Lamar E Ben Posted 11 hours ago Posted 11 hours ago I have had several 5-string basses over the years and have found 35" scale basses to have better B strings than shorter scale instruments. I purchased a Lakland 55-02 Skyline online, mainly because I have heard of the legendary tone and I'm on a bit of a budget. I have to say that I love most every aspect of the bass. However, it seems to have a dead spot on the B string around the 4th and 5th (Eb and E) frets. In this range, notes sound tinny and do not have the robust growl the the bass does have below that. The open B is exhilarating. Has anyone else observed this on their bass? Is there a fix? Or do I need to pony up for the USA model? Quote
MyNameIsMark Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago 7 hours ago, Lamar E Ben said: it seems to have a dead spot on the B string around the 4th and 5th (Eb and E) frets. In this range, notes sound tinny and do not have the robust growl the the bass does have below that. If it’s a dead spot you should be able to move its position by adding mass to the headstock - Fender sell a “Fatfinger” clamp for this, maybe a capo & something heavy will prove the point, maybe even jamming the headstock into the wall / a table to couple onto it. It could be a badly seated (4th?) fret, or a high (6th?) fret stopping the string from ringing/slapping back with a nasty overtone, or neck relief & string height - if you hold the bridge to your face & sight down each edge of the neck is there a noticeable difference in relief for the B string vs G string? Professional experienced techs are worth every penny IMO, if the neck is a little “warped” one side to the other they may be able to level the fret tops to cover for it. Assuming the string looks consistent - no kinks, winding oddities around that area - and sounds good in other positions. Best of luck, if otherwise sounds like a great buy 1 Quote
velvetkevorkian Posted 17 minutes ago Posted 17 minutes ago Would detuning the B string to say A and seeing if the dead spot moves with it help isolate if it's a setup issue or not? Quote
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