Fretting in the middle and string buzz

[AlexB]

I've taken a rather old (built 1995) guitar from a friend just to try playing an
instrument with 'floyd rose' bridge. He told the guitar is not in a very good
condition, strings are rusty, got some string buzz, so I asked him if I can try
to do some simple set-up and tuning, too. He agreed as long as I won't break the
guitar completely.

What I did is (apart from cleaning) installed new strings first - a set of
.09-.46. Then I have noticed that the 'floyd rose' thing is raised by some 3mm
at the low E string side. My friend explained that he did it to eliminate string
buzz, but it made guitar inconvenient to play due to high action at 10th fret
and further. So, I lowered the bridge, setting action for all strings at about
1.6mm at 12th fret (it is so on my guitar). Obviously, there was a string buzz
throughout most strings, especially first 3 frets. I googled over, used the
ruler and decided that it may be the 'truss rod adjustment' issue, and loosened
the truss rod some 3/4 of a turn. There is significantly less noise now, but
strings are still buzzing on some frets occasionally (again, mostly low strings,
first 3 frets) when I am fretting in the middle. If I fret exactly at the fret -
there is no buzz. Is it normal, and all I need to do is just practice to fret
precisely? Or, should I try to make more adjustments? What is your experience
with this mater?

After all this, I have noticed that there are occasional buzzing sounds on my
guitar, too! It has a fixed bridge and .10-.47 strings. Again - only when
fretting in the middle between frets. Not that it gets in the way, but I started
having this uncomfortable feeling of things not being perfect ;-)

Alex

PS. After all, there is always an option to just bring guitar to the shop and
give it to a technician, but I am trying to do it myself and understand, to what
extent guitar could be set up at home!

[RichL]

Post by AlexB
I've taken a rather old (built 1995) guitar from a friend just to try
playing an instrument with 'floyd rose' bridge. He told the guitar is
not in a very good condition, strings are rusty, got some string
buzz, so I asked him if I can try to do some simple set-up and
tuning, too. He agreed as long as I won't break the guitar completely.
What I did is (apart from cleaning) installed new strings first - a
set of .09-.46. Then I have noticed that the 'floyd rose' thing is
raised by some 3mm at the low E string side. My friend explained that
he did it to eliminate string buzz, but it made guitar inconvenient
to play due to high action at 10th fret and further. So, I lowered
the bridge, setting action for all strings at about
1.6mm at 12th fret (it is so on my guitar). Obviously, there was a
string buzz throughout most strings, especially first 3 frets. I
googled over, used the ruler and decided that it may be the 'truss
rod adjustment' issue, and loosened the truss rod some 3/4 of a turn.
There is significantly less noise now, but strings are still buzzing
on some frets occasionally (again, mostly low strings, first 3 frets)
when I am fretting in the middle. If I fret exactly at the fret -
there is no buzz. Is it normal, and all I need to do is just practice
to fret precisely? Or, should I try to make more adjustments? What is
your experience with this mater?
After all this, I have noticed that there are occasional buzzing
sounds on my guitar, too! It has a fixed bridge and .10-.47 strings.
Again - only when fretting in the middle between frets. Not that it
gets in the way, but I started having this uncomfortable feeling of
things not being perfect ;-)
Alex
PS. After all, there is always an option to just bring guitar to the
shop and give it to a technician, but I am trying to do it myself and
understand, to what extent guitar could be set up at home!

1. You should set the neck relief (with the truss rod) to obtain
somewhere between 0.01" and 0.02" clearance in the middle of the
fretboard. "Relief" (as opposed to action) indicates the deviation of
the fretboard from straight. There should be slight curvature. What
you do is fret at the first fret (use a capo if you like), and also at
the other end of the fretboard. Measure the height of the strings
roughly at the halfway point in between. Arbitrarily loosening the
truss rod 3/4 turn may have gotten you in the ballpark but then again
you may still be way off.

2. After relief is where you want it, *then* set the bridge height to
get the action you want. Generally if you like really low action then
the relief should be low also. They go hand in hand. But set relief
first. If doing this in the proper sequence doesn't do the trick,
then....

3. Check to see if there are loose frets. If it's not obvious visually
where they are, put a little drop of water on the fret and push down.
If the fret's loose, you'll see signs of the water being sucked in when
you release the pressure. (Don't leave the water there!)

4. Check to see if some of the frets are too high. Get a small
straightedge (just long enough to span 3-4 frets) and try rocking it on
each fret. If you can actually rock it on some frets, they're too high.

If you need to have frets replaced or filed down, it's probably best to
leave it to a pro if you're not experienced working on guitars.

