How much fret buzz is too much?

[rts99]

Re: How much fret buzz is too much?

I've never been able to "hear" fret buzz from the amp, only from the frets on the guitar itself. What I can hear in the amp if the buzz is pronounced enough is the premature dampening of the note that is buzzing. The buzzing, or the string striking the frets, causes the vibrating string to vibrate for a shorter period of time. It's like an uncontrolled palm muting.

I am not living in my own place for now and am sharing a house with others. This prevents me from playing amplified in free air and only on a pocket amp. Due to this I hear the fret buzz now much more than I could when I played through an amp. Because of this I have significantly reduced the amount of buzz I'll tolerate. When I am able to return home I'll go back to live sound and fret buzz be damned. But until then the I find the fret buzz a buzz kill. In more ways than one.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: How much fret buzz is too much?

it wrecks your sustain, man. you want the buzz on the inside, not the outside. :smokin:

 

[blueman335]

Re: How much fret buzz is too much?

it wrecks your sustain, man. you want the buzz on the inside, not the outside. :smokin:

Wrecks sustain and tone.

 

[constant mesh]

Re: How much fret buzz is too much?

Fret buzz is an undesired phenomena and wasn't part of the deal when guitar god decided to make the guitar. But we still have to live with it.

Some buzz won't do any harm, but severe buzz can kill your tone, your notes will start to oscillate or die out immediately after picking. I like to max out the gain and play some single notes and listen for that wobbly, oscillating sound.
Choke-outs can be heard acoustically, usualy when you pluck the strings you get a very woody tone.

Keeping your action on the higher side or at factory specs will give best results too. Try setting the action once by what you like to hear coming from the amp, not by the gap you want to see between the frets and the strings. Almost every other customer has lower 'ridiculous' action than mine guitar, but they always say mine feels very low and slippery.
Not having your bridge ridiculously low seems like it gives the tone some 'breathing' quality, the tone becomes more solid, more defined.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: How much fret buzz is too much?

When i was young, i was of the 'there is some buzz but it doesn't show up through the amp' attitude. Now, i consider any fret buzz or rattle to be a loss of tone, and I won't put up with it. I see no point in searching out great instruments and packing them with expensive pickups and hardware, only to throw a lot of that away by allowing the strings to hit another part of the instrument and kill a part of their vibration.

I don't care if it's hidden under distortion, i want the full sound to be there from the start. If i wanted compromised sound, i could simply buy cheap guitars. I don't, and I don't. I want as much value for my note as possible. Lord knows i didn't spend so much money, time and effort to throw tone away with fret buzz.

 

[Morior]

Re: How much fret buzz is too much?

If you have them about as low as Petrucci had them in the Images & Words era of Dream Theater, you'll lose some of the attack. He makes fun of himself on one of the commentary tracks for a DT live DVD on this very subject.

Personally, I find that having just a little buzz in some positions on the wounds strings, and having the non-wound strings just a wee bit over where they start buzzing is the perfect balance for me. It is still very low due to me properly setting up my guitars how I like them every now and then.