Buzz at a certain area of the fretboard (help and feedback greatly appreciated!)

[ChristianFS1]

hi !

i've got a warmoth reverse headstock strat, which i'm very proud of. (i made a topic about it BTW.)
it's great sounding, great playing. however, i does have a flaw : i get buzzing or rattling between the 11th and 15th fret.
and it tends to get fret out on the high e string in that same area as well.

the neck's has got an appropriate amount of relief. i've strung it with 10's, the bridge is floating. the action is not extremely low, but it's by no means high either. i suspect it's either due to a "bump" or bow in the neck, or the frets themselves.

:help:

 

[AutoBat]

I've never had fretwork done on my necks even though it's recommended to have it done.  Likely you've a fret or two that are a smidgen taller than the rest.

 

[ChristianFS1]

I've never had fretwork done on my necks even though it's recommended to have it done.  Likely you've a fret or two that are a smidgen taller than the rest.

if i was gonna get the frets dressed, leveled, crowned and all that jazz, what should i say to the guy who would do it? or should i take on the task myself? BTW, what kind of file or sandpaper (grid, type) should i use ? 

 

[MikeW]

I had this exact problem on my latest W Strat neck. Nothing that a fret level wouldn't solve. Once it was done I was able to squeeze the action down a bit more as well.

I'd recommend finding a good tech in your area to do the work. You can do it; it's not hard to do, but I've always found the cost of the tools to be prohibitive to the cost to have it professionally done. If there isn't one that you trust locally, give Cagey a ring. He'll be happy to help you out.

 

[ChristianFS1]

I had this exact problem on my latest W Strat neck. Nothing that a fret level wouldn't solve. Once it was done I was able to squeeze the action down a bit more as well.

I'd recommend finding a good tech in your area to do the work. You can do it; it's not hard to do, but I've always found the cost of the tools to be prohibitive to the cost to have it professionally done. If there isn't one that you trust locally, give Cagey a ring. He'll be happy to help you out.

thank you very much for your advice !
i'll see if i can find a good guitar tech, and see what it'll cost. (some places charge a ridiculous amount money just to make a setup; something like 100 bucks or something, so i'll have a look around and see what i can find )

 

[Cagey]

Necks are my specialty. I can level/crown/dress/polish to where you can set it up for thrash playing, and I don't care if they're stainless frets. If you'd like, you can send the whole guitar and I'll set the intonation along with nut, saddle and pickup heights as well.

 

[Maka491]

I would not recommend doing this yourself. At least not on one of your main guitars.

As others said, I would get a professional to do this.

 

[ChristianFS1]

i've just had a so-called "setup" done on my guitar. i'm NEVER going to have another one again.

i walked in and said that i have some fret-buzz and that i can't bend further than a tone up from the 10th to 15th fret (keep in mind i have a 10-16 inch radius fretboard, which should allow these kinds of bends).

1. i wanted it setup for roto-sound 10-46 strings, and he just waved me off and basically said that roto-sounds were shite and wouldn't use em.

i thought i was in charge of my own guitar, but apparently not.

when i finally got my guitar back:

1: he hadn't done jackshit of what i had wanted, the frets looked dull, didn't look he had done anything at all, weren't even recrowned.  and he hadn't even masked the fretboard off, so there was cuts all along the fretboard and even on the headstock, which he believed "would go away from my fingers touching the fretboard when playing". haha, yeah, like that's gonna happen.

2: he just said that i "didn't need" to be able to do more than a full tone bend, and that it doesn't do any harm to have a bit of buzz. funny thing, i explicitly said i DIDN'T WANT ANY BUZZ. just as low as it could go without any buzz.

3: the tremolo bar action was completely slurred, loose or whatever, which it WASN'T when i got it. also, it had signs of some kind of oil or something on the pickguard, don't know what the hell that was.

so all in all, i've paid someone 200$ for a setup and have been given my guitar back in worse condition than when i handed it over to him.

i am very pissed, to say the least. this was just some of the issues.  :icon_scratch: :-\ :sad1:

 

[Updown]

Bummer .... Ouch  :sad:  sorry to here that.

Was he a proper guitar tech ?
Doesn't sound like it.
Can ya get a re-fund on his crap work  :dontknow:
Especially that it came back worse than when ya took it in.

May-be send it to Cagey  :icon_thumright:  ..... all thou it's already cost you heaps.

 

[ChristianFS1]

Bummer .... Ouch  :sad:  sorry to here that.

Was he a proper guitar tech ?
Doesn't sound like it.
Can ya get a re-fund on his crap work  :dontknow:
Especially that it came back worse than when ya took it in.

May-be send it to Cagey  :icon_thumright:  ..... all thou it's already cost you heaps.

thank you very much, it's the first time anyone actually have stated they feel sorry for me. nice to hear that, thank you  :icon_thumright:.
well, he clearly stated that he'd had over 30 years of experience, and handles 4-5 guitars per day and that to him justified his claims (god he must have a lot of unhappy customers then!).
i'm afraid i can't get a refund. i'd love to have one though, it's a lot of money just to flush out into nothing.
the thing is my dad thinks we'll just make a fool out of ourselves if we confront him with it, because "he's had over 30 years of experience, so he knows better than we do", which is just foul logic to me. i don't give a damn how long he's been a tech if he can't deliver what he promises. besides, it's been a couple of months now, so i don't think i can even get a refund.

oh and BTW, is there any way i can check the frets myself? i've used a laser to see how far the beam would travel, but i don't know if it's any good.

