Buzz problems with my guitars please help

[Lux84]

I have buzz problems with two of my Vintage brand electric guitars. Both are upgraded with different Seymour duncans, with better tuners, and electronics, and shielded inside. the problem is i have had both of that guitars on local service luthier, he installed me all that. First, to talk about Vintage SG copy of Gibson. the guitar comes from service with pretty low action. now, after a while i have deicide to remove the old strings with new pack of strings. Ernie ball 10-48. when i restring it and tune it couple of times, i noticed fret buzz on an open e string and open a string. and the fret buzz goes on first 8 frets of each of those two strings. the thing is, that the Vintage LP copy of Gibson have exactly the same problem, maybe a little less, but almost the same. i only set the bridge on SG way much higher and the buzz was gone on open string, but still in first 4 frets of e string and a string. and the action at the higher frets was awfull high, to much for me. i have tuned the guitar constantly, and than lower the bridge all the way down, like before... and then it happens: all ****ing strings were buzzing no matter where.. so because of that i leave the other guitar LP with no adjustments. the LP has the fret buzz but not as big as SG. so it's somehow still playable, with a little buzzing at strings and frets i mentioned before. i am somehow afraid to adjust the truss rod for the first time, so i just leave it alone. i am wondering if the problem is with nut. i have LP in e flat tuning with Ernie Balls 11-52. on that guitar i haven't change anything after service, only move the pickups closer to the strings because of output. and it has really low action. and i sometimes drop the tuning to Drop C#. but at higher frets and strings there is no buzz, just e ( 52 ) and a ( 42 ) are buzzing. so i am thinking maybe of replacing the nut, maybe the nut is the problem ? what should i say to service man to do with those two guitars next time i'll be there ? at least, i have an LP playable, but SG it's so ****ed up i can't even play it with that adjustments i've done :crazy:i have done even worse from bad :bigeyes:

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Buzz problems with my guitars please help

Dang this could be a number of things. Could be the nut, could be the frets, could be the neck relief, could be the action at the bridge, could be the height of the pickups, could be the tuning, could be the string gauge or any combination of any of those. I would take it back to the luthier. But from what you're saying it does sound like the nut is the problem since it's only on the frets that are down the neck more, and adjusting from the bridge takes them away going TOWARDS the nut, plus it's only on the 2 e and a strings. A truss rod adjustment could do the trick, but I want to know, What were the strings that were on these guitars before? Did you change the gauge at all or are they the same strings you've always used?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Buzz problems with my guitars please help

Might I suggest a quick course of punctuation and paragraph structuring. Couldn't read

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Buzz problems with my guitars please help

I"f the buzzing started after the first string change, you probably need to adjust the truss rod. If it was set up at the factory with 9's, then the 10s would put more tension on the neck that it's used to. Intonation will be off too. Try a set of 9's and see if it magically gets better. If yes, then you'll need to have it professionally set up to work with your preferred 10's

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Buzz problems with my guitars please help

Changing to a heavier string gauge without adjusting the truss rod should put MORE bow into the neck, reducing the probability of fret rattles.

If a guitar tech performed a full set up, any change since then is due to something in your home environment. Temperature, humidity. Too many possibilities to deduce without seeing the instruments.



EDIT - Now that the Zephyr Silver pickup giveaway is ended, there is no longer any incentive to answer questions in a helpful manner. This post will self destruct after 24 hours.

 

[constant mesh]

Re: Buzz problems with my guitars please help

By what he said I could only assume the truss rod had relaxed and doesn't wanna go to a proper relief and stays backbowed instead. But he also said he switched to a heavier gauge.

Nut action that is too low would buzz anywhere on the fretboard if circumstances are right. Most of the time it will only buzz on open strings, but in some cases fretting it in any register might just leave a tiny gap behind the fretted note and you get sympathetic buzzes or ringing everywhere.

Here's a fool-proof way for setting up a healthy neck. Undo the truss rod maybe half a turn or a full turn to get an absolute relief. Put a capo on the first fret and press down the D string on the 17th fret, see the gap between the D string and 8th fret? Now start tightening the nut and check constantly until the D string touches every fret (no gap between 8th) - now your neck is dead straight. Now undo the nut a little more than a quarter of a turn. That should easily put you somewhere near .010'' of relief. You could also check the gap with a piece of .010'' or .011'' string.

If you see the D string constantly laying on all of the frets and loosening the truss doesn't affect that, then you know it has a constant backbow which should be addressed.
With the string & capo method always start with an absolute relief, otherwise you don't know if your neck is straight or backbowed, because strings will lay flat on all of the frets all the time because they can flex.

Relief should be set just right (.008''-.014''), if it doesn't work in that powerzone, you have uneven frets or faulty hardware. I know players tend to put too much relief like .020''+ and that screws up intonation or even tremolo stability if equipped.