The opposite of a dead note?

[catyak]

I've gotten used to the "dead note" on my Fender Jazz. It's on the G string at the D. It's pretty obvious when practicing the ground bass in Pachelbel's Canon in D so I shifted to the 12th fret on the D string.

With that, no problems on the D. Instead, when I play the G (on the E string), it's much louder than the other notes. I'm trying to pluck evenly, but there is still a noticeable difference in volume.

Here's what I'm doing: D (12th fret, D string), rake up to A, shift to B, rake up to F#, shift to G, shift to D, shift to G, down to A.

I am going through this pretty slowly, maybe 30bps, and the volume shift is going from F# to G. I don't hear it going from G to D or back.

I'm holding the F# with my 2nd finger, the G with my 3rd.

I think that I'm either way off on my plucking or I'm doing something wrong with the fretting of the F# and damping it so that the G just comes out louder.

What should I be looking at? My finger position relative to the fret?

[m_bisson]

Some notes resonate better than others. This can be because of the guitar, or maybe the cab/speaker setup as well. You're just hitting that magical frequency where it all comes together. I'm not sure what can be done about that... for me, coincidentally, the magic note is ALSO G on the E string, both low and high positions.

[Hellbastard]

This can also be a problem with your room. Every room has a natural resonant frequency; in your case maybe it is that F#. In my case every time I play a B, no matter which octave it sounds louder than any other note.

[staindbass]

plug it into a mixing board or tape deck, watch the meter to see how much output. it will tell you if its the bass, or the eqpt after or the room.

[Rob22315]

Unintended resonances and holes happen in engineering all the time in essentially everything that requires complex engineering - acoustic, electrical, mechanical. Usually, we find them through robust CAD tools and testing but 'stuff happens' and bad manufacturing can outwit the best engineering intentions. Sometimes the designers get it wrong as well.

[Arranger]

Same G on the E string for me. I was going to try to dial in the precise Hz of the note on my Thunderfunk and try to knock a couple dB off that frequency. I'm not sure if the TF is parametric, however.

[Erick Lam]

Every bass I've played have had a fuller/richer low G than other notes. I've always attributed that to the sympathetic D and G strings, although it shouldn't occur if those strings are well muted.

[MNAirHead]

opposite?

Quality Graphite basses.. often not my cup o tea.. but still very active all over.

[Drifta]

Gotta love fender jazz basses.

[St Drogo]

Uhm. An undead note?

Oohh! A ghost note!

[catyak]

Originally Posted by staindbass

plug it into a mixing board or tape deck, watch the meter to see how much output. it will tell you if its the bass, or the eqpt after or the room.

I don't have a meter on my board, just the set of runway lights so I ran it into GarageBand. I'm seeing a lot of variation on the amplitude, so I need to work at evening out things. But G consistently gets clipped while the other notes rarely do. Kind of weird, so I'll come back to this after some practice on the plucking.

Thanks all for the observations.

[PJSShearer]

I've recall hearing (sorry!) many years ago that the opposite of a "Dead Note" - a note that sounds louder than the rest of the instrument - is called a "Wolf Tone". As I knew well back in the day (ex Tuba Player) you get these (Dead Notes and Wolf Tones) on Brass instruments as well.