5th Fret on E string is dead..

As the title says, the 5th fret on the E string sounds dead.
It's all muffled and it doesn't ring out very well.. any ideas what could be causing it?
Oh and the entire G string isn't as loud as the rest, any ideas on that aswell?

I didn't notice it when i tried my bass out in the shop, but I noticed it when i got home.
I assumed it was my strings as they were an old set that had been boiled a few times and needed changing.
Well i changed them today and the problem persists..

is your neck dead straight? I had this sort of problem with mine and I actually just needed to losen the truss rod, only a 1/4 inch turn but that makes alot of difference, try it if you are condfident.

Yeah, my neck is pretty much dead straight..
I'll give it a go later, thanks

The truss rod alone isn't an issue if there's no buzz on the lower frets from 5 (4-1).

Just take a look at the bass from the side and try to play the note. Look at where the string bounces and see if it hits on any other frets, or if there's somewhere where it gets caught in one. Look at the bass from the bridge and down the neck, the sides of it should be straight.

How high is your action? The distance of the strings from the top of the fretboard (21th fret-ish) is controlled by 2 screws on either side of the saddle, where the string goes. Using a hex key to adjust this, you can change that.

What does your nut look like? If the nut is too deep for the bass, it could cause alot of issues with fret buzz close to it.

Loosen your truss rod just 1/4 turn and then check everything I've talked about, one should ring as the culprit.. a damaged fret or something is unlikely but possible as well.

As for the G string, it is probably caused from your string being too far away from the pickups. If the action is really high lower it. If it's level with all the other strings, check to see if the pickups are level. You can adjust pickup hight by simply turning the screws on them. Your amp settings could have no high end as well - always something you could have forgotten.

The neck is pretty much dead straight, if anything theres a slight bend forward on the neck.. but not much at all.

Theres no fret buzzing, it just sounds muffled.
My E string is about 3.5mm from my fretboard at the end, just after the 24th fret, it's a medium-low action i'd say.
Is the nut supposed to be slightly taller on the E string side and slope down a little towards the G string side?
I just noticed that.. its only a little bit though.

The pickups on the Ibanez SR aren't flat, they curve over a bit, so the E and G string are a little further away from the pickup than the A and D string.
I'll lower the action on the G a bit tomorrow when i try and fix it all up.

Also bear in mind the height of your bridge. I shimmed my neck allowing me to raise my bridge and keep the same low action without all the fret buzz. Then i still had some buzz from about frets 1-5 so I loosed the truss rod 1/4 and its sounded good from then.