Fret buzz

[Mr. Amelon]

Is it possible, through adjusting the bridge and doing fret work, to make any guitar have low action and no fret buzz, regardless of how cheap the guitar is?

 

I ask because I've taken two guitars to the local tech now, cheap guitars mind you, and each time I said, "I want lower action but no fret buzz. I can't stand fret buzz. It's a pet peeve." Then he sets the guitar up, lowers the action, does a crown and polish and leveling on the frets, gives it back to me, charges me a chunk of change, and there's still some fret buzz.

 

Now, is he not doing a very good job, or is he simply doing the best with what he has?

[The Geoff]

They probably need fret-levelling. Once that's done, you should be able to get a buzz-free action.

 

G.

[Goalie Blues]

You might also want to look at the nut. I had a guitar that I set up with what's considered regular action and was getting MAJOR buzz on the G and B strings. No matter what I did nothing help until I took a look at the nut and the depth of the grooves is alomost twice what it's supposed to be. I'm bringing it to the place I bought it to see what I can do this weekend. I may have to replace the nut when I can afford it.

[Mr. Amelon]

The frets were indeed leveled, and I paid for said service. That was basically my question... if the guy just wasn't doing a good enough job or if the fact that the guitars are cheap means he could only do so much.

[The Geoff]

All things being equal, and if there's nothing fundamentally wrong, any guitar/bass ought to be able to be set up to play well with a good action.

 

G.

[Caevan O'Shite]

Yeah; as long as there's no warp or twist to the neck, or grossly mis-located parts.

[Mr. Amelon]

Perhaps I'm being too picky about it? What's normally considered a "good" low action, as measured at the 12th fret? I can measure the height of these strings to see if what I actually have is considered lower than standard low and therefore more likely to have buzz regardless.

[CajunBlues]

Maybe I am missing something... But I thought adjusting the nut can only affect buzz with open string strumming ?? Or at least, that's what is logical.

 

If you have a perfectly straight neck, and your truss rod works correctly, your tech should be able to get your action low. Something similar to what you can get on a Gibson Les Paul. You are always going to need a little bit of elevation to play without buzz. If you are not getting the elevation you want, your tech should be able to explain why. For example, "your neck is warped" or "your truss rod is toast". Inspect your truss rod and neck. And then go from there.

 

Are these acoutics or electrics ? Also, if you specify what model and brand that may help. I would guess that there a lot of people that read this list have owned a lot of different guitars.

 

[Mr. Amelon]

It's a cheap Ibanez GRX20.

 

So in essence you're saying that while you should be able to take care of a lot of fret buzz with truss rod / bridge height / fret work, if you have your action low enough there's always going to be some fret buzz regardless.

[Terrell]

I like my guitars high... There's more room for expressiveness with high action. Like soft fretting, bends to Jupiter, mute picking, double stops, steel licks, etc....

 

It's harder to shred and hammer/pull or two hand, etc. But, the expressiveness is worth more IMO.

 

Once, you get used to it, you might like it too. Just raise the saddles till it stops buzzing! Play for a while...

 

 

[Caevan O'Shite]

I'd say that an action in the neighborhood of 1/16" (give or take a smidgen) at the 12th-fret is plenty low but not unheard of. (Not quite for me, most of the time, but reasonably do-able.)

 

Finding the balance of action and relief can be a pursuit in itself, and will vary from one guitar to another.

 

Hmmmnnn...

 

First, have you found a guitar that has the action that you like, that will not buzz like this when you play it? I mean, someone else's, or one in a store?

 

It's sometimes difficult to diagnose these things via internet-posts; there could be so many things that factor in and affect this.

 

It could even be that you may have exceptionally high expectations regarding fret-buzz, and/or it could even be that you're playing technique could be contributing to this buzzing. Maybe not, maybe neither; but it's a thought worth objectively considering and weighing here.

 

Is this buzz audible when playing through an amp, or mostly/only when playing it purely acoustically, "unplugged"?

 

If the latter, it should be acceptable.

 

I myself have had to temper my perception of string/fret buzz; I used to be too fussy about it. Without pretty high action, there will usually be just enough to hear if you listen for it hard enough. Most guitars, in most musical styles, lose some of their innate character if the action is set so high as to completely eliminate any slightest tiny infinitesimal buzz. For example, some of a good Tele's trademark growl for country, blues, and rock is due to a little growly buzz against the frets when really laying-in to 'em. They tend to sound too generic with too high of an action and too heavy a gauge of strings. Finding that fine line where a little acceptable growl ends and unacceptable buzzing begins IS a personal, subjective matter, but it's there...

