New Suhr has "dead" notes :(

There's some debate between roasted vs non roasted maple necks. Different opinions on them.
Roasted is more stable, but lighter in weight. Seems like something denser than maple would improve the sustain
 
BaronVonGrim said:
There's some debate between roasted vs non roasted maple necks. Different opinions on them.
Roasted is more stable, but lighter in weight. Seems like something denser than maple would improve the sustain
Click to expand...
It's not really a "sustain" issue. It's a problem with resonant frequencies between the neck and body "cancelling" out.

According to John Suhr mahogany necks seem very more prone to this and that is a very dense wood.
 
Maybe check for any loose hardware that could be vibrating and stealing the string energy at freqs? Or clamp on some mass somewhere to see if you can affect it.
 
I wonder if having a brass trem block or nut could improve it.

I wonder if using the same tone wood as the neck and body is generally a better combo.

I have a basswood body... which John Suhr believes is the best body tone wood... I definitely dont get as good a sustain.

I understand that there is a cancelation of resonance affecting the sustain... it would be better if it wasn't a bolt on neck? I dont get the concept of exchanging necks...

A luthier would just grab body parts and assemble them.. or are they knocking on these wood parts and matching tones of the body parts... and it's not just randomly grabbing body parts
 
BaronVonGrim said:
I wonder if having a brass trem block or nut could improve it.
Click to expand...
Already has a brass block and a locking nut.
BaronVonGrim said:
I wonder if using the same tone wood as the neck and body is generally a better combo.
Click to expand...
No idea
BaronVonGrim said:
I have a basswood body... which John Suhr believes is the best body tone wood... I definitely dont get as good a sustain.
Click to expand...
I've read that too
BaronVonGrim said:
I understand that there is a cancelation of resonance affecting the sustain... it would be better if it wasn't a bolt on neck? I dont get the concept of exchanging necks...
Click to expand...
Different neck with different mass has different resonance
BaronVonGrim said:
A luthier would just grab body parts and assemble them.. or are they knocking on these wood parts and matching tones of the body parts... and it's not just randomly grabbing body parts
Click to expand...
Probably depends entirely on the Luther :)
 
unix-guy said:
I've read that too
Click to expand...
Basswood is a bit softer than some other hardwoods. For sustain, stiffness is key, so that string vibration is not absorbed so readily by the wood itself. Each type of wood (and every unique piece of wood within a type, to some extent) has different properties and absorbs vibration in its own unique way. Sounds like your pieces of wood don't like F# all that much....
 
Last edited:
I have noticed that in the past on at least one of my guitars and it was the same notes on the 3rd string. I don't remember which guitar(s) it was but it's not any of the ones I'm currently playing. I seemed to recall the issue also happened an octave down on the 5th string but to a lesser degree, although I didn't notice it further down the neck on the same notes??? Not sure as I didn't dwell on it much (much bigger note issues with my playing, lol).
 
@unix-guy If you don't hear from Suhr on status, you could always try PMing him on TGP to see what the status is with their social distancing measures perhaps making responses slower than normal.

I believe his user name is Husky.
 
dr bonkers said:
@unix-guy If you don't hear from Suhr on status, you could always try PMing him on TGP to see what the status is with their social distancing measures perhaps making responses slower than normal.

I believe his user name is Husky.
Click to expand...
Thanks - good idea. Yeah, I've seen his posts there (actually some linked in this thread).
 
I had an import Charvel with the same issue. In my case it was G#. It was most pronounced at the 13th on the G string but seemed to impact that note everywhere on the fretboard to lesser degrees. Drove me nuts and Charvel was not supportive... I think they had no idea of what to do.

I was never able to “fix” the issue, but I did stumble on a trick from a friend who is a luthier. We see a lot about neck pocket fit on the sides of the neck. We don’t see much about fit of the heel of the neck to the end of the pocket.

