New Mustang. Ugh.

[miikebass]

So, after years of buying used basses I splurged and bought myself a new Mustang Vintera. 
Was never super happy with the sound from day one. 
The A string isn’t as ‘alive’ as the others. And worse, the 4th, 5th and 6th frets on the A are particularly dull and ‘thumpy’. Hard to explain.  
Fretting the 5th on the A compared to open D are noticeably different. 
 

I installed flats soon after buying it.  Have since refitted the original strings but still no good. 
Have had it to a guitar tech. He set the intonation and messed around with pickup heights. Not really any different. 
 

I contacted the seller. They asked about pickup heights. With last fret pressed down I have 3.5mm between pickup and bottom of the A string. 
They asked me to raise it a bit.  I did. No difference. 
 

They also said basses generally have dead spots which involve a section of the neck producing a short sustain and less volume and is incredibly common. This is very annoying considering it’s a new bass and I’ve never struck this before on any bass I’ve ever owned. 
 

I’m thinking of swapping some decent pickups into it. Nortstrand or Lollar. 
Should I?  

[Mudpup]

Don't mess with it. Take it back to the seller for a further chat about it. If you played it in the shop you may struggle to get a better outcome but if you bought it online you can probably return it if you haven't had it long.

[miikebass]

1 hour ago, Mudpup said:

Don't mess with it. Take it back to the seller for a further chat about it. If you played it in the shop you may struggle to get a better outcome but if you bought it online you can probably return it if you haven't had it long.

Yep bought it online in June.

[miikebass]

Their claim that dead spots are incredibly common. How should I respond?  
Like buying a new car and being told not to use 3rd gear. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

This does sound like a setup issue — I have owned a couple of vintera mustangs and once set up they had no issues like this. Dead spots are annoying but i’ve only seen them localised to a single fret of a particular string, never a bunch of adjacent frets, and I’ve never had one on a mustang bass. If there is a friendly basschatter near you who is particularly experienced with bass setups it could be worth having them take a closer look to investigate the problem. Where are you located?

[miikebass]

8 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

This does sound like a setup issue — I have owned a couple of vintera mustangs and once set up they had no issues like this. Dead spots are annoying but i’ve only seen them localised to a single fret of a particular string, never a bunch of adjacent frets, and I’ve never had one on a mustang bass. If there is a friendly basschatter near you who is particularly experienced with bass setups it could be worth having them take a closer look to investigate the problem. Where are you located?

I’m in Australia.  So a bit of a drive. 
 

As mentioned I’ve had my guitar tech look at it. 
Could it be a pickup issue?  I’m happy to pay for a decent set.  

[ped]

Pickups won't help, usually a dead spot can be heard acoustically too. Check the strings are seated properly (i.e bent over the bridge) firmly.

[miikebass]

17 minutes ago, ped said:

Pickups won't help, usually a dead spot can be heard acoustically too. Check the strings are seated properly (i.e bent over the bridge) firmly.

Interesting. 
Acoustically it’s basically silent. 
 

Comparing to my P bass which rings out evenly across all strings  

 

 

Anything there I might be missing?

[Aidan63]

So it's dull sounding in the area the truss rod does most work, and dead sounding generally - it's much more likely to just be a poor neck made from a piece of wood that just doesn't vibrate, or there's something slightly out in the truss rod pocket/skunk stripe if fitted), or maybe the glue up of the fingerboard to the neck, rather than anything to do with the pickups - wood varies and that's why some are good, some are great, and most are functional, but a few are dogs

My CV Mustang is slightly less resonant on the A string frets 5, 6 and 7 and that corresponds with an obvious knot that is visible in the grain on the back of the neck, but overall the instrument vibrates okay - it's a heavy one though only just under 9lb, Nato (sort of mahogany) body. 

I don't think Fender check the vibration of the completed instrument and reject dead sounding ones, I don't know if even PRS do that with their US made premium instruments despite Paul maintaining that a non vibrant instrument will never sound good - he wants a string to ring out acoustically for 17 seconds plus