[AlexB]

Post by RichL

Post by AlexB
I've taken a rather old (built 1995) guitar from a friend just to try
playing an instrument with 'floyd rose' bridge. He told the guitar is
not in a very good condition, strings are rusty, got some string
buzz, so I asked him if I can try to do some simple set-up and
tuning, too. He agreed as long as I won't break the guitar completely.
What I did is (apart from cleaning) installed new strings first - a
set of .09-.46. Then I have noticed that the 'floyd rose' thing is
raised by some 3mm at the low E string side. My friend explained that
he did it to eliminate string buzz, but it made guitar inconvenient
to play due to high action at 10th fret and further. So, I lowered
the bridge, setting action for all strings at about
1.6mm at 12th fret (it is so on my guitar). Obviously, there was a
string buzz throughout most strings, especially first 3 frets. I
googled over, used the ruler and decided that it may be the 'truss
rod adjustment' issue, and loosened the truss rod some 3/4 of a turn.
There is significantly less noise now, but strings are still buzzing
on some frets occasionally (again, mostly low strings, first 3 frets)
when I am fretting in the middle. If I fret exactly at the fret -
there is no buzz. Is it normal, and all I need to do is just practice
to fret precisely? Or, should I try to make more adjustments? What is
your experience with this mater?
After all this, I have noticed that there are occasional buzzing
sounds on my guitar, too! It has a fixed bridge and .10-.47 strings.
Again - only when fretting in the middle between frets. Not that it
gets in the way, but I started having this uncomfortable feeling of
things not being perfect ;-)
Alex
PS. After all, there is always an option to just bring guitar to the
shop and give it to a technician, but I am trying to do it myself and
understand, to what extent guitar could be set up at home!

1. You should set the neck relief (with the truss rod) to obtain
somewhere between 0.01" and 0.02" clearance in the middle of the
fretboard. "Relief" (as opposed to action) indicates the deviation of
the fretboard from straight. There should be slight curvature. What
you do is fret at the first fret (use a capo if you like), and also at
the other end of the fretboard. Measure the height of the strings
roughly at the halfway point in between. Arbitrarily loosening the
truss rod 3/4 turn may have gotten you in the ballpark but then again
you may still be way off.

That did the trick for me, thanks! Now it seems there is no buzz at all, but I
am not sure if it will last. I have been told that necks react slowly to truss
rod adjustment, so I will check again today in the evening.

Post by RichL
2. After relief is where you want it, *then* set the bridge height to
get the action you want. Generally if you like really low action then
the relief should be low also. They go hand in hand. But set relief
first. If doing this in the proper sequence doesn't do the trick,
then....
3. Check to see if there are loose frets. If it's not obvious visually
where they are, put a little drop of water on the fret and push down.
If the fret's loose, you'll see signs of the water being sucked in when
you release the pressure. (Don't leave the water there!)

I used some sort of lemon-oil based liquid instead of water on frets, they seem
to be firm. But thanks for pointing out. When inspecting frets I found few of
them got cuts, like someone tried to cut a part of fret with a sharp knife! It
is impossible to do bends on those, should be replaced. I think I'd better be
off to a local music store for this repair.

Post by RichL
4. Check to see if some of the frets are too high. Get a small
straightedge (just long enough to span 3-4 frets) and try rocking it on
each fret. If you can actually rock it on some frets, they're too high.
If you need to have frets replaced or filed down, it's probably best to
leave it to a pro if you're not experienced working on guitars.

[RichL]

Post by AlexB

Post by RichL

Post by AlexB
I've taken a rather old (built 1995) guitar from a friend just to
try playing an instrument with 'floyd rose' bridge. He told the
guitar is not in a very good condition, strings are rusty, got some
string buzz, so I asked him if I can try to do some simple set-up
and tuning, too. He agreed as long as I won't break the guitar
completely.
What I did is (apart from cleaning) installed new strings first - a
set of .09-.46. Then I have noticed that the 'floyd rose' thing is
raised by some 3mm at the low E string side. My friend explained
that he did it to eliminate string buzz, but it made guitar
inconvenient to play due to high action at 10th fret and further.
So, I lowered the bridge, setting action for all strings at about
1.6mm at 12th fret (it is so on my guitar). Obviously, there was a
string buzz throughout most strings, especially first 3 frets. I
googled over, used the ruler and decided that it may be the 'truss
rod adjustment' issue, and loosened the truss rod some 3/4 of a
turn. There is significantly less noise now, but strings are still
buzzing on some frets occasionally (again, mostly low strings,
first 3 frets) when I am fretting in the middle. If I fret exactly
at the fret - there is no buzz. Is it normal, and all I need to do
is just practice to fret precisely? Or, should I try to make more
adjustments? What is your experience with this mater?
After all this, I have noticed that there are occasional buzzing
sounds on my guitar, too! It has a fixed bridge and .10-.47 strings.
Again - only when fretting in the middle between frets. Not that it
gets in the way, but I started having this uncomfortable feeling of
things not being perfect ;-)
Alex
PS. After all, there is always an option to just bring guitar to the
shop and give it to a technician, but I am trying to do it myself
and understand, to what extent guitar could be set up at home!

1. You should set the neck relief (with the truss rod) to obtain
somewhere between 0.01" and 0.02" clearance in the middle of the
fretboard. "Relief" (as opposed to action) indicates the deviation
of the fretboard from straight. There should be slight curvature.
What you do is fret at the first fret (use a capo if you like), and
also at the other end of the fretboard. Measure the height of the
strings roughly at the halfway point in between. Arbitrarily
loosening the truss rod 3/4 turn may have gotten you in the ballpark
but then again you may still be way off.

That did the trick for me, thanks! Now it seems there is no buzz at
all, but I am not sure if it will last. I have been told that necks
react slowly to truss rod adjustment, so I will check again today in
the evening.

There may be a little bit of settling in the first couple of days. I've
never needed to re-tweak, but mine have never been too far off in the
first place. Re-check in a day or two, any final adjustment, if
necessary, should be very small.