[Mr. Amelon]

I'll try to measure the action as soon as I get a chance.

 

When playing dirty, no fret buzz is noticeable through the amp. When playing clean, it's very noticeable. All the strings buzz from a certain fret up. Which fret that is depends on the string. For instance, the low E buzzes quite noticeably from the sixth fret up. The A buzzes from the seventh fret up, and so on.

[CajunBlues]

I'll try to measure the action as soon as I get a chance.

 

When playing dirty, no fret buzz is noticeable through the amp. When playing clean, it's very noticeable. All the strings buzz from a certain fret up. Which fret that is depends on the string. For instance, the low E buzzes quite noticeably from the sixth fret up. The A buzzes from the seventh fret up, and so on.

 

You may have a high area on your neck.

look down the neck and see if you see any countouring in the neck. Look from the rear of the guitar.

[Mr. Amelon]

Sighting down the neck flat and on both edges / sides, I can see there's a bit of relief in the neck, but no strange contours. At around the 12th fret the neck gets very flat. No bumps or anything, just very flat.

[Mr. Amelon]

I measured the action and at the 12th fret, measuring from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the low E string, the action is about 2.5/16ths, halfway between 2/16ths and 3/16ths.

[miroslav]

Have you checked the rest of your hardware...like the machine head nuts...which can buzz like crazy if they are loose...or the pickguard...or any other parts/screws...etc...anything that can be loose or come loose.

 

Sometimes you think it's fret buzz...and it's some other part on the guitar.

 

[Darcy H]

The Fender site recommends 1/16" at the 17th fret for a 9.5 to 12" radius neck strat. I have my strats and tele set to Fender factory specs (relief as well) and get some buzz, but it doesn't come through the amp so I don't worry about it. I'm starting to get some annoying buzz on that second fret G string A from fret wear on my fav tele, but until I hearit in the amp I won't get too concerned.

[Darcy H]

I think that measurement is with a capo at the first fret to take the nut out of the equation but I can't recall.

[Caevan O'Shite]

"When playing clean, (the buzzing is) very noticeable. All the strings buzz from a certain fret up. Which fret that is depends on the string. For instance, the low E buzzes quite noticeably from the sixth fret up. The A buzzes from the seventh fret up, and so on. "

 

Hmmn, just how comprehensive of a set-up did this guy do?

 

This sounds like it might need a little filing and fret-dressing. Costs more than a basic set-up, but properly done, it'll make a big difference.

 

It also sounds as if the neck might have a limited response to the truss-rod and the pull of the strings, where it will bow into relief in the region of the lower frets, and stay straighter (with little or no relief) for the rest of the neck's length from the 6th or 7th fret up...

 

Keep in mind just how much time, money, and effort you want to put into this particular guitar; only you can make this call.

 

And, relating to individual playing-style and technique factoring into set-up, I'll quote a friend of mine, from a post of his on another forum:

 

"Anyway, I took the 325 out to Pete the luthier and he advised me that things weren't as bad as they seemed. He dressed the areas that were dragging my fingers a little and apologised for not getting them right the first time. As for the re-fret itself he didn't think it necessary at the minute, but agreed that it's my opinion that counts and said that if I'm still really unhappy with it after a couple of weeks we can talk again. The job itself he said would be simple enough thanks to the lack of binding.

 

Something else came up though, whilst playing he commented that what I had thought to be minor intonation issues when playing chords up the neck were actually caused by my playing ( again ) a combination of playing in Eb, the shorter scale length compared to my trusty Tele and my exceedingly heavy grip was messing with my ears all along. When he played the same things it sounded fine.

 

So, we adjusted the intonation to better suit my death-grip and I learned that I can induce such subtle vibrato by varying the pressure applied to the strings, hey, a new technique for me to master! Shame I haven't even got around to mastering any of the existing ones yet! He also said I should think of trying a set of 12s to better suit my heavy hands and get a similar tension to that of the Tele. I might well give this a go in the coming weeks, for now I'm certainly more content than I was with the guitar."

 

"...it took me a good ten minutes of playing for Pete until I began to actually play how I do in full flow. He stopped me and immediately diagnosed the problem, the more relaxed and into it I get, the harder I pick and fret. So I definitely have a lighter touch in me, but it's not a natural thing for me to use it with the band and our tunes."