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Well, there you have it. Three common causes for fret buzz: (1) uneven frets (2) excessively low string action, and (3) back bowed neck. Just one of these problems is enough to cause fret buzz, but often times a guitar has a combination of these three problems all at once. I just bought some d'addario 10's to put on my strat after having it a good few month and never changing strings. So I changed the strings over (did a.
Las friday arrived my Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Custom Plux EX and being new I thought it should be 100% fine... but I've noticed a weird fret buzz...
I mean weird because when I play the strings open they don't buzz... but when I strum power chords it buzzes... and the problem seems to be the 5th string, its the one buzzing but again, it only does when playing power chords...
Now, I only hear this buzz when playing the guitar being disconected from the amp, unplugged... and when I plug the guitar and turn on the amp it sounds good... the fret buzz doesn's comes through the amp... it sounds clean...
So, should I worry about this situation? I called a friend that plays guitar on a more professional way than I do... (I have no band...) and he told me that it is normal on an electric guitar to have a little buzz, and it may be because it is new and the strings and frets are 'getting along'... (something like that)
P.D. I forgot to mention that this is only with the 3 upper strings (4th, 5th and 6th)... I can play arpegios and everything but when I power chord those 3, the 5th string buzzes a little bit...
Thank you for your advices!
Posted by3 years ago
Archived
Hi guys,
I'm reaching out for some help here because I've got a really strange problem with a MIJ Strat.
I've been setting it up for a friend, I kind've know what I'm doing and I thought I could at least diagnose most kinds of problems, even if I don't have the tools & expertise to fix them myself.
But this one has really got me beat. We've got serious fret buzz on just the D string and nowhere else to mention. That's including the open string and every fret too. Pretty consistent throughout the fingerboard, maybe a little less pronounced at the higher (17+) frets.
This is regardless of how hard you play the string.
![Changing Changing](/uploads/1/2/5/1/125191469/197798254.jpg)
So my first place to check was the nut. I figured that if it was buzzing whilst open then that would be a likely problem, the slot was too low. I bodged it with a few things in turn, paper, plastic etc just to raise the height to an unrealistically high point, and the buzz continued.
Then I checked the saddle. Just to experiment I raised it to a ridiculously high position to see if it made any difference whatsoever. It didn't. Still buzzing all over the place.
I checked the truss rod as part of the general setup. It's not got a huge amount of relief, it's one of the bullet trusses FWIW and I haven't had to use them much before, but I adjusted it slightly to try and increase the relief and it's reached the point where turning it makes no difference anymore. In fact it was pretty much there to start with. Turning the other way only decreases relief and that causes a bunch of other problems...
Anyway, I welcome your suggestions guys and I will take on board any advice you have to give. I'm scratching my head here, but the last thing I can think of (and don't have the tools to check) is an unlevelled fret or frets. I really don't know why this would affect just one string though, the others are all totally fine.
And hey, I'm pretty new to posting here, so if you can think of a different sub I should cross-post this in, then please do let me know.
Thanks everyone!
EDIT Here's a video of what I'm talking about: Dropbox
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