So I took all the strings and pickguard off a Strat of mine yesterday to replace the 5-way switch.
When I put everything back together, the action was down to the board, causing pinched strings and fret-buzz galore. I hadn't touched the saddles or nut, though.
I upped the action at the saddles farther than I'd had it before taking the pickguard off, but it simply won't go high enough to get back to an acceptable level of non-buzziness.
It played fine before I took the strings/pick-guard off.
Any ideas?
If you took the strings off and put them back on, my guess is that your trem bridge "fell into" the back, or at least got displaced. I'd take the tension off the strings and open the back and see if that's the case. If it's not that, it might be that the truss rod needs adjustment, but I'm pretty sure it's your trem.
Hi CaptPostMod,
Take a look at the trem first, like jeffster1 says. If that's not the case:
Here's what probably happened (I can't guarantee without seeing the guitar in person though):
When you took the strings off, you removed the tension that opposes the truss rod. Without the strings, the truss rod was free to pull the neck into a backbow without being counter-acted by the force of the strings. It is especially likely that this happened if you had the strings off the guitar for a long time (and hour or more). So, your guitar's neck is probably set into a deep backbow, which will bend the neck close to the strings and cause the buzz you're describing.
I'd recommend a few things:
1) Wait one or two more days, making sure the guitar stays tuned to pitch, and see if the string tension restores the original relief (upbow) of the neck. If that doesn't work...
2) Mark the truss rod nut (for a starting point reference) then loosen it all the way until there is no tension on the rod. Leave the strings up to pitch, wait a day, then check the guitar's relief (by fretting the low E string at the 1st and 15th frets simultaneously, then checking how much space there is between the bottom of the string and the 6th-8th frets--this is the "relief" or "upbow"). If the guitar gains some relief after a day, re-tighten the truss rod (tightening in small increments of a full turn, being very careful and NOT forcing the rod--EVER) until there is about a business card's thickness worth of space between the 6th-8th frets while you are fretting the 1st and 15th frets. OR, you could just turn the truss rod back to the starting mark (again, doing so slowly over a few minutes by only turning the adjustment nut in small 1/16-1/8 turns at a time).
If the guitar doesn't gain back any relief and stays in a backbow:
3) Consider taking it to a repair tech/luthier.
Let us know how it turns out!
I'm not touching this topic with a ten foot pole.
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Thanks for the tips.
I think its a back-bow. The trem looks just fine. I knew taking the strings off lessened the tension on the truss rod, I've just never left them off as long as it took me to solder all those little connections (constantly consulting my handy diagram as I did it).
The strings were definitely off for more than an hour, so the back-bow makes sense. (It's acting like a truss rod problem.)
I'll try the suggested multi-day repair approach.
(PS. The 5-way switch replacement was a success, incidentally.)
Can you post some pics? Did you change string gage? Is the trem level or dropping in the back? I can't count how many times I've had strings off a guitar for days and never seen the truss do such a thing.
Pics are worth a 1000 words.
I'm with Sid on this -- that's a radical truss rod/relief change that wouldn't happen unless you made a sizable change in string gauge. I have strings off guitars for months at a time, and only minor settling is required when the same gauge strings go back on the guitar.
-=tension & release=-
I'll try to get some pictures tonight. I did loosen the truss rod way up and leave the guitar tuned-up over-night. Only seemed to help mildly, so the problem may still lie elsewhere.
I think the trem is fine, but I'll get a picture of it, too. It looks fine to my eyes, though.
Thanks!
Alright, here are the pics.
To rehash: Action was fine. Took the strings off to change the 5-way switch. Put strings back on. Action was basement level and buzz city.
Now, it's still got no lift to the action, even with the truss rod loose for days and the saddles screwed up just aboat as high as they'll go:
Looks like the bridge dropped.
"Dropped"? Not so sure about that. This is a vintage "six screw" trem that may be set up as either floating or downbend-only. It's low, but that's very similar to a downbend-only setup. Given its six, semi-captivating pivot screws, this type of trem cannot drop off the knife edge fulcrum points as can the more modern, two point floating trem.
I think it's time to start over on the set-up, beginning with adjustment of the relief. From the pics, the loosening of the truss rod has left a heck of a bow in the neck. Start by making sure the neck is correctly attached. Adjust relief (truss rod) and do a rough setting of the saddle heights for the angle at which you want the trem plate to either float or be pulled to the body (downbend-only). Now, if you cannot get the saddle screws to set the string heights into the correct ballpark, then you will need to consider shimming the neck to change the neck angle with the body.
-=tension & release=-
Yeah Greg, I know that about those bridges. Something is wrong with it. looking at all the pics. The string are on both the last fret and the pickups. Also looks as if the strings are just about to hit the back of the pickgaurd by the bridge. Something is wrong in the bridge area, at least from the pics.
Hey capt... Where abouts do you live? maybe someone can look at it for you.
Optical illusion -- though I'm not seeing it. And strings cannot possibly be about to hit the pickguard based on the component stack-up. Pickguard is about the same thickness as the bridge plate. The strings would have to be lying on the bridge plate -- or the bridge plate countersunk for that to happen, as the saddles add some height. This type of bridge can suffer from being too high (tilted forward too much), but not to low. It was originally designed to lie flat against the body.
But you might be on to something in the pup area ...
Don't really see the strings touching the pup either -- but they might, and that would explain a lot since the pickguard was removed. Captn: Is Sid correct? Strings hitting the pup(s)? If so, lower it or them.
-=tension & release=-
Wow. we were both thinking something hard and not the basics.
maybe the pickups are to high. The magnets are pulling the strings and causing the buzz. Try lowering the pickups. I know we are shooting in the dark but the critical side view pic is missing. Besides measurments on everything.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm in the central Indiana area to answer the question on location.
It is an optical illusion that the strings are hitting anything at rest. They are fully up from the frets and pups at rest.
Should have said I adjusted pup height as one of the first things. But pup height wasn't affecting the problem.
It is a downbend only, regular official six-screw bridge. And it seems to be sitting fine.
Taking the neck off and adjusting would make sense. But it still doesn't explain what happened to it in the first place. I only took the strings and pick guard off and put them back on, before that, the neck was fine.
More ideas?
