Do Stingrays have the infamous dead spot??

[DwaynieAD]

Many people claim that on a Stingray, the entire G string is weak in comparison to the other strings. That was my experience when I had Stingrays.

This is my experience as well.

 

[electracoyote]

I had to do some futzing with my first-run USA SUB (a true 1H 'Ray for all practical purposes) to get the 1st string to do anything useful. It was bad enough that if you didn't address it you wanted to avoid the string altogether. Beyond annoying. Common issue from what I read, but there are fixes (I was finally able to get mine playable and balanced on all four strings). It's the only bass out of dozens IME (including numerous Fenders) where it was so noticeable. Any dead spots on the Fenders and others were relatively much milder to the point I didn't really notice in the aggregate of playing over an entire song.

 

[lermgalieu]

I have a 2002 3-band Stingray and I have never noticed a dead spot or a weak G string. It's actually one of the most consistent and solid basses across and up and down the neck that I've ever owned.

 

[Frank77]

I think any guitar-shaped objects will have dead spots. All the basses I own have one. On my Fender-type basses (G&L LB-100 and L-2500) it's on the G string typically on the 5th, 6th, or 7th fret. On my headless it's the open A string.

None of the dead spots on my basses are "really" audible: The only way I find them out is by using an octaver. The tracking gets all glitchy on those notes for no reason, like there is some harmonics weirdness going on, or much less sustain.

Otherwise you can't hear it and it's of no consequence to me: If I have to play more than just a quick passing note while using an octaver, I pick a different place to play these notes.

 

[Planespotter]

My basses all have reduced sustain on the usual area of the G string, but I never play long sustained notes there so in practice it’s a non issue.

 

[Pet Sounds]

I once had a '90s StingRay with the weak G string, in spades. I lifted the pickup on the treble side and it helped, but it still bugged me. Otherwise, it was a great bass. Since then I've been very careful about vetting StingRays for the weak G before I buy.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

Aliens

 

[Plain Old Barry]

I've had many Fender basses since the'70's. I worked at a music store in the 80's and set up and sold even more of them

I never knew about the "infamous" dead spot until TalkBass told me about it.

 

[Slevage]

I played one for many years.
Bought it new in 1977 or 1978.

The D on the G string (7th) fret was definitely weaker than other notes on the G string. My next bass was a G&L 2k.
No noticeable dead spots.

 

[Holdsg]

how many of you are holding a note for more than 1/4 of a measure, so that the pronounced decay from the dead spot note(s) actually matters to you? It's not like we're frequently asking for 2 measures worth of sustain.

 

[bass12]

I’m surprised Roger would let that out of his shop. Did you contact them about it?

I very much doubt that Roger (or anyone else at Sadowsky) sits there checking to make sure there are no dead spots on his basses in order to weed out any potential offenders. Any luthier who does that is likely to go out of business quickly.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Do Stingrays have a dead spot at the 5/6 fret on the G string (or anywhere else for that matter?) like most Precision style basses?? Or does the smaller headstock move it elsewhere?? Or.....???

Thanks for any insight.

All four StingRays I owned had weak G strings which is why I eventually sold them and started buying Laklands (and some Fenders too).

 

[mattj1stc]

I previously owned a 4 string EBMM Stingray, and I had no issues with either a weak G string or any dead spots. I believe that the very first Stingrays had some sort of issue with the G string, but that may have been resolved by the 1980s. Similarly, I have heard that people have owned Fender designed basses with dead spots, but I also think that these issues have largely been addressed (both by Fender and those that make Fender inspired designs). This is not to say that you will never encounter any issues ever, but many of these design issues do tend to get sorted out by manufacturers who want to stay in business. In the end, string instruments have certain resonant frequencies that may come into play at times.

 

[Agent0]

The Tony Franklin has the distinct advantage of being a fretless - as every other note also has less sutain, a dead spot is less noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

I've had much more luck mitigating dead spots by reducing headstock weight than by increasing it. If done in conjuction with lighter, stiffer necks (see my previous post) it's a reliable strategy for reducing the effect of the neck's resonance in that area.

Agreed. My TF Fretless I bought last Fall had one at the 7th fret D. I thought about a return but settled for some credit back as I too feel that they are a fact of life and everything else was perfect. And I also had an idea that worked. As I didn't have much love for the D-tuner anyway, I ordered a matching standard tuner to replace it. It lightened up the headstock a bit, and moved the worst spot that goes to harmonics to in-between D and E flat. The D is much improved. I will say both the D and E flat do not sustain as much as all the rest, but it much better overall and I am happy with it.

 

[luciens]

You might be right, you might not be.

My fretless has an ebonol fingerboard (very good sustain and mwah for a fretless,which makes any reduced sustain more notecable), It has Hipshot ultralite tuners. The dead spot/reduced sustain area is very minimal. The reason people think that adding mass is the right thing to do is that you can buy a Fatfinger....and sometimes it helps
. You can't, however buy a simple, cheap device that subtracts mass from your headstock. If you could, people would be less sold on the idea that adding mass is always the way to go.

True. It would have been more correct for me to say that changing the mass on the headstock is the thing to do.

Thing is, the Fender deadspot isn't a mystery. In fact, this deadspot is simply caused by a vibrational resonance in the neck/body assembly. Well, it turns out if you make that neck/body assembly approximately the same length and the same shape out of the same material every time, that resonance is going to be present at approximately the same frequency and amplitude every time too. That's why it's so common on Fenders and other FSO's.

It also turns out that you can change this resonance frequency by changing the weight at the headstock. I think the reason is pretty obvious, so won't go into an explanation that folks are already aware of.

So you're quite right that removing weight is another option that will do the same thing. So I stand corrected.

L

 

[LetItGrowTone]

Any luthier who does that is likely to go out of business quickly.

While that might be true, for the dead spot/area condition of the neck of my Am Pro J Fender gets a blot I'm never forgetting. Worst equipment mistake I've made, by far.

 

[luciens]

The only 34" scale bass I've ever played that didn't have any deadspots at all was a Steinberger XL2. It had no headstock and the neck and body was all one piece of super strong composite....

L

 

[InstantEctobass]

I went through 2 EBMM Stingray Specials and had to return them both due to unacceptable dead spots on the G string. They were all around the 7th to 9th fret on the G string. By unacceptable I mean they instantly faded into harmonics. Absolutely no fundamental on those notes. Tried new strings and a proper setup. I get that all wooden basses have some degree of dead spots on them but I've never experienced anything like this. The entire body of the basses shook violently when the offending note was played. It's really too bad as I loved them otherwise.

What unacceptable? Maple resonnates at 138 Hz approximately, what did you expect? All necks made with MAPLE are gonna resonnate at that frequency, its by NATURE.

These threads must be TROLLING, right?

 

[HolmeBass]

Many people claim that on a Stingray, the entire G string is weak in comparison to the other strings. That was my experience when I had Stingrays.

This was my experience too. That weak G string was not caused by neck resonance though, that was some issue with pickups or the preamp.

The resonant dead spot, caused by the neck having a resonant frequency that equals, or is an integer multiple, of the frequency of a note, can affect a number of areas depending on the bass: 4th through 7th frets on the G string or in some cases, the D string.

All of my basses with headstocks suffer this issue to a greater or lesser degree. I only notice it when holding notes out or when using an analog octaver.

I would think Stingrays do suffer from this as well. Some people never even notice it though.

 

[InstantEctobass]

What about the EBMM Sterling bass?

Asking the real question.