G note on my guitar dies out quickly and has a 'thump' kind of noise
I have a Merida DG 15-SPOMCES guitar. It is a nice resonant guitar but sadly the G note just doesn't sound as good as other notes especially on the 10th fret of the 5th string (is little better on the 5th fret of the 4th string and a little better on the third string - the open G). The note produces a 'thump' kind of noise and dies out quickly. Can anyone explain the reason for this and any possible remedy? I would be very grateful for any response! Thank you!
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The explanation matches exactly the phenomenon of a dead spot: a resonance in the guitar's neck that causes the mechanical impedance at that frequency to almost vanish, thus quickly draining that note's energy.
This isn't an issue many guitarists think too much about (though quite a few instruments have slight dead spots, they're usually not so pronounced that it's really a problem), but it's quite a common plague for bass, and people think a lot about good solutions. Most tricks amount to altering the neck's response through extra mass, generally at the free space on the headstock. The most crude implement for this is a woodworking C-clamp, but perhaps a capodaster will already do or a clip tuner – both are useful to have the anyway! There are also purpose-built weights available, Fender markets this under the name fatfinger.
The problem can also have something to do with a badly embedded truss rod; a luthier might be able to tell.
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