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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 271037
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#61
Deleted member 271037 said:
I currently own over 30 basses. Some are cheap entry level stuff or quirky vintage models but most of them are quite expensive, top-of-the-range or custom made instruments.

I must have owned more than 50 basses over the years.

Counting the basses I've played in stores or borrowed... I must have played HUNDREDS of basses.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of them had dead spots. Some were less noticable that others and the exact location on the neck could vary. But they ALL had dead spots. Bolt-on, neck through, set neck, graphite rods... they ALL have dead spots in my experience.

Looking at the physics behind dead spots I don't understand how it would even be possible to design a resonating wooden instrument such as the bass guitar without any deadspots. Even a device like the Fatfinger, which is designed to "tune out" deadspots, doesn't really remove them. The deadspots are simply moved to other notes.

Yet, hardly a week goes by without reading a NBD thread here on Talkbass where someone says their new bass has "no dead spots".


Which leaves me with these two options:

1) I'm the most unlucky guy ever when it comes to basses and dead spots (plus I must have gotten the science behind deadspots all wrong).

or

2) Lots of people don't really understand what dead spots are. I asked a friend who is a guitar player about this and he thought a dead spot was simply a bad fret. Is this a common misconception?

Anyway, I'm genuinely baffled by the number of claims about "no dead spots" around here, even on the cheapest entry level basses.

So which one is it, 1) or 2)?
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There was one spot around the 7th fret on the g string on my SR605. That's the only one I've ever encountered. I've owned 5 basses. So, I guess the "...most unlucky..." could apply here. Sorry man.
 
#64
You are correct many basses have dead spots. If your music calls for tied whole notes at 60 BPM, you may need a bass synth or bow an upright instead. I Just chalk it to ghost note playing or find another string on a different position in the neck if you need the note to ring longer.

But graphite necks with dead spots? I had a steinberger for 2 months and that one had no dead spots. I never owned it. Just borrowed it. I actually did not like that it sustained too much and the narrow spacing was weird to me. It was a 5 string.
 
#66
Its not as much of the non-wood necks that kill the dead spots. Its the headless design that eliminates the string vibrations above the nut that cancel out some on the neck, that in turn drops that frequency.
Ned did "a lot" of things very right. Phillip Kubicki did an article about the developing of a headless bass at Fender to combat the dead spots. They found that as they cut more and more of the head stock , the dead spot disappeared. In the end they just felt the headless design was just to radical for the time(early 70's). Google the article, its quite interesting. Fender Headless Bass
 
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#69
If you tap the neck, you will hear a "note". This is generally where the dead spot will be. On a four string neck, it's usually around C-D on the G string. In my experience, it's usually C#. The more closely tuned the neck is to a particular note, the deader that note will be. Short scale basses and 5 string basses usually don't have as much of an issue with dead spots as 4 string 34" necks. One way around it is to play the C# (or whatever) on the D string if you need a sustaining note at that pitch. The higher up you go, less neck "wobble" involved and more string mass
 
#70
i have a p bass that had a dead spot on the "g" string 5th fret....never noticed it till later in life, after most of my gigging as a youth was over..drove me nuts tho ..The fullerton bass has the micro-tilt thing on the neck heel. So i messed around with that and threw some 66 rotosound slinky's on her....Damn thing plays better than ever with no dead spot now.....go figure:cool:
 
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#71
I have owned close to 1000 basses. About 3 have had enough of a dead spot to worry about. A 90s Jazz stands out because I had to play on the D string instead of the G for C#. The other 900 or so were close enough that I didn’t have to worry.
 
#72
To this day I never play a C on my G string because the P bass I played in the 90s had such a bad dead spot. It just became part of my playing style to never hit notes in that area. I haven't found any dead spots on my graphite necked modulus, big part of the reason it's my #1.
 
#73
Deleted member 271037 said:
I currently own over 30 basses. Some are cheap entry level stuff or quirky vintage models but most of them are quite expensive, top-of-the-range or custom made instruments.

I must have owned more than 50 basses over the years.

Counting the basses I've played in stores or borrowed... I must have played HUNDREDS of basses.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of them had dead spots. Some were less noticable that others and the exact location on the neck could vary. But they ALL had dead spots. Bolt-on, neck through, set neck, graphite rods... they ALL have dead spots in my experience.

Looking at the physics behind dead spots I don't understand how it would even be possible to design a resonating wooden instrument such as the bass guitar without any deadspots. Even a device like the Fatfinger, which is designed to "tune out" deadspots, doesn't really remove them. The deadspots are simply moved to other notes.

Yet, hardly a week goes by without reading a NBD thread here on Talkbass where someone says their new bass has "no dead spots".


Which leaves me with these two options:

1) I'm the most unlucky guy ever when it comes to basses and dead spots (plus I must have gotten the science behind deadspots all wrong).

or

2) Lots of people don't really understand what dead spots are. I asked a friend who is a guitar player about this and he thought a dead spot was simply a bad fret. Is this a common misconception?

Anyway, I'm genuinely baffled by the number of claims about "no dead spots" around here, even on the cheapest entry level basses.

So which one is it, 1) or 2)?
Click to expand...
All 3 of my basses sound great! No dead spots! Ignorance is bliss! Lol.
 
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#77
Ok, I started this mess so I guess dinner will have to wait a while longer, lol. I get the impression that some of you aren't exactly sure what dead spots really are so I did a quick recording of one of my worst examples. This is possibly THE worst dead spot on every bass I own. This dead spot is at the 7th fret on the G-string.

In the attached clip I played the offending note twice + two frets up for comparison. Then the dead spot again twice + one octave down for comparison. And finally the dead spot again twice. As you will hear the other notes have normal sustain but the dead spot dies into an overtone almost immediately. This fret is completely useless for any sustaining notes. With this particular bass it was bad enough that I had to stop using it live. D is not the best note to be "missing" for live performances. And deadspots get FAR more pronounced on stage through a powerful PA. When you hit a dead spot like this one through a PA it feels like all the air get sucked out of you and the room is about to implode (well sort of...).;)

The attached clip is of course totally unprocessed, just a completely dry signal directly to a clean DI. No notes have been deliberately muted.

Laptop speakers not recommended.

And please note that I chose the WORST bass I could think of for best illustrating what a dead spot is. Most basses aren't nearly as bad as this but in my experience they all have dead spots to some extent.

(Oh, and apart from this one dead spot it's actually a nice bass!)
 

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#78
gln1955 said:
My experience also.

When I first started playing bass, I noticed a dead spot in the typical area on my Jazz. I was not on TB, so had no idea what I was dealing with. I tried different strings and different setups and it was always there. I got other 34" scale basses and sure enough, dead spots in the same place. Then I learn about dead spots on here and it all made sense. Then, when I started playing short scales, the dead spots weren't there. Different geometry somehow minimizes the issue.
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My SWAG is since the short scale neck made of the same materials as a long scale neck is generally shorter it's sufficiently stiffer that it avoids dead spots.
 
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#80
mmon77 said:
I was going to say, I've never played a bass where I noticed a dead spot. But I only play 5 strings, so maybe that why?
Click to expand...

I *think* that the approximate C# dead note roughly corresponds with a node point on the neck which amplifies the effect of the dead spot on a 4 string neck. Similar to playing xylophone or marimba, you want to hit in the sweet spot, if you're too far off it sounds dead.
 

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