Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared :(

[Pierre]

Well I've had my Strat with the same setup for a long time. Strings about 5mm off the fretboard, a consequent relief I never bothered to measure and I just loved this feel. I can also play slide on it.

I've recently re-strung it and straightened the neck a little. I didn't change the strings brand/gauge at all.

I lowered the strings to about 3mm and set the neck relatively straight. Then I gave it a quarter turn at a time and kept getting buzz on the open and fretted strings. The former + latter syndrome usually indicate a too low nut but this was never the case with this guitar and the nut is fine.

Relief is measured with a capo at the first fret, fretting the 17th fret and between the 9th fret and the low E string.
String height is measured free of anything (no capo).

I've now reached 0.012 inches of relief and a 3mm string height (2.3mm with the capo at the first fret), and I still get the same buzz.

I'm normally decent enough at setting guitars up by feel (and those of you who know how hard it is for me to feel 'decent' at anything would know I don't ever say it lightly). I've always treated this guitar nicely, rescued her out of the shop where no one was looking at her, loved her like none other guitars I have, and I never had any buzz or setup issues with her before... :/

Any ideas..?

 

[Bludave]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

If it was playing fine @5mm then why did you lower it? Raise it back up!

 

[Pierre]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

Because 5mm = 0.2inches. It's pretty high and I just wanted something different. With a correct neck + nut, no strings should buzz at 5mm.
I've re-set the neck a bit straighter. I'll raise the strings a little neck when the neck has settled in nicely.

 

[DMyers77]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

I've always found it helpful to use Fender's recommendations as a starting point.

http://www.fender.com/support/articles/stratocaster-setup-guide

If you adjust it to their specs, and it still buzzes then you might have other problems. No guitar should need 5mm action, unless your using it for slide.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

I just wonder about having buzzing on open strings. That tends to indicate the nut is cut too low, despite what you said.

Is the trem something you can raise and lower too??

 

[Pierre]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

The nut wasn't too low before and I didn't modify it... I doubt it's that. I actually measured and it's right where I like my nuts to be...er...

5mm isn't how I needed to have the strings, rather how I like to have them on my guitars.
I'll straighten the neck and start anew. Shame, I kinda wanted to use her tonight for the gig but well... She's a good one, I think her and I will figure something out.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

Yeah, OK the nut can be lower if you've got 5mm relief as the strings get clearance quite quickly. As you lower the action a low nut will make itself known. Just saying

 

[crguti]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

you straightened the neck a little, then you lowered the string's action... and then from nowhere the buzz 'suddendly' appeared??
and you're asking what you did wrong? exactly that.

doing so will create a buzz on some frets... you can sand the problematic frets but if you're not an expert you can create a mess and ruin your guitar. I would recommend to send it to an expert (luthier), or put it back to its 'normal' setup.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

Your guitar is revolting against the possibility of being used to cover "Sweet Home Alabama".

 

[Barron1]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

you straightened the neck a little, then you lowered the string's action... and then from nowhere the buzz 'suddendly' appeared??
and you're asking what you did wrong? exactly that.

doing so will create a buzz on some frets... you can sand the problematic frets but if you're not an expert you can create a mess and ruin your guitar. I would recommend to send it to an expert (luthier), or put it back to its 'normal' setup.

I once tried to sand a problematic fret, and the buzz kept getting passed on to the next fret and the next fret, until it was more than one fret messed up. Yeah you can really mess up a guitar trying to do it yourself.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

You may want to see who offers PLEK set-up in your area. You may be able to access that information through the PLEK website.

 

[Pierre]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

you straightened the neck a little, then you lowered the string's action... and then from nowhere the buzz 'suddendly' appeared??
and you're asking what you did wrong? exactly that.

doing so will create a buzz on some frets... you can sand the problematic frets but if you're not an expert you can create a mess and ruin your guitar. I would recommend to send it to an expert (luthier), or put it back to its 'normal' setup.

While I do appreciate the comments, it appears you've not read entirely.
String height is a lot higher than 90% of players use.
Neck relief is fine.
Nut was never low before.
I.e. there was no reason for me to gain this much buzz. I know what low strings can be like. It IS metal strings vs metal frets and there WILL be buzz. But this guitar has NEVER had ANY buzz whatsoever with the older setup. I did not alter it in any meaningful way; strings are still a mile off the frets and the neck is correctly bowed as far as I can see.

