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It's not really "dead" sounding, but doesn't ring as well as the other strings, mostly when fretted. I think it's okay played open. This guitar has been strung up for about 3 weeks. I just did the second setup. Ended up making a new nut because I had a few low strings in the nut slots. The owner didn't mention anything about the 6th string when we talked about the new setup, and I don't remember thinking it sounded muddy when I first set it up.
Any ideas or suggestions? Anything I should try or could do?
THanks, Beth

That's not uncommon on smaller bodies. Possibly the 'main air' frequency is a bit high. Can you measure it?

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David Malicky

Beth, you could try a new string first.
Easy experiment at least.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

The strings are new. I haven't learned yet how to measure the main air frequency (I'll do a search or look for it in Trevor's book). Patience I can do.
Thanks guys

You may want to check that the fret ends are well seated. If not, it would explain why the tring sound dead when fretted.

On one of my first guitars, I didn't quite master my fret installation technique, and didn't notice that all the fret ends where just shy of being completely seated. Once I noticed I had to superglue all of them one by one to solve the problem.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

This might be a wolf note. If so it can be fixed. Check out Alastair Fordyce's article in the GAL journal.

what different brands and types of strings have you tried?

I was thinking this might be the answer, but it seemed better after a couple days post- setup (hopefully Todd was right and just a bit of time and playing will see it right).

The strings used by the musician are Elixer medium gauge.

Beth,

I'm new to setup so take this for what it is worth. I had some initial muddy\dead sounding strings on mine when I set it up and ended up widening the nut slots just a bit to bring them back to life. Since you changed the nut, this could be it. Of course I could be totally wrong.

Also, on that same guitar i recently moved from a D'Addario Med string to an Elixir Med string and it overall has a muddy sound. I'm going to try switching back to see if it improves, but I might work the nut slots a bit to see if I can get a better fit with the Elixirs. They might be just a bit tight. Either way I don’t think I’ll be putting on another set of Elixirs.

Good luck,

John

Notes on the Low E string of my OM suddenly got much stronger about 4 to 5 weeks in. So I guess I am +1 for Todd's comment.

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EddieLee