A string buzzzz

[jond4]

Any suggestions to reduce fret buzz on the A string? I seem to get the majority of buzz on my A string from the 3rd fret all the way down to the 17th. It's really consistent as well.

Neck: Wolfgang profile, the warmoth stainless steel frets, roast maple, rosewood fretboard and compound radius 10/16.

Tremelo: Schaller locking trem that Warmoth sells. I've shimmed the saddles with shims from all parts. I have two on the A and B strings and one on the E strings.

This is what I've tried so far:

Fret leveling
I set the neck as flat as I could get it with my notched straight edge. I use a leveling beam and the standard method of putting sharpie on the frets and leveling it out till all the sharpie is gone. I also do a fall starting about the 14th fret. Not my first time leveling either, I try to be as methodical as I can about this and all the other guitars I've done came out incredible.

Neck relief
Just a little bit of relief. Checked with the capo at the first fret, hold the highest fret, check the gap in the middle. It's right where it should be although I have tried greater neck relief and didn't improve.

Bridge height adjustments
all the way from too low to too high.

A little buzz is fine but this is just a little more than I can handle with clean tones and I'm starting to end up beside myself with stopping it. Can't hear it with high gain tones of course.

Have I missed something or perhaps something I haven't yet tried?

**adding that the E has some buzz too, it's a little more prevalent on the A string.

 

[AirCap]

Is this strictly an acoustic buzz, or does it come through the amp?

 

[jond4]

You can hear it with clean tones through the amp but distortion covers it up. Certainly can hear it more so acoustically.

 

[vetteman]

Try tuning down a half-step.  I have a couple of guitars that just don't like to be played at normal pitch, but that play fine tuned down.  I haven't been able to pinpoint the cause, having taken all the same steps that you have.  :headbang:

 

[Cagey]

I think I'd be looking at the bridge saddle notch. Can't be the nut, since we're talking about fretted notes.

If it buzzes from an early fret all the way up to a relatively high fret, it's unlikely a fret is causing the problem. Otherwise, the problem would change in intensity pretty dramatically because it would be a high fret being substantially proud causing the interference. Plus, what you describe as having been done to the fretboard says it should be golden. So, it's probably not a fret. It's the saddle notch cut improperly, or something vibrating in sympathy with the lower frequencies. Might be vibrato springs, or an intonation screw, or something along those lines. Lord knows there's a million parts on those Floyd-style bridges.

 

[stratamania]

I would also check for anything that might be not tightened as it should be. Could be some sort of sympathetic vibration.

 

[jond4]

Thanks for the good suggestions!

Cagey, I'm thinking you're probably right and I do agree big time about the tremolo. I played a fixed bridge for the past ten years or so and I got an itch to have a floating bridge again so I built this and was quickly reminded of all the little annoyances, haha. The trem springs have a spot on resonance with a D chord, they totally chime and so I will have to figure out a way to keep those from vibrating. I'll have to get a tremol-no for it eventually, bends and vibrato just aren't as sweet as with a fixed bridge.

Ok, so here is what I did today. I took the trem out and entirely went through confirming everything was tight. I did not check the pickups because I have new ones on order so they are coming out soon enough anyway. I also triple checked the bridge radius is 16 and it appears to be, according to my gauge.

Nut is tight, tuners are tight.

I also changed to 11's and it's tuned to E flat. Which means I'm going to give it some time over night for the neck to settle because I had to adjust it for the increase in tension.

And...is it buzzing right now? A little but it seems to be less, so perhaps something in there with what I did had an effect.

I'll fine adjust the bridge height and neck tomorrow after work and we'll see what happens

 

[Cagey]

A clean, easy fix for resonant vibrato balancing springs is to get some surgical (silicone) tubing and cut it to length to fit inside the springs. Doesn't need to be tight or anything, its mere presence will dampen them, and won't interfere with expansion/contraction. 1/4" OD tubing works, and you can get it at Lowe's or most home improvement/hardware/automotive supply stores.

You can also pull foam through the springs, and if you have some new pickups coming, many come with packing foam in the box that'll be just the stuff. It's a little more trouble than the tubing, but it'll work.

 

[jond4]

A clean, easy fix for resonant vibrato balancing springs is to get some surgical (silicone) tubing and cut it to length to fit inside the springs. Doesn't need to be tight or anything, its mere presence will dampen them, and won't interfere with expansion/contraction. 1/4" OD tubing works, and you can get it at Lowe's or most home improvement/hardware/automotive supply stores.

You can also pull foam through the springs, and if you have some new pickups coming, many come with packing foam in the box that'll be just the stuff. It's a little more trouble than the tubing, but it'll work.

Excellent idea with the silicone tubing! Lowe's is not far from my house either so I'm going to try that. I do have spare acoustic foam but wasn't real keen on trying to get that to work, the silicon tubing idea is much better.

I don't have much update on the buzzing just yet, was too busy last night....bath night with the kids

I did however quickly check the neck relief and as I suspected it had settled and was more "relieved" than it should be so I tightened it a quarter turn to straighten back up a bit. Of course I played it for a moment and there was less buzz than before. I get the whole evening tonight to play so I'll let you know  :headbang:

 

[jond4]

I'm back with some updates , but in short I fixed it and it plays astoundingly well. I mean, it did play amazing before...but now no more buzz than any other guitar out there and I do feel like I still improved it's playing feel, at least for my taste.

What was it? It was the frets. I gave in, took the entire thing apart except for the electronics and did the tinniest fret level again. I spent the entire day to do it and went very very slowly. I gave it hours making minute truss rod adjustments to get the fretboard as laser straight as possible and allowed plenty of time for it to rest and stabilize before taking the leveling bar to it.

I believe what happened with the previous job is the neck wasn't truly settled before I started with the leveling bar which threw off the job by a minuscule fraction. Even though I've done leveling jobs plenty times before, logically I missed the mark a bit on this one. Mistakes inevitably happen

I did get some silicon tubing and the trem springs are quiet now, thank you Cagey for that idea.

I also went back to 10's and tuned to standard A440. Playing rhythm on it with 11's was great but I'm also a lead player and it was just a bit too much with a floating bridge. I do use 11's on my fixed bridge guitar and it's tuned to E flat.

I've got a digitech drop pedal on order so that will take care of playing with my band tuned a half step down and I won't have to deal with retuning, etc., yay for Christmas!  :blob7:

 

[Cagey]

I'm glad that worked out for you. I'll generally drag a fretjob out over a day, too. It's tedious work, and sometimes you just gotta walk away from it and find something else to do, or tiny details will get by you. Since the devil is in the details with fretwork, you don't want that happening.

 

[jond4]

I'm glad that worked out for you. I'll generally drag a fretjob out over a day, too. It's tedious work, and sometimes you just gotta walk away from it and find something else to do, or tiny details will get by you. Since the devil is in the details with fretwork, you don't want that happening.

I totally agree, I know I "accelerated" the first job I did on it. It didn't need much out of the box of course but I had that thing done and strung up again in less than three hours that first time.

I think doing the taping off of the fretboard prior to the real work to be the most tedious part of a fret level job, haha.

I've got a 59 roundback neck with a unique fretboard choice that I ordered just before Thanksgiving and I'm really excited about this one. I like the wolfgang profile and I went with that first mostly because I was intrigued with the idea of an asymmetrical neck but ultimately it is just a bit too thin for my taste.

I'll be taking plenty of time with this new one and leveling it ever so softly before I even put it on the guitar.

I did take this current guitar after I resolved the string buzz down to my local music shop and let all the guys there play it, they were blown away. All I heard was omg it plays like butter