getting fed up with this les paul

[Orpheo]

Today, a guy came by to have his guitar adjusted. its an LP traditional. there was a major, annoying, crazy buzz going on. its like fretbuzz, but less strong as your usual fretbuzz. I've been doing everything: adjusting the trussrod, raising the bridge, raising the nut, recutting the nut, cause i thought that the slot was at first too big, tightened all the nuts and screws. you can really hear the buzz near the headstock.

what did I miss?

I really did everything I could. its one of those newer traditionals, with plek'ed frets. I did notice that the frets weren't perfectly level. I slackened the trussrod a bit to give the neck a bit more relief, but still; buzz. at least, to the ears of the customer. I really couldn't hear anything.

 

[stubhead]

If it's not a tuning peg or a fret actually rattling away, it may be the trussrod, vibrating in it's slot - this was though to be a problem confined only to poorly-constructed P.O.S. guitars. Uh-Oh. If only the customer can hear it, he may be insane and possibly dangerous - arm your bears....

 

[mayfly]

Yep - something is rattling on there.  Peg?  Pickguard? strap pin?  Piece o-wood in a pickup cavity?  Use your ears to isolate it and dampen possibilities with your fingers to test.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have had the truss rod cover rattle, and the tuner handles? if they are made of plastic and screwed in place on the tuners.  Both things had been removed, and put back on and the plastic got a bit looser around the metal.  Then it buzzed.  Not fun.
Patrick

 

[Disco Scottie]

what did I miss?

That it's a Gibson?  :laughing7:

 

[Orpheo]

what did I miss?

That it's a Gibson?  :laughing7:

yes. unfortunately. I checked everything that has been mentioned so far.

 

[AprioriMark]

I once had a similar experience with an archtop, and it turned out to be a taut piece of wire sympathetically vibrating against the top.  It was slight, but consistently annoying.

-Mark

 

[kboman]

I was trying out an Ibanez acoustic at a store once and noticed a buzz. It took a while to find the cause, but it turned out to be the 9v battery wire for the preamp vibrating against the top. Lots of unexpected things on a guitar that can make a noise... Maybe the guy has an ear problem? Or a between-the-ears problem?

 

[erogenousjones17]

'Tis the hummin' o' the tone worms.  :icon_biggrin:

 

[dNA]

I haven't had too many weird rattles on solid bodies. but almost anything will rattle if it's at the right frequency. There's a slight tear in the rear head of my kick drum and it buzzes like hell against itself when i hit any note between a low G and a C on my bass. *shrug*

if it's near the headstock, my first guess would be a loose washer or screw from one of the tuning machines. I've also had pickups and pickguards rattling when i play on some guitars.

 

[Damon]

I just picked up an 05 LP Studio body/neck that I'm going to throw the hardware from my current LP on when I upgrade it in the next few months. If I shake it, it rattles. There's a little piece of something in one of the little cavities that Gibson started adding to LPs back in the 90s to reduce the weight and there's no way to get to it without steaming the top off (HA! Like I'd go to all that trouble). Anyway, point is it could be something like that.

 

[stubhead]

Maybe it's like the GM employees on the assembly line, who put BB's in the ceilings of Cadillacs when they didn't get the benefits they wanted. In retrospect, maybe that didn't work out too good.... I have read that truss rod vibration is one of the common discoveries/screwups of beginning luthiers, you've got to wrap them or squirt some silicone caulk or something in there.

 

[Cagey]

Maybe it's like the GM employees on the assembly line, who put BB's in the ceilings of Cadillacs when they didn't get the benefits they wanted. In retrospect, maybe that didn't work out too good....

Having spent a great deal of time in a lot of automotive plants during my career, I can tell you they didn't hire any rocket scientists for the assembly line. Applicants basically just had to have a pulse and be willing to show up 3 days out of 5, preferably slightly less than totally wasted so they were still ambulatory. For that they got paid better than rocket scientists and their hardest thinking came when it was time to decide whether to go to the rest room to piss or just do it where they stood.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Maybe it's like the GM employees on the assembly line, who put BB's in the ceilings of Cadillacs when they didn't get the benefits they wanted. In retrospect, maybe that didn't work out too good....

Having spent a great deal of time in a lot of automotive plants during my career, I can tell you they didn't hire any rocket scientists for the assembly line. Applicants basically just had to have a pulse and be willing to show up 3 days out of 5, preferably slightly less than totally wasted so they were still ambulatory. For that they got paid better than rocket scientists and their hardest thinking came when it was time to decide whether to go to the rest room to piss or just do it where they stood.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was part one in our series on "The Decline of the American Automotive Industry".  :laughing7:

 

[Damon]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was part one in our series on "The Decline of the American Automotive Industry".  :laughing7:

Here, let me fix that for you:

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was part one in our series on "The Decline of the American Automotive Industry Work Ethic."