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I am fixing up an Ibanez for by brother. To start, the fret board had some light divits and lots of crud. Frets needed little polishing and replacing tuners. All easy enough. When I tap the body down below the bridge you can hear what sounds like a loose brace but looking pretty carefully with inspection mirror and good light everything seems to be ok. Reach in as far as I can (oval soundhole, not much room for my fat arms) and nothing appears to be loose.

Wondering if it could be poor contact of saddle with under sadle pickup. Not sure what I am actually asking here, just thinking our loud and hoping someone has run into this before.

It doesnt seem to rattle while playing although my brother claims it does. Well back to the cellar to explore some more.

Hi Rich, Check the input jack and see if everything is tight, inside and out, also check the internal wires. They may be vibrating against the top or back.
Let me know how it goes,
Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

What Evan said or maybe the wires are hitting the sides or top.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

I have a set of spatulas that LMI sells. Sometimes the only way I can find a loose brace is to use one of these spatulas and run it along the joint. Chances are, if it is a loose brace, it will be loose on one of its ends.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Thanks guys, will check out both suggestions

Also look for a string end.
I had the same symptom in a guitar and found a broken string end including the ball end that was caught between the sides and the tail block.
Most likely a loose brace is the culprit.
Good luck!
Paul

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

Good luck in fixin' this buddy!

Loose wires are real bad for that. I such a hard time with one guitar I ended up securing them with wire ties and those little adhesive anchors they make for them.DaleH38950.0540972222

Feeler gauges make a great inspection tool for slipping under loose
braces. They also work great for getting glue under them.

Good luck!!

Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

I think it was loose wires in the end because I moved them around and the noise disappeared - well I'll be darned!!!! Thanks for all your feedback guys. Hey, I love that idea about using feeler gauges to check.

So here is a summary of my repair:

Replaced tuners which required a little filling of old screw holes and enlarging of the tuner peg holes. Cleaned and polished nut - one string was hanging so did a little widening of the slot. Pulled bridge and polished, removed nicks that were caused by 20 years of wear. Fixed divits in fretboard at frets 1-3 by simply scraping with razor blade and then finishing with micro mesh papers and doing frets at same time. Probably boring most of you but job took a couple hours and I really had fun bringing this 20 year old guitar back to decent condition. Wished I had taken pics of the process in hind sight.

Way to go Rich,
when I first started those types of things would drive me crazy! Glad you solved it

Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

Way to go bud!

A clunky rattle will almost always be a brace. But fully half of the time, I find a loose brace on the BACK of a guitar and that will make the same sound! So don't neglect the back braces.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com