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POLL: Fender Basses and "Dead Spots"

Have any of the Fender basses you have owned over the years had serious "Dead Spots?"

  • No, none of the Fender basses I have owned have had any dead spots.

    Votes: 45 27.8%

  • Yes, at least one of the Fender basses I have owned had dead spots, so I sold it.

    Votes: 29 17.9%

  • Yes, at least one of the Fender basses I have owned had dead spots, but I kept it.

    Votes: 95 58.6%
  • Total voters
    162
  • Poll closed .
#41
Every single bass I've owned with a bolt-on neck has had dead spots, including both of my Foderas. Honestly, I'm pretty sure out of the 30 something basses I've owned, all of them had dead spots that didn't have a graphite neck, no matter how the neck was attached.

Edit: I just now saw the definition of a dead spot in use for this poll. I would say less than a second isn't a dead spot but a bad fret. For me, a dead spot is a note that doesn't sustain or ring out as well as the other notes on the bass.

Michael
 
#43
Stealth Fighter said:
Where did the OP go? He hasn't weighed in since post #8. I'd be interested in learning if this poll was of any value to him.
Click to expand...

I haven't gone anywhere. I have been keeping in touch with the poll, it actually lasts a week - so I was waiting to see what was up in the final analysis.

For the sake of this post, I will kind of repeat the whole story - I have mentioned things in dribs and drabs, but here it is in one place:

I had a new 1972 Fender Jazz that had dead spots from frets 4-7 on both the D and G string. It was unfixable and I can't believe the bass made it through quality control at Fender. I thought they were sending all the seconds to the GI's overseas - and maybe they were. It was not a bad fret (had to chuckle at that one) they were anti-resonant dead spots - none of those notes would sustain for even a full second. When played through my Hiwatt stack, the fundamental would drop off immediately on all eight notes and as previously mentioned, only a faint harmonic would emerge through the amp on a few of them. I tried everything under the sun that was available in 1972-1974: every type of string - every type of adjustment, had several luthiers in Germany and Virginia check the bass out - all to no avail. Frankly - it was heartbreaking - do you have any idea how many modest Army paychecks you had to save to buy a brand new Fender bass in 1972? Trust me, it was a LOT of money to me at the time. I loved that bass - but had to wake up and smell the coffee - the bass was completely unusable for the material I was playing when I got back to the States. I was forced to sell it - it simply wouldn't work in my band - and I switched to a Rickenbacker for a short time.

Soon after, I met Paul Reed Smith when he was a luthier working by himself out of his tiny shop on West Street in Annapolis - and had him make a bass for me - which we settled on 32.5" scale. This was the seventh instrument that Paul ever made. If there was a medium scale standard at this point - we were not aware of it - although the standard by the mid-80's in Fender Japan terms turned out to be 32". There was a problem with PRS #7 and I inherited #11 which was basically a twin with a more rounded neck. Neither of the PRS basses had anything even remotely resembling the dead spots I experienced on the full scale Jazz Bass.

After playing it exclusively for 22 years, my band got re-signed and I knew I could not take the bass out of the house. It is simply too valuable. Really valuable. For the new record I called on Keith Roscoe to whip me up a couple of medium scale LG3000's. I took the PRS to him and he copied the neck exactly for the first one. No dead spots, on either bass - not even close. Every fret rings like a bell. Since that time, I started doing research on medium scale basses and I have been delighted and amazed after owning 15 medium scales in total - with 8 of them various Fenders - not a dead spot among them. Not even close. Naysayers can naysay all they want, but baby - there are zero dead spots. Am I simply lucky? Do I have an angel on my shoulder? Or, do medium scales simply not have the problem to the same degree as long scales? I certainly don't claim to know the answer to this but I am very interested in finding out. I have asked in multiple posts for the medium scale owners to PLEASE post when they find a dead spot. I saw a post from one gentleman who had a Gretsch B5123 with multiple dead spot problems - but they were all over the place and actually included open strings. I have one, mine has none. Saw another post that I believe if my memory serves was a Dingwall but I recall that the dead spot was in a really strange place, I think it was even above the 12th fret. It seems none of the medium scalers have any - or at least they are not ADMITTING to having any....

I am not going to put my basses on a meter, or test them by blowing each note into a computer or whatever - I don't need any further tests. They play perfectly for me and I can get a nice 4-count sustain at a ballad tempo on all of them. Am I saying that every note sustains exactly the same as every other note? No, that is NOT what I am saying. Notes decay at the rate they decay at - all I am saying is that none of mine suffer from premature decay related to resonant dead spots. I know dead spots, thank you very much and mine all pass the tests I have developed with flying colors. I am determined to make certain that I never get ripped off buying another Fender dead spot "lemon" ever again, whatever the scale. Unlike many of you - I can't live with it.

So, as you can see above - I sold my Fender with dead spots, and I was curious how many others might have done the same. Surprisingly to me, it appears that I am certainly WAY in the minority.

To each his own. This is what makes the world go around, different experiences, different conclusions, different and hence varying opinions.

Lots of feedback on both sides of the issue - I find it all very fascinating, and I appreciate all the responses - thank you all very much.

Keep pluckin'

BassHappy
www.innertainment.net
 
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#51
Maybe you should have titled the thread 34" scale length basses and "Dead Spots", as this is not a problem isolated to Fender. FWIW, I have two 35" scale 5 strings and neither have any dead spots. Only one or two of my 34" scales don't have a dead spot on the 5th or 7th fret on the G string. So you may be on to something with the scale length theory
 
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#58
Hopkins said:
Maybe you should have titled the thread 34" scale length basses and "Dead Spots", as this is not a problem isolated to Fender. FWIW, I have two 35" scale 5 strings and neither have any dead spots. Only one or two of my 34" scales don't have a dead spot on the 5th or 7th fret on the G string. So you may be on to something with the scale length theory
Click to expand...

