Exhaust for the dead notes

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aerosmithkit
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Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by aerosmithkit » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:24 pm

I have a 1965 Jaguar,using Ernie ball 11-48,the low E string almost dead,from 12th fret to the end,it just can't ring normally,It sounds weired,only can ring ring out the harmonic from the neck itself,I did a lot of things for it but it still not work,

Refretted
StewMac Neck Shim
Mastery Bridge
Fender Fatfinger
KTS titanium neck plate
Buzz Stop (just for spare)
Flatwound strings(made more tension and confirmed the truss rod is work)

really exhaust :fp:

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Shadoweclipse13
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:29 pm

I almost wonder if the shim is too high. What size Stew-Mac shim did you use?
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aerosmithkit
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by aerosmithkit » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:34 pm

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:I almost wonder if the shim is too high. What size Stew-Mac shim did you use?
I'm used 0.5 degree before but changed back to 0.25 degree

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MKR
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by MKR » Tue Sep 19, 2017 5:16 am

you might have a high fret or 2 in a spot that just affects the E string.

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Larry Mal
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Sep 19, 2017 7:18 am

Yeah, a high fret or two would be my first (and best) thought. You can check that with a measuring device like this:

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Ty ... BWEALw_wcB" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another thought is that you might have a neck that is somewhat twisted.

Another thought is that you have a neck that has a "hump" like a lot of Fender necks get over the years, in which the frets at the body-end of the neck are bulged up, making it hard to get good or low action.

I very much hope the last two things are not the case, I would recommend you get a fret checking device and see if you can find the problem there.

Good luck!
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Puisheen
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by Puisheen » Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:34 am

How high are your pickups? My first thought is that you've got some extreme magnetic pull going on, a common thing with pickups being adjusted too close to the strings. Normally this represents as a sort of pulsing, like when you tune one string against the other and they're slightly out of tune. If you want to check this, fret the low E at the last fret and strum it normally. If you get that pulsing or some other weirdness, try lowering the pickup a bit until it disappears.

Of course it could be a fret or a setup issue as others have suggested, and good suggestions, they. Without the guitar in-hand, it's tough to diagnose!

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Telliot
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by Telliot » Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:11 pm

I agree you might have a high fret somewhere above the 12th that needs to be leveled or re-seated.

Another thing to consider (piggy-backing on Larry's comment above) is something I've experienced on a few of my guitars: most notably, my '66 JM came with a slight hump in the neck around the 15th fret (it also needed a refret). I had to have the neck planed flat before the new frets were put in, dressed and leveled. I've had other guitars with similar problems (all vintage), and had the same procedure done to them. It's fairly common with old guitars, especially set-necks. But I had the same symptoms as you: suddenly sitar-like above the 12th fret. If the hump is large enough, a fret level isn't really the fix because it would result in taking away too much fret wire in the effected area.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by Larry Mal » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:52 am

Telliot wrote:
It's fairly common with old guitars, especially set-necks. But I had the same symptoms as you: suddenly sitar-like above the 12th fret. If the hump is large enough, a fret level isn't really the fix because it would result in taking away too much fret wire in the effected area.
Did you mean set necks? I think the problem is almost completely with bolt on necks, is it not?
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Re: Exhaust for the dead notes

Post by Telliot » Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:01 am

I've had it worse on set-necks, but also experienced it on bolt-ons. It could be I've just had bad luck, and set-necks are generally better designed to avoid this problem?
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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