"No dead spots"... WHAT???

[Gilmourisgod]

The original Steinberger neck design has one drawback: you can't adjust relief. I never found that to be a problem myself, mine was cast with about .012 of relief at the 7th fret. I suppose if you want a super flat neck, you just change the mold. Some of the newer Moses and others have hollow sections and truss rods to allow relief adjustments, but then you get...deadspots.

 

[Stewie]

Something I'd never heard of 'til I came here. I asked what it meant and someone nicely told me that it was a note or two, usually on the G string, that refused to resonate for as long as it's brothers. I went down and tried three Fenders and sure enough, I found them. But I never hold a note for more that 3 or 4 seconds so I just don't care. 1 and 2

 

[bass12]

I think a lot of people either don't know what to listen for (I kind of envy those people) or they aren't really paying close attention. On more than one occasion I've had someone hand me a bass and say "no dead spots" and thirty seconds later I'd found a dead spot. As for the notion that graphite necked basses are dead spot proof, that's simply untrue. I've played several graphite-necked basses with dead spots. In fact, the worst dead spot I ever encountered was on a graphite-necked bass.

 

[bass12]

The original Steinberger neck design has one drawback: you can't adjust relief. I never found that to be a problem myself, mine was cast with about .012 of relief at the 7th fret. I suppose if you want a super flat neck, you just change the mold. Some of the newer Moses and others have hollow sections and truss rods to allow relief adjustments, but then you get...deadspots.

I think that all of the graphite-necked basses I've found dead spots on probably had hollow necks (they certainly had truss rods). It wouldn't surprise me if the solid neck design did eliminate dead spots altogether.

 

[Goatrope]

I think the reason folks believe they haven’t had/heard/felt impeded by a dead spot, is that it’s really not that big of a deal.

On the Internet, the imperfections of wood and steel grow to monstrous proportions. Out in the real world, it just doesn’t matter.

 

[drumvsbass]

Depends on what you mean by dead. I have two Zon's that seriously have no dead spots (the fretless especially so) and all the notes are really clear and even. Maybe a spot that might be slightly lackluster if I was gonna be really picky, but not dead spots like on a Fender G string between the 3rd and 7th fret where the note just dies or is 10db quieter?
That said, everlasting sustain is not something I would consider to be a necessity (or even desirable) on a bass, otherwise why would we put chicken greased 100 year old flats with half a diaper underneath the bridge of a Pbass? It's nice to have it when it's there, sucks when you don't want it.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

In learning how to do setups, you realize that almost EVERYTHING... string height, intonation, pickup height and placement, nut slot depth, etc... is a compromise, you can never get everything exactly perfect. You just get it as close as you can so the instrument plays as comfortably and as in-tune as possible to YOUR (or your customer's) playing style.
To me, dead spots are just another of those small compromise areas. I recognize that particular note on that particular fret might need to me "emphasasized" a little bit, just as there are probably some "hot" low notes over on the A string that are going to BOOM if you aren't careful.

 

[rogerb]

You kind of need to know what to look for.

I've got a dead spot on my fretless aftermarket neck, it is so bad I have tried to fix it, to no avail. "C" on the G string, I think it was "D" before I started trying to get rid of it with lighter tuners. I thought I had in between notes at one point which was a bit better, strings older maybe making a difference. Seems worse now. I may try and reshape the neck, although neck stiffness seems to have something to do with the problem, I'm a bit afraid removing wood will make it even worse, but unplayable really as it is, so I may just go for it eventually.

I can notice something similar on my fretted reinforced jazz neck but it is very, very minimal and doesn't effect playing at all.

 

[yodedude2]

I once owned a 'graphite' Moses headless neck installed on a Warmoth alder body. It had a very noticeable dead spot on C#/Db at the 6th fret on the G string. So there ya go.

 

[Vinny_G]

Undead spots are much more annoying because they always appear when I play ghost notes.

 

[pigpen1]

I've never had or played a bass that has dead enough a spot to bother me. Maybe they have, but they don't bother me. In Chinese we say "hear the wind blowing the grass" or "hear a needle falling on the ground".

I have a bass with a mighty more neck where the gstring 6th fret only rings out for about a second. It's that bad.

 

[arbiterusa]

Ned Steinberger solved most of what people consider "problems" with a bass guitar 40 years ago, and the market largely rejected it because it didn't look like a Fender.

Oh man, this. Preach it. I’ve got one. The only thing Ned didn’t (and couldn’t) do was make em cheap. Everything else: problem solved.

 

[bassrique]

Are dead spots more of a biproduct of a truss rod than wood since graphite necks with truss rods have them?

My worst dead spot is on a 6er. The 12th fret of the high c string. Good place. I just play the harmonic. Same note, plenty of sustain. Also good training to do that sort of thing elsewhere. Embrace the idiosyncrasies!

 

[Leonid Nidis]

IMO many people think that a dead spot is when the note is actually dead,doesnt ring out with the attack.
All basses I ever played had dead spots that were at worst one second note when played followed by an overtone,instead of 4 second sustained note.All on the G string usualy C or C#.
With dead spots of this sort I can spend a lot of time playing and never know they are there.

 

[Iristone]

I have a bass with a mighty more neck where the gstring 6th fret only rings out for about a second. It's that bad.

I'm not meaning there's no bass that has a severe dead spot, just I've not seen one.

 

[BergerHead]

There's simply no such thing. It's a myth.*






















*just messing with you

Do you refer somewhat as Santa or extraterrestrial life?

 

[JRA]

So which one is it, 1) or 2)?

2)

a lot more folks would/could identify those if they were called "beauty spots."

 

[micguy]

To all those who "have no basses with dead spots", I give this advice:

1) Don't ask anyone to show you where they are - once you know they are there, your life will be a little less idyllic. This is one case where ignorance is definitely bliss.

Every bass ever made (this includes basses with carbon fiber or aluminum necks) has areas of reduced sustain. Some of these areas are more dead than others. To many people this doesn't matter. I play church music - we do a lot of sustained stuff in and between tunes - try to underscore (play a continuous "pad" of sound) someone talking for a few minutes, and you'll get real familiar with where the sustain is and isn't on a bass.

 

[Max Bogosity]

I bet Eric Johnson was happier before he decided he could hear what brand of battery was in his Tube Screamer.

 

[Bass Viking]

In my humble opinion and without wanting to offend anyone, if you have played hundreds of basses and none of them have ever satisfied you, the problem could come from elsewhere than the instruments themselves.

If I were in your situation, on the one hand it's the first question I would ask to myself, and on the other hand I would be glad to have had the chance to play as many different basses. I would feel like the luckiest guy on Earth instead of the unluckiest.

I hope I've helped you a little bit.

I think you missed his point. He’s not saying all basses are unacceptable, just that he can’t understand why some people don’t notice dead spots.