Recently, my guitar (just a normal acoustic electric) started making this horrific rattling sound whenever I hit the open third string with any amount of force. I figured that the strings were just getting old, so I replaced them (and did a much better job this time, I must say), but I tune it up and the problem persists!
Concerned the guitar is falling apart, I hit the open string and move my ear around the outside of the body, and after a few minutes I realize the sound is coming from the slot for the battery that powers the electronics. Sure enough, I take out the battery and no more problems. I guess my guitar somehow found the frequency to make a 9 volt battery vibrate like crazy. I wrapped the 9 volt in electrical tape a couple of times and put it back in.
So yeah, no more problem, just thought I'd share because this little incident had me pulling my hair out for a while...
It's always the little (most obscure) things that throw us. Kinda like if you (or your 3 yr. old) drops a pick inside the guitar & it gets lodged somewhere, only to make itself known at that one resonant frequency! :mrgreen:
A few years ago I was going nuts with a buzz on the B string of my Martin. It wasn't there all the time, but whent it was it sounded like I had a cracked brace...
Eventually I figured it out. I'd bought a new shirt, and a button on the cuff was in just the right place to sit against the saddle when I played certain passages on the 2nd string :)
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
My acoustic guitar sits on a stand a few feet from my 15 Watt tube amp. I can play an open string on my electric when it's plugged into the tube amp and make the same string on the acoustic vibrate all by itself. Also, if I dime both the gain and master knobs on the amp, most of the crap in my house will vibrate :twisted:
In the deep distant past, when I was at school, a friend of mine was the only pupil in the school allowed to play school's huge church organ (pipes and all). He very quickly found the sympathetic frequency of the windows to the admin block - and could rattle the windows all the way along the corridor.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
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