 

[Cederick]

i've just had a so-called "setup" done on my guitar. i'm NEVER going to have another one again.

i walked in and said that i have some fret-buzz and that i can't bend further than a tone up from the 10th to 15th fret (keep in mind i have a 10-16 inch radius fretboard, which should allow these kinds of bends).

1. i wanted it setup for roto-sound 10-46 strings, and he just waved me off and basically said that roto-sounds were shite and wouldn't use em.

i thought i was in charge of my own guitar, but apparently not.

when i finally got my guitar back:

1: he hadn't done jackshit of what i had wanted, the frets looked dull, didn't look he had done anything at all, weren't even recrowned.  and he hadn't even masked the fretboard off, so there was cuts all along the fretboard and even on the headstock, which he believed "would go away from my fingers touching the fretboard when playing". haha, yeah, like that's gonna happen.

2: he just said that i "didn't need" to be able to do more than a full tone bend, and that it doesn't do any harm to have a bit of buzz. funny thing, i explicitly said i DIDN'T WANT ANY BUZZ. just as low as it could go without any buzz.

3: the tremolo bar action was completely slurred, loose or whatever, which it WASN'T when i got it. also, it had signs of some kind of oil or something on the pickguard, don't know what the hell that was.

so all in all, i've paid someone 200$ for a setup and have been given my guitar back in worse condition than when i handed it over to him.

i am very pissed, to say the least. this was just some of the issues.  :icon_scratch: :-\ :sad1:

I had the same problem with a guy who was supposed to setup my guitar with a Floyd. When I got it back the intonation was off, the strings was so high it was unplayable and the bridge was tilted like the tower in Pisa.
And I remember when I got him the guitar at first he said it was really great to play on, because I set it up with low action and THE ONLY THING that was a problem was that the A string was buzzing when palm muting the open string.
That little problem and he ruined everything,
good thing I didn't have to pay anything for it.

 

[MikeW]

Wow. That is a bummer. So sorry that it didn't work out for you.

But, it does sound like the guy you took it to doesn't really know what he's doing. This statement alone makes me think that he's way off base: "he just said that i "didn't need" to be able to do more than a full tone bend, and that it doesn't do any harm to have a bit of buzz." Wow. The little red warning lights in my head all just went off at once.

While true that it doesn't hurt to have a little buzz, the statement about not needing to do more than a full-step bend is ludicrous. You should be able to bend a string until it breaks without it fretting out or buzzing too much.

The basic fact here is that he's advertised a service that he seems incapable of actually delivering. Especially given that you told him what you expect the finished product to be: "i explicitly said i DIDN'T WANT ANY BUZZ".

The good news is that it sounds like nothing that he did was so damaging to the guitar that it couldn't be repaired or set right by a truly qualified tech. I'd take it to another tech and have them look at it. Explain what happened with the first tech and see what they say and get a quote on how much it would cost to have it fixed. Then take that estimate back to the first tech and demand a refund of at least the original work, or the cost to have what he did undone.

Good luck. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works out for you.

 

[mullyman]

200 bucks for a set up? Jesus!!! I do it for friends all the time for free. Granted, I don't level frets, but everything else is pretty much a go. I've taken in guitars that were a total mess and have turned them into playable machines and I never charge a dime for it. Damn, I may have to start asking for lunch or something.
MULLY

 

[Strat Avenger]

It angers me when I hear stories like this about hacks that have no business working on people's guitars. I usually pay by check or credit card when having work done, which makes it possible to cancel payment. You should cancel if at all possible. The fool ripped you off.

 

[bendeg]

Bummer .... Ouch  :sad:  sorry to here that.

Was he a proper guitar tech ?
Doesn't sound like it.
Can ya get a re-fund on his crap work  :dontknow:
Especially that it came back worse than when ya took it in.

May-be send it to Cagey  :icon_thumright:  ..... all thou it's already cost you heaps.

thank you very much, it's the first time anyone actually have stated they feel sorry for me. nice to hear that, thank you  :icon_thumright:.
well, he clearly stated that he'd had over 30 years of experience, and handles 4-5 guitars per day and that to him justified his claims (god he must have a lot of unhappy customers then!).
i'm afraid i can't get a refund. i'd love to have one though, it's a lot of money just to flush out into nothing.
the thing is my dad thinks we'll just make a fool out of ourselves if we confront him with it, because "he's had over 30 years of experience, so he knows better than we do", which is just foul logic to me. i don't give a damn how long he's been a tech if he can't deliver what he promises. besides, it's been a couple of months now, so i don't think i can even get a refund.

oh and BTW, is there any way i can check the frets myself? i've used a laser to see how far the beam would travel, but i don't know if it's any good.

There's a cheap and easy way to check your frets  : use a credit card as a fret rocker, I did it and actually, it works fine (a real pro fret rocker confirmed the fret issue)

Lay an edge on 3 consecutive frets, try to rock it, if it doesn't move, those 3 frets are in the same plane meaning it's ok, otherwise, there's a problem...Better bring your baby to someone like Cagey  :icon_smile:

 

[croquet hoop]

I've always found the cost of the tools to be prohibitive to the cost to have it professionally done.

A set of a few good tools (a neck caul, a straight steel beam, sandpaper, a crowning file) that will do the job is not likely to cost more than what you would shell out to a pro. Even if it does, if you have more than one guitar to fully set up, it will be cheaper to buy the tools than pay someone to do it.

Then there is the value of experience, sometimes it's better to leave someone skilled to do the job, but with carefully selected tools and the abundance of information you can find on the internet, there is no reason you could not do it yourself. If you feel confident enough.

 

[ChristianFS1]

i just found out it's only one slightly tall fret (the 19th fret). that's what i could find myself. i'm amazed that old fart didn't even find it  :doh:.