Mystery Buzz

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seeaxe
Blackwood
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Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:20 pm
Location: Auckland NZ

Mystery Buzz

Post by seeaxe » Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:39 pm

Hi all
Haven't posted in while but thought someone might find this useful.

A while ago (2011) I built a classical and posted some pics of the finished guitar at the time. I play this pretty much every day and while it has plenty of flaws its easily the best thing I have ever built.

However, from the start it has always had a very faint high frequency buzz when I am fretting G on the high E string. It was a little louder when a few other resonant notes were played. It was very quiet, just enough to know it was there but only on that note. I use a zero fret on my builds and this is no exception so its a bit unusual for a classical. The action in the first position is very low so I first assumed it was a fret issue and re-levelled the frets, twice. The buzz remained. I tidied all the string ends, looked for loose bits but all to no avail. It has twin CF reinforcing rods glued into the neck but no truss rod so nothing there that would vibrate.

It's hard to hold bits of the guitar while you are playing it but I finally narrowed it down to the top e string tuner by accident one day when I was fiddling around with a capo. With the capo on the third I could various bits of the guitar and found it would stop buzzing if I was holding the tuning button. Loose button!......nope. I tightened that and it still buzzed.

Finally today I found it - the ferrule that's between the button and the tuner was vibrating no matter how much I tightened the button. Once I removed the button and ferrule, no more buzz.

It feels a bit like I have been trying to get a splinter out of my finger for last three years and I have finally done it. I no longer have to cringe at the parts of pieces when I know the "buzz" is coming up.

You may well be all having a bit of a cackle that it took me that long to find it but just in case anyone else has a little buzz and they don't know where its coming from - try your tuners! Mine are Gotohs and are otherwise really nice.

Happy, happy, joy, joy. Completely makes up for not winning the CWC.....well played Aussies.

Cheers all
Richard
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Allen
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Re: Mystery Buzz

Post by Allen » Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:00 am

I had a similar issue that was driving me mad on a uke. It turned out to be a new style of strap button I had installed that had a head that was intended to swivel.

It only vibrated at certain frequencies which was making me think of fret levelling, loose brace etc. Drove me bonkers trying to figure it out.

Found it by accident really, but in the end, a leather gasket was what did the trick.
Allen R. McFarlen
https://www.brguitars.com
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Nick
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Re: Mystery Buzz

Post by Nick » Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:16 am

seeaxe wrote:You may well be all having a bit of a cackle that it took me that long to find it but just in case anyone else has a little buzz and they don't know where its coming from - try your tuners! Mine are Gotohs and are otherwise really nice.
Not cackling at all Richard, your experience and publishing it here on the forum, helps others when faced with a similar situation! As Allen's pointed out, when most, if not all, of us get this situation we immediately think frets, nut groove or loose brace, not thinking of 'auxilliary' equipment screwed onto the timber. I had a similar situation once where the little screw holding the button onto the tuner had come loose causing the button to vibrate a small but frustrating amount at one particular frequency. Took me ages to pin it down and good job what little hair I have left is short otherwise I would have been pulling it out.
seeaxe wrote: Completely makes up for not winning the CWC.....well played Aussies.
The outcome was easy to see right from when McCullum went out to the middle with the intention of having a wog right from the first ball bowled at him! Can't do that to one of the best fast bowlers in the world at present not without getting your eye in first. Well done Aussie you deserved to win that game. I am amused about Brad Haddin's answer when asked about sledging of departing batsmen though.......
Talking to Triple M, Haddin addressed questions over his controversial sending off of New Zealand batsmen Martin Guptill and Grant Elliott.
“You know what? They deserved it,” Haddin said.“They were that nice to us in New Zealand and we were that uncomfortable.I said in the team meeting: ‘I can’t stand for this anymore, we’re going at them as hard as we can.It was that uncomfortable. All they were was that nice to us for seven days.

“I said, ‘I’m not playing cricket like this. If we get another crack at these guys in the final I’m letting everything [out].’

:lol: :lol: :lol:
"Jesus Loves You."
Nice to hear in church but not in a Mexican prison.

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