Place coding poorly carries pitch when harmonics go unresolved.

Evidence

Because the spacing between components decreases as frequency increases (as the place representation moves toward the base of the cochlea), the place code is a poor representation of the fundamental frequency at high fundamental frequencies. When the excitation peaks associated with individual harmonics are not resolved (that is, they are smeared together), the place code indicates that the pitch of the stimulus should be difficult to determine or should be very weak. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1207