Just found a deadspot on my Dingwall. I am annoyed.

[kwmlondon]

12 minutes ago, ezbass said:

He’s playing up at the 10th fret! Burn the witch! 🤣

I know. Right up the dusty end... Because it's a 5er I often anchor myself from the C on fret 8 of the 4th string up to the C on the 10th fret of the 2nd string, especially as I'm learning to sight read at the moment and it's a key position to work at.

[Hellzero]

7 hours ago, LowB-ing said:

The Dead Spot Eliminator is a tunable resonator that stores energy at a particular frequency and feeds it back into the neck.

This is pure audiophile talking meaning absolutely nothing and wrapped in pseudo science.

 

If it was really doing this, it would mean an even more pronounced dead spot by frequency cancelling.

 

I've been in the audiophile sphere during so many years, and it's the kind of things you read very often, alongside the extraordinary snake oil.

 

I'm still an audiophile, but not an idiophile.

[kwmlondon]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

This is pure audiophile talking meaning absolutely nothing and wrapped in pseudo science.

 

If it was really doing this, it would mean an even more pronounced dead spot by frequency cancelling.

 

I've been in the audiophile sphere during so many years, and it's the kind of things you read very often, alongside the extraordinary snake oil.

 

I'm still an audiophile, but not an idiophile.

Well, everything has a resonant frequency, the aim I guess is to push it to a beat where it doesn't interfere in a noticeable way with the frequencies you want to hear.

[Sean]

I wonder how many readers of this thread have picked up their basses and started looking for dead spots.

I'm not going to bother. I'm not aware of any and would be frustrated if I found one. 

 

Good luck with getting it sorted and although I've not had any dealings with Dingwall, I only hear positives about its customer service. 

[itu]

13 hours ago, Hellzero said:

This is pure audiophile talking meaning absolutely nothing and wrapped in pseudo science.

Exactly. While the theory about dead spots is true (nearly every particle and shape resonates) the snake oil thing is usually too easy to add to the texts. Bigger is bigger, and more is more. That product page had lots of text, even though the basic theory is about resonance, a stick attached from one end. If you change any parametres of it (length, weight...) the system changes. 

 

One way to tune the system is to change the tuners. One by one, or all at once. 

[kwmlondon]

46 minutes ago, Sean said:

I wonder how many readers of this thread have picked up their basses and started looking for dead spots.

I'm not going to bother. I'm not aware of any and would be frustrated if I found one. 

 

Good luck with getting it sorted and although I've not had any dealings with Dingwall, I only hear positives about its customer service. 

As I've said before, I'd had a bass for years and only noticed a dead spot recently. It was very, very slight - just one note that didn't sustain as long as the others, but as someone pointed out earlier the only way to 100% guarantee you don't get them is to go headless and maybe even use synthetic materials.

Edited Tuesday at 09:37 by kwmlondon

[police squad]

51 minutes ago, Sean said:

I wonder how many readers of this thread have picked up their basses and started looking for dead spots.

I'm not going to bother. I'm not aware of any and would be frustrated if I found one. 

 

Good luck with getting it sorted and although I've not had any dealings with Dingwall, I only hear positives about its customer service. 

all my basses have dead spots. It really doesn't bother me as you don't hear it in the mix down at the Dog and Duck

My Dingwall actually needs its truss rod adjusting atm................rude!

[Sean]

14 minutes ago, kwmlondon said:

the only way to 100% guarantee you don't get them is to go headless and maybe even use synthetic materials.

Hmmm, this is today's new thing for me. I've had headless basses, 7 Hohners, a Status Streamliner, a Status "somethingelse" graphite/wood (sorry, can't remember) and I didn't know about the dead spot thing.  

 

"You're always on that Basschat forum..."

"Yes, I learn stuff. Most days."

[TheLowDown]

I had a dead spot on one of my Sires, 7th fret on the G string, that seemed to have just.....disappeared. I'm pretty sure I put flats on it long after that, but other than that I can't account for any change.

Edited 20 hours ago by TheLowDown

[kwmlondon]

On 10/02/2026 at 09:43, police squad said:

all my basses have dead spots. It really doesn't bother me as you don't hear it in the mix down at the Dog and Duck

My Dingwall actually needs its truss rod adjusting atm................rude!

I know. It's just that I do anchor myself on that part of the fretboard and now I've heard that the C doesn't sustain it niggles me! I think I can mititgate it a bit though so will report on next steps.

[kwmlondon]

30 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

I had a dead spot on one of my Sires, 7th fret on the G string, that seemed to have just.....disappeared. I'm pretty sure I put flats on it long after that, but other than that I can't account for any change.

I mean, it may end up being less of an issue after a setup and a change of strings - won't go away but could be less noticable. These Dragonskins+ seem to be very high tension. I could try putting the old set on to see - I keep the previous set and shove in my gig bag in case of a breakage. Handy to have a precut set to hand.

[kwmlondon]

Okay everhone. Update time.

 

There is a complete, 100% fix that sorts the issue completely that I've found. If I tune the bass down a half step to Bb the issue goes away. It's not a solution for me as I'd go raving mad trying to work out what I'm doing, but it's good to know it's an option. 

 

This is what Ryan at Dingwall had to say:

 

Thanks for reaching out. In my experience dead spots can be minimized but not necessarily eliminated without, in my opinion, unacceptable compromise. To remove them completely the resonant frequency of the neck needs to be octaves above that of the speaking range of the instrument.

 Full carbon fibre necks work great for this but the tone for some people can be a deal breaker. We also had great luck using a clamp at the headstock. The added mass from the clamp helped a bit for sure. The major difference came from the off-centredness of the clamp, this all but eliminated the dead spots by controlling the torsional vibrations in the neck.  

 I've heard some people have had success over the years with the Fatfinger, but if adding mass to the headstock is the goal the first thing I would try is a heavier set of tuners. 

 I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any more questions.

 

I asked what tuners he'd say worked and he told me "Gotoh's are a drop in, the index screws are located in the same place. Look at the standard keys, not the reso-lites."

 

However... on recommendation from someone else I had a go at adjusting the truss rod. I'd done it as soon as I noticed the dead spot but only gave it a quarter turn so this morning I tried giving it another quarter turn which is about as much as I want for the action I like (there is still a bit of relief in the neck) and while it's not totally elimiated the dead spot, now if you didn't know where it was and I handed it to you I'd challenge anyone other than a luthier to spot it. 

 

So, that's it. It'll do me and I'm not doing anything else for the time being. I'll see how it goes when I change the strings next or if the neck needs adjustment as the seasons change or whatnot.

 

Thanks to everyone for your input - I really appreciate your advice and support.