Less sustain on some fretted notes

[LITTLEWING]

Acquired a few bits and bobs and have created a 4 string Precision with a Squier Standard loaded body and an Aria Legend neck. Fitted new strings, aftermarket tuners as the old ones had tarnished and got the action at 6/64ths across the board at 17th, credit card relief, strings pressed over the saddles to attain a sharp witness point and pups set slightly lower to keep things clean.

The only niggle is playing an A on 5th fret E string it doesn’t ring as prominently and dies off fairly quickly. (I’m not even going into the well known octave B, C etc on the D string)! I’ve tried different reliefs and saddle heights with no results. I know all about sympathetic resonances with necks etc and have tried adding a weight (small C clamp) to all areas on the headstock with no fantastic results apart from totally losing octave A (7th fret D string) and F 1st fret E. The only small positive gain was attaching small adhesive car wheel weights to the E tuning ear which leads me to think that cheap tuners don’t retain resonances as much as a ‘heavier’ quality tuner.

Anybody gone any further in this field with positive results? Is it simply a quality neck thing along with quality components scenario?

[Baloney Balderdash]

No it's not simply a matter of quality, it's a matter of wood being an unpredictable material, regardless of the overall quality of the bass.

 

That said more attention is being paid to the quality of the wood on higher end instruments versus budget instruments, which I suppose does decrease the chance of dead spots some on budget instruments I suppose.

 

Really the main difference between higher end and lower end instruments beside the quality of the hardware and electronics, and in some cases more expensive, but not necessarily better, wood types on higher end instruments, is really the quality of low end instruments being more random, that is the quality of the wood used being pretty random along with overall lacking quality control.

 

Absolutely possible to find genuinely great budget basses, as it is absolutely possible to find horrible supposed higher end mass produced basses, they are just not that common.

 

Also sounds like there could be more in play in your case than just dead spots, from the sound of it possible some fret work needs to be done to fix it.

 

Also a credit card thickness relief is way too much, at most you would want about a business card thickness relief. 

 

I got no high end basses, and most are even cheap budget ones, but they all play and sounds great with a less than 2mm (~0.078" / 5/64") action, measured from top of 12th fret to bottom of low E string, and a less than 1.5mm (~0.059" / 4/64") action high G string side, and that with an absolute minimal relief, close to a perfectly flat neck, and with no fret leveling being performed after they left factory, completely stock fret work.

 

You can check for high/low frets by placing the side of a credit card, long side when checking frets closest to the head of the bass, short side of credit card as you get closer to the bridge, across the frets, along the strings, so that the credit card covers 3 frets, then gently try to rock the card from side to side, if it rocks even the tiniest amount it means that you got either a high or low fret, depending, that needs dressing.

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[pfretrock]

I think Fender admitted it was a problem with bolt on necks a while back, and they had no solution. But I heard there was a headstock clamp affair. Also Tungsten slugs fitted under the tuners. ? I  had noticed neck resonance can also vibrate open strings if not muted (if 4th or 5th)

I suspect laminated necks don't have this problem, being more rigid.

Just bought a concert ukulele and  f# is quite dead but it is a bit of a plunk, plunk sound anyway.

[gafbass02]

I’ve had some success with these in the past. Also handy for cymbal whacking. 
https://www.fender.com/en-GB/accessories/miscellaneous/fatfinger-guitar-sustain-enhancer/0992180100.html