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I just finished up a build, leveled the frets like always, strung it up and started playing. No matter what I do, I cannot get rid of the fret buzz on the low E string. All other strings are fine. I re-leveled the frets even though they were perfectly flat, and have attempted all kinds of different combinations of neck relief and action hight. Even with extrememly high action it buzzez on almost every fret. The only thing I can think is that it might be the cheap strings I put on from guitar fetish. I like to use cheap strings to do the set up/nut work, but this is the first time I have used these. I don't know if it is possible, but I was wondering if they are too slinky, they are 9's which I can normally get down to 3/64th on all of my other guitars. Any ideas would be appreciated.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

Have you isolated that it is not the nut buzzing, or some high fret? If is buzzing everywhere, at every fret, as well as open, then you may have some form of sympathetic buzz in the bridge or elsewhere. I suppose it is possible that you may have some loose something or other on the string itself, but you will have to begin to eliminate variables.

Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

I forgot to mention that,

I did isolate the nut with a capo and it still buzzes. Best I can tell, it is not buzzing in the bridge, and seems to be on the next fret above which ever fret is being played. Which is why I find it wierd that higher action does not fix it.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

try cranking the 6th string up at the bridge, and see what happens,
also, try different strings, i've had problems with strings where the windings came loose.

Well, I got it fixed, but I am not sure exactly what fixed it. I changed gauge and brand of strings (D'Addario 0.010's) and magically there is no buzz. I think it must have been something with that string. I did take the digital calipers to the 6th string and it was 0.042, and I could not see anything visibly wrong with it. I wish I knew for sure cause that was really weird. Action is now down almost to 3/64th with no buzz.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

I've had this happen before a couple of times. One time, believe it or not, it was a strat type pickguard that fit too tightly and caused some sort of sympathetic vibration. After I removed the pickguard and trimmed it with a file till it fit better the buzz was gone. Go figger. The second time it was the strings. I chased down everything I could think of; tuners bridge saddles, truss rod, fret level(twice), relief, pickup height....... no dice. I went to the next larger gauge string and it fixed the problem. On the next string change I went back to .009s and the buzz was magically gone. The only difference was string brand. The strings that gave me a problem were First Act strings, from Walmart. Like you, i was trying to save a little cash and use cheaper strings for setup. Never again. Spend the extra couple of bucks for decent strings for setups. The aggravation they'll save is worth a lot more.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I think you are right.... 2 fret levels later on brand new frets that were almost near perfectly flat from just putting them in. At least they are jumbos so a little off the top wont' hurt much, but that was a major aggravation. I am curious if these cheap strings will work on any of my guitars, I have 8 or 9 more sets.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

I know I'm a little late on this one but I'll put my two cents in anyways (in case anybody cares).
Whenever I have just one string that buzzes no matter what and every other string is fine, I immediately put on a new string.
This happens to me a LOT with cheap strings, and for some reason DR strings. With the DR's, it's usually the G string, with the cheap ones any of the wound strings could cause a problem.
I strongly suspect it's the wrap wire becoming separated from the core wire causing that particular problem.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

It was most definately the brand of strings. I tried them on 2 different guitars that were playing fine with my normal brand of strings. Put these cheap ones on and instant buzz on all of the wound strings. Its too bad cause I still have 6 sets of these cheap strings, but I guess they are not worth the money.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

Take it from someone who learned the hard way. If you're going to give something (anything) new a try, never buy more than one at a time until it's proved itself to your satisfaction. For what that's worth.
Now, everytime you go into your string drawer (or where ever you keep them), you're gonna have to look at those things. Been there, still doing that on a couple of things.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Hi everyone, new here! Not a luthier as such, just someone very interested in everything to do with guitars, including construction, materials and set-up!

I've heard that that flexible strings that are designed to bend well are more prone to buzz, is this true? (eg D'addario)

One of my 'missions' in life is getting my strat actions down as far as I reasonably can. Now we all know that bright sounding long-scale guitars with single coil lowish out-put PUs tend to 'rattle' more than short scale guitars constructed of darker sounding woods with relatively powerfull and less trebbley humbuckers (cf a alder/maple Fender Strat compared to a mahogany Gibson SG!)

Also high fretboard camber causes choaking of course, although this only comes into play during bends.

I'm still constantly amazed though, how some strats, even when just as perfectly set-up seem to rattle more than others! There MUST be variables that have not occurred to me- I do not believe in the 'dark-arts'!

Some advise from you Guys would be very helpfull!

I am not to sure about this, my normal strings are D'addario XL's and they don't seem to buzz, the GFS Xavior strings I put on the same guitar buzzed like mad. I have always been satisfied with D'addario, but I haven't tried anything else higher end than that.



rattles and buzzing can come from all kinds of places on a guitar. Bridges, nuts, pickguards, jacks coming loose. Sometimes I find a rattle in my guitars only when certain notes are played cause it hits some sort of natural frequency of the part that is rattling. I don't have a whole lot of experience with Gibson products, and have mainly done work on MIM Strats, but with a proper setup on the Strats, they play great with no buzzing or rattling. I have actually gotten more rattles out of guitars with tuno-matic style bridges vs. tremolo's. My theory on that is just the solid mountin of the strings gets the whole guitar vibrating more than a tremolo.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com