't rocket science.

 

 

And that ain't what's happening. The note rings for a second or two and then it just dies. It doesn't buzz out or hit anything at all. Play the 12th fret B-string or D-string, and it rings for days. Play the G, and it'll barely ring for a whole measure. I played it myself, both before and after the tech messed with it, and I even put a fret rocker to it. It's just a dead spot on the neck.

 

Oh well. It's water under the bridge anyway. Last I heard, he was selling the guitar.

[EvanSinga]

is there any thing i can do to eliminate this dead spot?

its a pretty expensive guitar.

 

would changing the trem block help?

[poolshark]

This is unreal. I had never, ever noticed this before, but a few of my guitars do it at the 12th fret G. Weird.

[Oldskool Texas]

 

This is unreal. I had never, ever noticed this before, but a few of my guitars do it at the 12th fret G. Weird.

 

 

I was wondering if maybe it was just a semi-hollow thing. I know that fretless basses often have a dead spot at the 5th fret area of the G string (high C). I've played two and have heard of others with the same issue. It can't be a high fret on those!

[mdintx]

 

i am thinking of changing the saddles, upping the gauge to 11 and changing the springs. Would this help the resonance problem at all?

 

 

Not sure those things would help. I've got a Squier and Yamaha that have the same dead spot.

 

You could try the fat finger. One thing that I'm going to experiment with is swapping necks around. I'm thinking that would change the resonance between the neck and the body.

[flummox]

 

is there any thing i can do to eliminate this dead spot? its a pretty expensive guitar. would changing the trem block help?

 

 

You have a few more options with a Strat. Because of way the trem exerts tension on the strings, you can change the way the guitar resonates somewhat. If it's the resonance problem, changing to a different weight trem block would help. Adding or subtracting a spring might get rid of it also. Saddles would also, but I would think to a lesser extent. The idea is to move that resonant point somewhere further away from the fret.

 

Try lowering your pickups also. Strat pickups have a strong pull on the strings and that can cause weird double tones and intonation problems.