As far as "dead notes", this may be caused by body resonance. The body of a guitar often has pronounced resonances at certain notes; F# is not uncommon on dreadnaughts. When you play a note that is the same as these resonance peaks, the body tends to reduce sustain on these notes, hence the "dead" sound. Almost every instrument I have owned has had certain notes that do not sustain as long as others.

Fred wrote:

"As far as "dead notes", this may be caused by body resonance. The body of a guitar often has pronounced resonances at certain notes; F# is not uncommon on dreadnaughts. When you play a note that is the same as these resonance peaks, the body tends to reduce sustain on these notes, hence the "dead" sound. Almost every instrument I have owned has had certain notes that do not sustain as long as others."

Interesting explanation, Fred. I recently noticed a slight drop on my 18 month old CJ when fretting the B string at the 8th fret, especially when doing a bend. I thought it was my imagination at first and in truth it's not a very dramatic drop, but it is there. It could have always been there since I've just recently started playing that far up the neck. I don't notice it on my much older Martin D18VS or on a new Collings C-10. It's interesting to find others have noticed drops. By the way, people listening to me play don't notice it at all so I think as players we're probably more aware of these subtle drops.

George

Yes, virtually every guitar has dead spots on it. The laws of physics dictate that the dimensions of every resonant sound cavity (a room, a guitar body, etc.) will have certain frequencies that cause "phase cancellation." These dead spots are more noticeable on some guitars than others; on certain guitars they may be almost unnoticeable, but every guitar has them. It's also true that some players are more aware of these dead spots than others.

If you record your guitar, then you will be more aware of it, as mics are very sensitive to these dead frequencies. (One reason why mic positioning is so crucial with acoustic guitar.)F# and G on the A and D strings are very common dead spots. I have 4 Collings - every one of them has a slightly dead note in this area. Again, on some guitars it's less noticeable than others. Dead spots tend to be less noticeable on quieter guitars (e. g., mahogany ones) and more noticeable on louder ones (e. g. rosewood).