How to fix excessive string buzz mainly the G and B strings? And tuning issues.

man-in-moon

New member
I am helping my cousin set up his guitar. And we are running into a few problems. First off it won't stay in tune. The the nut slots are fine and the tuners are solid.
Second is the G and B strings buzz on every fret. The frets seem level. The neck bow is set to where I can slide a .011 feeler gauge under the string at the 8th fret. With a capo on the first fret and pressing the string down at the 17th fret. The action at the 12th fret is right at 2mm.
The action needs to come down a little but the buzz gets worse. When he got the guitar it was new and out of the box the action was about 4mm at the 12fret and the bridge was raised real high.
The guitar is an ltd sparrowhawk like mine.. I an not sure if it's common with ltd necks but I have noticed the middle of the neck bends and flexes alot. If you put too much pressure on the headstock when tuning. It around 1/4 a step flat or sharp. I know it's an old trick to push or pull the headstock. But I've never seen one flex like this.
 
Re: How to fix excessive string buzz mainly the G and B strings? And tuning issues.

Sounds like a dud due to the neck flex thing and the tuning, I'd return the hell out of it. And then, if you're not now disgusted with the brand, use a little less money to buy yourself a used ESP or E-II of your choice, instead of spending >$1k on a lower tier guitar

As to the buzz.... pictures online show it to be an engineering screwup in the design that needs some improvisation to address. Or a manufacturing screwup if they knew about it and just forgot to manually compensate on this particular one

Look at the fretboard radius and compare it to the TOM's radius... what you'll need to do is jack up the treble side of the TOM. Then, if you want low action on the high E, you'll need to take a file and deepen the groove in the saddle

If you want even action on all strings, you'll need to take the TOM and cut a slight frown face into saddles 1,2,5,and 6 to roughly match the FB radius, moreso on the treble side and slightly less so on the bass side
 
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Re: How to fix excessive string buzz mainly the G and B strings? And tuning issues.

Man that sounds like a hell of a lot to go through on a new guitar. Great info though.
 
Re: How to fix excessive string buzz mainly the G and B strings? And tuning issues.

Man, I have an ltd with the same problem. Looking down the neck on mine, it looks to be a slight counter clockwise twist in the neck. It is just barely visible, but enough of a twist to make the notes on the high e buzz.

I could correct it by leveling just the treble side of the frets, and putting a bit of fall away in it around the 13th fret.

Also, when the guitar sits in the stand over night, the entire guitar goes slightly sharp, at an even interval.

Also, big bends nut sauce is great for taking care of tuning problems for me. Especially on 3x3 gibson headstocks. Just put a little in the nut, and the saddle, and see if that helps.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 
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