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Post subject: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:45 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Maybe not the right forum to be asking this, but I figured it's worth a shot. I know there's a lot of knowledge here.
OK, so I recently got a Martin 000-15SM and I was playing it a lot today. I noticed that on the 9th fret on the A string, there is no sustain. What I mean by this is that when I play that note, it only rings for a very minimal time. This is the only spot that it does this. Does anybody know why this is happening?


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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:51 am
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FatNWeak wrote:
Maybe not the right forum to be asking this, but I figured it's worth a shot. I know there's a lot of knowledge here.
OK, so I recently got a Martin 000-15SM and I was playing it a lot today. I noticed that on the 9th fret on the A string, there is no sustain. What I mean by this is that when I play that note, it only rings for a very minimal time. This is the only spot that it does this. Does anybody know why this is happening?


First of all, double-check that it's not your ears muting a particular frequency - this can happen with hearing damage or if subjected to a particular frequency for a long time. Tune it well, and then compare the 9th on the A string with the 4th fret on the D string and 14th fret on the E string.

If it's still just the A string, you may have a bowed neck causing almost-buzz where you don't actually buzz against the frets but the string is close enough that vibrational energy is stolen, and you lose sustain. Truss rod adjustment for an acoustic is best done by a luthier.
Also check the tenth fret wire - it could be too high. Again, a luthier.

If it's the A string on all frets, but mostly on the 9th, check your strings. Lift the strings from the bridge and nut, and let them settle again, to ensure that there isn't too much pull on one string. If nylon strings, check the knot too.

If it's all three strings on an F#, but you know your hearing is good, you may have a sheep tone. It's like a wolf tone, but instead of the resonance amplifying the tone, the overtones are at just the right frequency and phase for dampening it instead. A luthier can usually fix this, adding or shaving a baffler or similar to make a small natural resonance shift. The hillbilly fix for wolf tones and sheep tones, which I do not recommend, is a piece of chewing gum affixed inside the sound hole.


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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:17 am
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What is the condition of the 9th fret?

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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:34 am
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Hi FatNWeak: in addition to what's already been suggested, try tuning the guitar up or down a whole tone and see if the dead note stays on that ninth fret or if it moves two positions along.

If it moves to a new fret and is still at that F# pitch it means there is something about the individual timber the guitar is made from that is dampening that frequency. (Or it's your ears; which you can check by having someone else listen to the guitar.) See arth1's post for possible fixes.

If it stays on the ninth fret even though the pitch is now different it means simply that there is a problem with the fret, as cvilleira indicated. Of the two, that's probably the easier issue to fix (some fretwork).

This is a quick and easy test.

BTW: Trev Wilkinson told me something interesting related to dead spots on instrument necks. Apparently the early Fender P-basses with the small headstock were prone to dull notes at certain positions along the fingerboard. The much bigger headstock was introduced specifically to counter this: the increased mass moves the dead spots far enough up the 'board not to be a problem.

A seemingly useless nugget of information, but it serves to remind us that even electric guitars work in part by the sympathetic vibration of wood, with all its quirks.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:49 pm
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F.A.W., that happens sometimes with guitars that have higher action. The harmonic series is all out of whack. Switch to the lightest gauge string you can find, on the Martin.

If your situation is the opposite(action too low, string fretting out), switch to a higher gauge of string. Only adjust the neck's truss rod if completely necessary.


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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 7:27 pm
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I assume since you are asking this that you know for sure it is not due to a dead string, right? Brand new strings and you still have this problem? Yeah, I thought so ... but I just had to ask.

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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:09 am
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It's not that uncommon for guitars to have dead spots. If we assume that it has a proper setup and you have ruled out other factors like the strings and that individual fret, then it's probably not fixable.


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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 1:45 pm
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I had that issue on a Guild acoustic. The lightest touch of my right arm on the guitar body would totally mute one particular note from ringing.


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Post subject: Re: Weird sustain issue
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:14 pm
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Thanks for the replies! After doing all of the things suggested, I have come to the conclusion that it is the fret. I'll probably look at getting it resolved within the next couple of weeks.
Thanks again!


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