As I said, the 'normal' setup was 'my' setup with very high strings. Any guitar, and indeed a few of mine with lower strings/less relief, can have strings with the current height as my Strat with even less relief and not have buzz.

Now of course something, somewhere did go wrong... I've retracted all my steps and un-did them. Only thing left to do now is to setup the guitar with a flat as hell neck, set my string height and go from there.

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

Only thing left to do now is to setup the guitar with a flat as hell neck, set my string height and go from there.

I agree that's about the only thing you can do even if it will take some work again.
It is indeed very weird that buzz appears so suddenly and without acceptable reason. Reading what you have done to your guitar, and then getting buzz from it does not make sense to me either, so you are definitely not the only one who is wondering here Pierre.

I do however hope that you are able to set things up the way you want after adjusting the truss rod, normaly it should not be any problem, but normaly you should not had any problems with buzz from the actions you performed to begin with, so keep us posted on how it goes man!
I hope you are able to set-up your Strat to your likings asap!

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

Press the string at the second fret. Does the string fret out on the first fret or ring true?

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

this time of year around here it's cold and dry and i sometimes have issues with necks changing... wood shrinking in the cold-(lets keep minds on guitars please ) Is it winter where you live BTW? Maybe it's a factor...

is this the HWY1 strat you bought a few years back? i think it was you that posted pic's of a HWY1 in the colour i wanted so that is why i remember it...

if not what model/year of strat are we talking here...? what is the board radius? what is the fret condition...?

 

[Pierre]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

That's a very fair point. In fact the irony in there is that it is cold and dry out, and therefore I am heating up the appartment... so it's very hot inside! Most of my guitar's necks put on a bit of relief.

And yeah it's that same HW1 in transparent blue. Ugly duckling; 4 pieces body, badly matched. But a tone that's out of this world. Only better sounding Strat I ever played was a Custom Shop Strat, incidentally right behind my house here in Luxembourg city's only guitar shop.
Fretboard radius is 9.5" and the frets are in fine shape. Really no grooves or anything, they're all good. I've had this guitar since christmas 2007 and she got played mostly every day since... Love her.

Another reason I wanted to lower the strings is because with them being so high, it's hard to find the right pickup height; high pickups for open strings, but then when you fret down the strings get too close to the polepieces. With strings at a normal height it'll be a lot easier to set the balance with the pickup height and between the single coils/humbuckers.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

i didnt read too much, its 8 am and im tired as balls.

but i suggest this: do you have a ruler with 64ths?

i press the second fret and 16th fret and look at the 8th. i like just a hair of space between the string and the 8th. then i lower the action on both sides to 3/64ths. 12th fret.

 

[Pierre]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

Dude, no offence but how you set your guitar is irrelevant to how I set mine... Guitarists are like women, we all like different things...!

And we also don't use inches at all in Europe, though I do have calipers with both metrics and imperial/totally outdated system.


Ok I have roughly .10" of relief, so that was correct from the last time I straightened the neck.
I jacked the string WAY high and it still buzzes basically everywhere. I'd trace this to a fret issue/neck bump. Weird that it only manifested itself after a string change where I didn't change the brand/gauge at all.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

well i'd say if it is not low enough action and you can't get it any lower it must be a few high frets in there somewhere... with in reason i like average Fender suggested set up specs... i like a good bit of relief in the necks as i tend to hit the strings really hard and i can get buzz easier then softer players... i'm built more like a pro line backer so it's hard to not be so rough sometimes...

if it will not get the action you want, a trip into a good guitar repairman to go over the guitars board, maybe fret dress it... that sounds like it would be key to make ya happy...

years ago i took a guitar making course and learned how to do repairs like fret dresses myself... i still prefer my own fret dresses over most shop's... i always slightly compound the frets when i dress them... down near the heel of the neck i start with a 12 or 14 radius block and end with a 10 on most modern Fenders... seems to be key to get the strings to sit low...

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Issues with my strat's neck; correct relief, and buzz suddendly appeared

And people think I am nuts because I think modern strings suck!!!

What did you put on that thing???