Unofficial Taylor Guitar Forum - UTGF
Taylor Acoustic & Electric Guitars => Taylor Acoustic & Electric Guitars => Topic started by: sergeko on December 19, 2017, 04:45:04 PM
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Hello,
All the GA Taylors I ever played had a dead F note on the 5th string, including my 314.
I was wondering how many of you also have this issue ?
Before lowering the action, the problem was more pronounced with dead neighbouring E and F# notes too.
Best regards,
Serge
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My 2012 414ce has a thuddy note at F# (~185hz)...E, A and D string, 14th, 9th and 4th fret respectively. I just play through and try not to focus on it.
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I have no dead notes on any of my Taylor GAs.
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I have no dead notes on any of my Taylor GAs.
Wow ! Even when you're damping all the strings except the A string and play the F note on the A string ?
No loss of sustain whatsoever compared to other notes ?
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That is correct. I have had ample opportunity to test this over 8 GAs spanning 1995-2017. No complaints here, except with my fretting abilities on occasion.
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That is correct. I have had ample opportunity to test this over 8 GAs spanning 1995-2017. No complaints here, except with my fretting abilities on occasion.
May I ask what kind of strings and tuning you're using and whether your guitars have been setup in some specific way ?
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If I do have dead notes, I haven't noticed them. Then again, I'm not exactly known for playing with much precision anyway so there's that...
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That is correct. I have had ample opportunity to test this over 8 GAs spanning 1995-2017. No complaints here, except with my fretting abilities on occasion.
May I ask what kind of strings and tuning you're using and whether your guitars have been setup in some specific way ?
I use either Elixir PB lights or Elixir HD PB lights. I use standard A-440 tuning 95% of the time. All my guitars are set-up to the Taylor factory standard when purchased new or returned from El Cajon for standard maintenance.
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Hello,
All the GA Taylors I ever played had a dead F note on the 5th string, including my 314.
I was wondering how many of you also have this issue ?
Before lowering the action, the problem was more pronounced with dead neighbouring E and F# notes too.
Best regards,
Serge
I would assume you have contacted Taylor about this issue, what did they say?
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I have a difficult time playing a full F chord on any acoustic guitar except Ovation. No problem with a good quality electric. But on my acoustics (all Taylors), I usually get a "thud" because I just can't quite get that low F depressed enough. I blame the relatively flat fingerboard, as opposed to the more arched fingerboard on an electric or Ovation. If I "zero in" on that low F with an index finger, no problem. Trying to barre all 6 strings is where I mess up.
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I have a difficult time playing a full F chord on any acoustic guitar except Ovation. No problem with a good quality electric. But on my acoustics (all Taylors), I usually get a "thud" because I just can't quite get that low F depressed enough. I blame the relatively flat fingerboard, as opposed to the more arched fingerboard on an electric or Ovation. If I "zero in" on that low F with an index finger, no problem. Trying to barre all 6 strings is where I mess up.
No question barre chords up the neck on a 15” radius are more difficult than on a 12” or 9 1/2” radius neck. That is one reason I looked around for a quality acoustic with a 12” radius fingerboard.
On the flatter radius guitars like my Taylor T3 I tend to substitute a lot more triads and dyads when I’m up the neck.
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Hello,
All the GA Taylors I ever played had a dead F note on the 5th string, including my 314.
I was wondering how many of you also have this issue ?
Before lowering the action, the problem was more pronounced with dead neighbouring E and F# notes too.
Best regards,
Serge
I would assume you have contacted Taylor about this issue, what did they say?
Yes, Taylor support was contacted by the luthier of my Taylor certified service center and they said it was perfectly normal to have some dead notes on acoustic guitars ...
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I found out that playing more to the right of the sound hole seems to improve the sustain a lot for the F and F# notes on the 5th string.
Also with a lower relative humidity (55 to 60%) the sustain also seems to improve.
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I agree with Taylor that it is perfectly normal to have some 'dead(er) notes' on a guitar. This is due to a natural cancellation of the frequencies. There will also be some lively notes on a guitar due to additive frequencies. Due the physics associated with resonant frequencies, wave length, string diameter, fret board length... the dead notes tend to be in the lower register and the lively notes tend to be in the higher register. I was recently playing acoustically for some friends, whet up the fret board and one of them remarked that the guitar seemed amplified when I play up there. In most cases sustain and volume change of the dead and lively notes should be minor and only noticeable (if at all) to the player, but it can be severe. I want to mention there is a reason the same note say an E, 7th fret 5th string, can be dead while the same note on the 2nd fret 4th string does not seem to be dead, this is due to the length of the resonant section (the distance from the bridge to the fret of the note) of the string. This is also a common problem on electric bases. Changing the cancellation frequency(s) on a guitar is not easy. The best effort you can make is to have the guitar properly set up. I have actually sold guitars that I otherwise would have kept due to unacceptable (to me) dead notes. Good luck.
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The F and F# on the 5th string now have a much longer sustain than a couple of months ago.
Still not as long as other neighbouring notes though but acceptable to me.
A combination of the following points made it possible :
- keeping some space between the back of the guitar and my body
- lower relative humidity (<60%)
- more precise left hand fretting
- right hand a little farther away from the sound hole