"A" Note Constricting

[PaulS]

I've never been able to get any sort of accurate answer to a question which I've had for some time now. Numbers of guesses from people I've talked to but nothing concrete so figured Tom or someone else could answer it for me.....or maybe it's just my bad luck with guitars and there isn't an answer.

Why does the "A" note (7th fret) on the D string with some guitars lack sustain or just sound constricted? As I've moved up or down from the A on the fretboard the notes start to open up and sound right but as I moved closer in and then onto the A the sound gets tighter and can sustain like a banjo. I've had this occur on 4 guitars out of the last 6 I tried and it varied from guitar to guitar but was still present. I've heard everything from "dress the frets" to "problem with saddles" and in one case I had actually bought the guitar and went through numerous attempts with a guitar tech to no availe and evntually just returned the guitar. My guess is there is some sort of sympathetic vibration going on and the string at that point is just robbed of energy.

Guess which note is the first one i play when I try a new guitar:-)

Thankfully the TA I just got has the smoothest/evenest response I've ever heard all up and down the fretboard. I do love this guitar.

Paul

[tom]

sounds like you're talking about what i call dead spots. i haven't noticed that particular note being a problem though. i think different instruments can have a tendency for different areas to have a bad note. it can vary from barely noticable to very noticable. fender basses are famous for the c# area on the g string being dead. it can be a fret or two either side of that note. our mahogany necked guitars can have a note like that on them. we had one returned for a dead note. keith richards ended up with that guitar, and he has used it for several tours since. pierre, his tech once said it was his favorite guitar for standard tuning. my favorite acoustic guitar has a totally dead note on the A string. it doesn't make me play it less. many people have theories about dead spots, but i've never seen and absolute solution to any. i think in the end it's just how all the parts work together.

[PaulS]

Thanks Tom.

I guess I had gotten over-sensitive to the "A" as I had been spending hours trying to perfect some runs in the key of A and everytime I would land on the root I would cringe as it would just go clunk:-)

Paul

[tom]

it's real easy to get obsessive about anything tonal. once we know it's there, we have trouble getting past it. i think the magic happens when we can just let it rip without thinking too much.