Fret Buzz

Hey Vink.

Ok, a few questions first and I might have this in the opposite order

Trem Tension vs Bridge Height.

Does your guitar stay in tune relatively well?
Do you use the TREM?

If not.. how many springs are in the cavity (in the BACK of the guitar, you may have to remove the back plate to see them) ? If only 3 (common) then you can add two more.. to PULL the bridge down against the body.

It could be that your Bridge (which floats) is pulling "down toward the neck" which causes your action to go a tad low.

If you put more tension on it...it may raise the action just so slightly.

Also there should be two LARGE wood screws in the cavity that go into the body.. you could also give those an equal amount of turns.. just one or two full turns at a time. What that does is put more tension on the springs. Again that's if your bridge isn't totally laying flat on the body.

If it is.. you may also try to raise the bridge just a hair on the side of your bass strings....by a hair I mean 1/2 turn at a time. To do this you should see 6 pairs of mini screws on each bridge piece (requires a small allen wrench)... you can adjust each strings height by adjusting these. Turn the screws in (clockwise) raises that string ever so slightly. Then Counterclockwise to lower the bridge piece.

Check NIL's Setup Page here:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/nils/BasicGuitarSetup.htm

Scroll down to the String Height section. He's done a much better job than I can explain here.

SPEAKING OF NILS.....

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Hi Dagwood,

Thanks for the quick reqply.

- I don't use the Trem.
- The guitar stays in tune quite well. It only seems to go slightly out of tune as I change enviroments (home->work->lesson) on my lesson days.
- Shortly after I bought it, I noticed some fret buzz. At that time, the shop adjusted it. I think they added the two extra springs that time. I will check that inside the cavity. But, I think that the bridge is laying flat against the body.

I will check out Nils page, thanks for the pointer!

SPEAKING OF NILS.....

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I'm here. Been lurking and less posting lately since I started a new job awhile back.

Nils, I've printed out the instructions from your page. My plan is to get a set of "top heavy" strings (I have 9's now, so I will get one of those sets with 9's for the treble and 10-equivalent's for the base strings), put them on, and measure action and relief.. I may be posting SOS's here after I start trying to adjust things :-)

SPEAKING OF NILS.....

?????????????????????
I'm here. Been lurking and less posting lately since I started a new job awhile back.

NILSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

Was-sup BUDDY???? :) :)

Whew!! Well I'm glad your OK.. was getting worried there for a second.

I know about the Troll'n thing.. I pretty much woodshed'd this whole spring...trying to get some Chops in me.. and I haven't been here much lately either.

Hope ya have an awesome weekend.

Hey Vink..

Just make very small---slow adjustments till you get a grasp on what your doing. It may get frustrating after a while.....

loosening strings.. adjust.... retune... feel it.. don't like.. loosen strings again... adjust....retune....feel it..... then repeat about 20 more times.

Just keep at it...take your time. That's one nice thing about having more than one guitar.. I can play on one whilst tinkering on another so I don't feel rushed...then mess something up.

But I remember it took me about 5 days to get the action on my Les Paul just right without buzzing that low E String... man it got frustrating. I like my action pretty low, but sometimes I like to hammer on those power and barre chords without the buzz, with patience and making a few minor 1/4 and 1/2 turns I finally got it.

Dagwood,

Thanks for the encouragement!

I did some adjustments last night, it is better now. I changed the strings to "hybrids"; with 9s on the high strings and 10-sizes on the bottom strings. This made it a little better, but it still buzzed on 6th and 5th strings.

Then I checked the relief. It seems pretty ok. Seems a little under 0.010, I could not measure exactly. The feeler set I got is from 0.010, I should have gotten a smaller one. But the 0.010 seemed to not quite fit, but was close. But the action seemed too low (around 4/16) for the low strings. So, I raised the string height a little more and now it buzzes a lot less. There is still some buzz if I hit hard. But, it is still not quite right, because the string adjusters are near their maximum height. This probably means, I think, that the bridge is too low overall. I will play it some more today and see how it feels. (Right now, I have only one electric guitar, so have to keep it playable at all times..)

I did find it hard to see the divisions on the ruler when trying to measure string height. Any tricks? Maybe I need to get myself a manifying glass of some sort?