I won't bother to post it here, it's a little long winded - but you can read this post I made from the Fender Forum in the other active Dead Spot thread here: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/dead-spots-on-fenders-huh.1077868/page-11

It says in part:

"Bolt-on 34" scale electric basses seem to be the most prone to dead spots. Dead spots are caused when a standing wave is created in the neck at a certain resonant frequency. This issue is usually blamed on the instrument having a bolt-on wooden neck but the issue has also shown up in neck through basses and on graphite necks. They are far from being exclusively a Fender issue as it happens in all brands and in all price ranges. It seems to almost never happen on a short scale bass. As was mentioned, you will often find a dead spot living around the fifth fret of the first string on a 34" scale electric bass, but they can happen anywhere in playing range. It depends on the resonant frequency of the neck."

I think some important facts were cultivated in this thread, once again examining the idea of the original post - which was intended to only be about SERIOUS dead spots, of the type where the note refuses to sustain, even for a full second when plucked. The drop off of the fundamental being both immediate and dramatic, which I have experienced multiple times on multiple full scales:

1. The dead spot phenomena is much more widespread than I had ever imagined. I don't believe that this thread is necessarily a fair sampling - but a whopping 60% plus of Fender owners in this thread have experienced dead spots. Much higher than I suspected. I was figuring 20% or maybe 30%.
2. The phenomena seems to be most prevalent with 34" standard scale bolt-on necks of most any brand, but also happens to full scale 34" neck throughs and even graphite necks now and then. No full scales 34" seem to be immune but some get lucky and find one free of dead notes.
3. Evidence that a medium or short scale bass routinely exhibits the same "serious dead spot" behavior as defined above - doesn't exist. From the polling it appears the 35" scales may also be immune to this problem - or perhaps it is not as prevalent.
4. Buyer beware: There is a lot of material written about it - but there are no sure-fire solutions. If you buy mail order make sure the item can be returned if you find some of the notes unplayable.

In wrapping it up - the traditional myth perpetuated here over and over again - seems to be - not only unfair - but completely untrue:

"ALL BASSES HAVE DEAD SPOTS TO SOME EXTENT"

You can change it as you wish, but repeating and perpetuating an untruth as fact - is a no-no in my book. I suggest:

"ALL FULL SCALE 34" BASSES HAVE DEAD SPOTS TO SOME EXTENT"

I can live with that, even better is:

"SOME BASSES HAVE DEAD SPOTS TO SOME EXTENT"

Thanks again for polling,

BassHappy
www.innertainment.net
 
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#59
BassHappy said:
I won't bother to post it here, it's a little long winded - but you can read this post I made from the Fender Forum in the other active Dead Spot thread here: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/dead-spots-on-fenders-huh.1077868/page-11

It says in part:

"Bolt-on 34" scale electric basses seem to be the most prone to dead spots. Dead spots are caused when a standing wave is created in the neck at a certain resonant frequency. This issue is usually blamed on the instrument having a bolt-on wooden neck but the issue has also shown up in neck through basses and on graphite necks. They are far from being exclusively a Fender issue as it happens in all brands and in all price ranges. It seems to almost never happen on a short scale bass. As was mentioned, you will often find a dead spot living around the fifth fret of the first string on a 34" scale electric bass, but they can happen anywhere in playing range. It depends on the resonant frequency of the neck."

I think some important facts were cultivated in this thread, once again examining the idea of the original post - which was intended to only be about SERIOUS dead spots, of the type where the note refuses to sustain, even for a full second when plucked. The drop off of the fundamental being both immediate and dramatic, which I have experienced multiple times on multiple full scales:

1. The dead spot phenomena is much more widespread than I had ever imagined. I don't believe that this thread is necessarily a fair sampling - but a whopping 60% plus of Fender owners in this thread have experienced dead spots. Much higher than I suspected. I was figuring 20% or maybe 30%.
2. The phenomena seems to be most prevalent with 34" standard scale bolt-on necks of most any brand, but also happens to full scale 34" neck throughs and even graphite necks now and then. No full scales 34" seem to be immune but some get lucky and find one free of dead notes.
3. Evidence that a medium or short scale bass routinely exhibits the same "serious dead spot" behavior as defined above - doesn't exist. From the polling it appears the 35" scales may also be immune to this problem - or perhaps it is not as prevalent.
4. Buyer beware: There is a lot of material written about it - but there are no sure-fire solutions. If you buy mail order make sure the item can be returned if you find some of the notes unplayable.

In wrapping it up - the traditional myth perpetuated here over and over again - seems to be - not only unfair - but completely untrue:

"ALL BASSES HAVE DEAD SPOTS TO SOME EXTENT"

You can change it as you wish, but repeating an untruth as fact is a no-no in my book. I suggest:

"ALL FULL SCALE 34" BASSES HAVE DEAD SPOTS TO SOME EXTENT"

I can live with that, even better is:

"SOME BASSES HAVE DEAD SPOTS TO SOME EXTENT"

Thanks again for polling,

BassHappy
www.innertainment.net
Click to expand...


I have a couple of custom builds planned, I think now I am going to make them all 35" scale and see if any of them develop dead spots.
 
#60
Hopkins said:
I have a couple of custom builds planned, I think now I am going to make them all 35" scale and see if any of them develop dead spots.
Click to expand...

I don't think there were a lot of 35" owners chiming in on these recent threads - so the sampling is far from complete - but among those that were - it seems like that one inch can make a difference.

Yes, yes, we have probably all heard that before....

:hyper:

BassHappy
www.innertainment.net
 

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