Hi everyone.
I have a takamine acoustic guitar. Had it for about 6 months now and I started to notice string buzzing on the A and D strings exclusively and mainly only when using a capo.. The buzzing occurs when I am pounding the strings with a little bit of spunk and steady but percussive rythme.. I couldn't tell you at what fret the buzzing is occuring at but God it's rather annoying. I tried adjusting the truss rod releasing for more relief causing the neck to bow more getting the strings further away from the frets but still no go.. actually loosened the adjustment nut where it became tight so I was scared to turn it some more.. Anyway, I still have buzzing so I thought to myself thinking I may have too much relief and the A and D strings are vibrating so much and causing the problem I was trying to get rid of.. So I tightened the truss rod quite a bit (probably about 2 full turns I estimate), to the point where the adjustment became tight to tighten any further.. I then re-tuned the guitar and really didn't get any resolution. same buzzing.. Any ideas? Is the truss rod adjustment supposed to get tight in either direction? I don't want to break my guitar so I figured I'd post here and get some ideas.. I am using medium gauge string and change them ever few weeks..
Thanks in advance for any help offered.
Tim.
Think about the what a cappo does, it pushes the strings down for you. Your fret board has a slightly round convex curve to it called the radius. The radius causes the cappo to push harder on the interior strings then it does on the outermost strings, because most cappos are one size fits all regardless of the curvature of the fretboard, so it will work on a 14" radius and a 7.5" radius, your tack has more of a rounded radius compounding the issue. It effected the A and D more because the G string is much smaller. I generally hang the cappo over the neck and at a slight backwards diagonal and this will often disperse the tension more evenly. However, you will notice more buzzing and increasingly worse action since you broke the truss rod.
One thing you may think about is the nut at the top of the neck, sometimes they start to wear and this can effect the hieght of the string. your 4th and 5th are wound so it makes since that they would eat the plastic in a "sawing" fashion. It's best to find where the buzz is at, I guess it could be problem with a fret. take your finger and go fret by fret, note by note down each of the problem strings, picking the string each time until you narrow down the problem. Also, recently I replaced the strings on my Martin, and had a terrible buzz, come to find out there was a defect in one of the new strings. so, you may get lucky and resolve the problem with some new strings.
Since you said the guitar is only like 6 months old, my first thought would be new strings and if you had put new strings on it was the gauge of the string lighter than what came on the guitar? If you havent changed strings that would be where I would look and at that point you can tap down any high frets that you may have
Yikes! Don't tap down any high frets, take your guitar to a luthier, not a blacksmith! Loose frets (it happens) can be reset, but high frets need to be polished.
