dull sounding e string

[arjepsen]

Hey.

I have a bit of a problem that I want to hear you peoples thoughts on.
I love the strat that I built a few years ago- ash body with canary top, canary neck with ebony fingerboard. Gorgeous guitar in my opinion
However I've always been unhappy with the sounds I get from the low e string. It sounds kinda dull and lifeless. (A bit like saying beow beow).
Like I mentioned, it's a canary neck with ebony fingerboard, stainless frets, earvana nut and callaham bridge.
The problem is still there when I fret the string, so I believe it's not the nut.
I tried changing pickup height - didn't help.
I've messed a bit around with the saddles on the bridge, and generally people only say good things about that bridge. One note - the holes in the bridge didn't line up completely perfect with the holes in the body. I think it amounted to about 1mm off on each outer hole. I did file a bit of the holes in the bridge so it didn't bind that much. However I also tried fixing the bridge with strings, so it was stationary on the body - in my mind this should negate any problems that could spring from the bridge binding on the screws.
Anyways, nothing I tried with the bridge seemed to change dullness.
I've tried changing the neck relief, also no change.
Changed strings a few times - still dull.
Btw, it's a modern neck with the side adjustable truss rod.

Any thoughts on what more to try?

Regards
Anders

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

What kind of tuners?

Do you have any string retainers behind the nut, before the string hits the tuner post?

Does the string have enough of a break angle over the nut to seat the string firmly in the nut slot?

 

[pabloman]

You said it does it on fretted notes too so I would look at the saddles. Is it acoustically or when amplfied? Either or? Both? Check your intonation. After that I would make sure the string isn't fretting out. Pay attention to the overhang on the fret board. If the pickguard is too thick that'll cause problems. Next I'd probably lower the pickups to the point where they are too low, and check the string. If the problem persists I'd go after the bridge. Specifically the saddles. Maybe swap a couple saddles around.

 

[arjepsen]

Yeah, I don't think it's the nut, 'cause it also sounds dull when frettet.
At first I thought it was the pickup height, because it sounds a lot like what I would expect from reading peoples description of that sound. Almost like there's some bad sounding harmonics riding on the tone.
But I also messed around with the pickups without luck.
I think the problem is evident both amplified and acoustically. I think the intonation is good, checked the harmonic on 12th fret vs frettet 12th fret up against a tuner. There's no pickguard - the pickups are mounted in the body, with a bit of foam underneath to be able to adjust the height. (they are sort of able to move like if they were mounted in a pickguard).
I tried changing saddles - didn't change it.
Wonder if it's some bad vibrations in the bridge, but again - I've never read a bad comment on the callahams. :-/
Unfortunately I don't have another bridge to try out.

 

[lafromla1]

I going to have to ask for sake of ruling things out, but have you changed strings? sizes? brands? types/make-ups?  You may be able to buy just singles of different ones to see if there is something tonally different in the way your guitar works with them.

 

[arjepsen]

Yeah, I also have tried chaning the strings. Not many times, but through 3 sets of strings it still felt dull on the low e. Two of the sets were La Bella 10's and the other one was Ernie Balls  also 10's

 

[Strat Avenger]

That's a strange problem to have. I hope you get it figured out and let us know what the cause was.

 

[musicispeace]

I had something that may have been similar on a parts strat I recently took in for a professional set up because I was having trouble adjusting the single coil bridge pickup to my satisfaction and the tech told me one of the things he did for that guitar was that he did some additional fine filing on the nut slots and "dialed it in" a bit better. I was happy after that. Just a possibility to consider. I felt my high e had been sounding dull and thuddy and it was normal sounding after he adjusted the nut filing a little further.

 

[pesocaster]

you might want to check the bridge screws again and how they meet the bridge plate if there is the slightest burr it can make the string sound wonky..... this happened on one of my tele bridges. I ended up removing the height adjustment screws and ground the bottoms to a nice round shape .... problem gone...... hope this helps.