Not all guitars suffer from this, but some guitars do not have as good of a mating there as they could. You can easily adjust this with just a screw driver:
  1. Start with your guitar in tune and locking nut unlocked.
  2. Turn your guitar over and loosen the two neck set screws that are closest to the bridge by ~1/4 turn. DO NOT LOOSEN MORE THAN ~1/4 TURN. You do not want the neck to be able to move freely.
  3. Now loosen the two neck set screws that are closest to the nut by ~1/4 turn. As in step # 2 DO NOT LOOSEN MORE THAN ~1/4 turn.
  4. If your neck is not tightly seated, you will hear a creak/thump/thunk as the neck reseats itself due to string tension pulling the neck in.
  5. Check the tuning of the guitar, any change means the neck moved.
  6. Re-tune the guitar if needed
  7. Re-Snug the neck set bolts in the opposite order you loosened them.
I would hope a new Suhr would not suffer this problem, but you never know.

This is a standard adjustment that I now make to all bolt on guitars I acquire. Seems roughly half of them have benefited from this adjustment. I find the guitars that experience neck movement benefit from increased resonance and increased sustain. On my Charvel it added some sustain to the G# and made it at least bearable.
 
Last edited:
Capt Nasty said:
I had an import Charvel with the same issue. In my case it was G#. It was most pronounced at the 13th on the G string but seemed to impact that note everywhere on the fretboard to lesser degrees. Drove me nuts and Charvel was not supportive... I think they had no idea of what to do.

I was never able to “fix” the issue, but I did stumble on a trick from a friend who is a luthier. We see a lot about neck pocket fit on the sides of the neck. We don’t see much about fit of the heel of the neck to the end of the pocket.

Not all guitars suffer from this, but some guitars do not have as good of a mating there as they could. You can easily adjust this with just a screw driver:
  1. Start with your guitar in tune and locking nut unlocked.
  2. Turn your guitar over and loosen the two neck set screws that are closest to the bridge by ~1/4 turn. DO NOT LOOSEN MORE THAN ~1/4 TURN. You do not want the neck to be able to move freely.
  3. Now loosen the two neck set screws that are closest to the nut by ~1/4 turn. As in step # 2 DO NOT LOOSEN MORE THAN ~1/4 turn.
  4. If your neck is not tightly seated, you will hear a creak/thump/thunk as the neck reseats itself due to string tension pulling the neck in.
  5. Check the tuning of the guitar, any change means the neck moved.
  6. Re-tune the guitar if needed
  7. Re-Snug the neck set bolts in the opposite order you loosened them.
I would hope a new Suhr would not suffer this problem, but you never know.

This is a standard adjustment that I now make to all bolt on guitars I acquire. Seems roughly half of them have benefited from this adjustment. I find the guitars that experience neck movement benefit from increased resonance and increased sustain. On my Charvel it added some sustain to the G# and made it at least bearable.
Click to expand...
A friend of mine suggested that. Already done with no change in results... But I had never heard of it before and it is good to know.
 
Same issue here, I own a Suhr Modern Satin HSH with a Gotoh 510 trem. Mahogany body and neck, pauferro fretboard.

Fantastic guitar, light, resonant, beautiful... exact same issue on the G string G note on the 12th fret. No matter how you tune, dead spot moves around. Less pronounced on the B string G note, not even remotely as annoying, would probably have not found it if I weren't specifically looking for it. D string is not affected. The note will resonate for about a second before abruptly fading away. I first found it while bending strings and immediately thought I had a fret problem, then started looking into the gate... pickup height... adjust saddles... tried different tunings, everything from string gauge variation to brand to torched G string, slight variations but no solution.

Got the guitar used and couldn't return it, former owner dissapeared after the sale. Didn't really notice it until about a month after I got it so can't really blame the seller. He had the guitar for a couple years before letting it go...

I don't want to sell cause I'd be passing the ball to someone else. I did consider selling it at a lower price letting the new owner know about the issue. Still have it but for about a year I just couldn't play it at all...

I would definitely not keep it unless it was fixed. Hope CS solves the issue for you.
 
Manny Kuhn said:
If I am understanding correctly and the dead notes are always located on the 10th and 11th fret, you probably have a high 12th fret that is choking off the note. A check with a small straightedge that will span 3 frets is the easy way to check as the straightedge will rock if there is a high fret. Alternately, as it is a Floyd, you could try to raise the bridge slightly and see if that helps, or increase the neck relief a touch w/ the truss rod.

Going from 10s to 9s will cause the neck to straighten slightly, lowering the action a small amount and this can cause issues with any frets that are off even by a little bit.
Click to expand...
Manny's right, high fret most likely, and or insufficient relief. Easy fix for experienced tech.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom