Buzzing - Neck or Bridge?

Steve922

I have a small amount of buzzing on my Yamaha Pacifica that I'd like to remove.  How do I know which to adjust; the Neck (truss rod) or the Bridge?  I'd like to learn some before I start experimenting to find my ideal action.   :-)

ICBM

Where is it buzzing?

If only in the low positions, you may have a too-striaght neck or a slight back-bow. Hold the guitar in the playing position and fret the G string at the first fret and the first over the body, and look at the gap between the string and the 7th-8th frets - it should be less than half the string diameter ideally, but there should be a gap.

If only in the high positions, the bridge is probably too low.

If it's everywhere, it could be either the bridge or a combination of both.

Check the neck pickup is not too high as well, that can sometimes do odd things, although strange overtones or bad intonation are more common than buzzing.

exocet

These issues can be difficult to diagnose.

String / Fret buzz is usually pretty obvious - the solution may be to adjust trust rod or tweak saddle height. 

In my experience, bridge saddle induced buzz (the saddles vibrating as opposed to string to fret) tends to he "high pitched" in nature - a "tizz" type sound that's a bit like a homemade kazoo (comb and paper)?

I've also had Truss Rod rattle! Only had this once on a guitar that I built from new parts. All was fine for about a month and then the string tension bowed the neck leaving the truss rod to rattle when certain notes were played. I ended up needing a full 2 turns on the Truss Rod to tension it up.

Steve922

When I hold the G string down on the 1st and last frets, the gap on the 8th fret is nearly the thickness of the G string.

 The buzzing is all along the neck but worse higher up (moving towards the Bridge) and worse on the lower (thicker) strings.

Cols

Sounds like the bridge is too low and needs to be raised.  With the strings held down at the 1st fret, adjust the bridge saddles to get a 2mm gap between the strings and the 17th fret.  This should get you in the right ballpark- the exact gap is down to personal preference and playing style.

Xsmnmy

If it's worse on the bass side, raise the bridge on that side first, then once it's equal on all strings try loosening the trus rod a quarter turn and see what's changed.

ICBM

smnmy said:

If it's worse on the bass side, raise the bridge on that side first, then once it's equal on all strings try loosening the trus rod a quarter turn and see what's changed.

The truss rod may need to be tightened, not loosened. If the relief is currently just less than the thickness of the G string it's a bit too much at the moment - ideally you want to reduce this *and* raise the bridge.

Xsmnmy

Agreed - it might need to be tightened rather than loosened, but if the OP is not confident in what he's doing, I'd always suggest loosening it first. I was going to say if that makes it worse, try tightening it - I was on a train and my stop was coming up! The important thing is to only adjust a quarter turn at a time, and tune up to check what's happening. It can be tedious, but worth being careful.

Steve922

Thanks for the advice so far chaps. I'm on holiday now but will investigate and try what you suggest as soon as I get back

Steve922

Well, I tried and improved things by altering both neck and bridge but 'm not sure I've done well. The action is now quite high but most (not all) of the buzzing has gone. I suspect my own technique might not be helping. Sometimes I fret too far behind the fret or don't press hard enough but I'm still not sure.

    BTW, the action increases when loosening the truss rod. i.e. anti-clockwise with the allen key (in the head) lifts the strings away from the frets, which I find a bit odd!

ICBM

Steve922 said:

BTW, the action increases when loosening the truss rod. i.e. anti-clockwise with the allen key (in the head) lifts the strings away from the frets, which I find a bit odd!

That's what it's meant to do. Tightening the truss rod straightens the neck by increasing the force which pulls the neck backwards against the string tension, and hence lowers the action.

artiebear

You probably need a guitar tech to look at it. Yes, the action will appear to rise if you loosen the rod as you are putting more relief (curvature in the board ) The basics as mentioned earlier are

1) too little relief, mucho buzzing low to mid board, tight but low action
2) too much relief, high action mid to 12th fret with potential for fretting out / buzzing 14th fret and above.
3) Action ok everywhere but buzzing frets up to 3, low cut nut slots
4) everything buzzing , low bridge saddles
5) need to adjust strings or technique dependant upon touch ( sometimes varies guitar to guitar )
60 buzzing only on certain notes, dodgy frets.
7) do not detune while adjusting the rod, unless a vintage fender rod for obvious reasons.

You are not alone, its the sort of thing that either drives us nuts. or causes us to sell great guitars that could and would have been fine with a bit of work.

Steve922

Well, I've spent the last three days making adjustments and I think it about the best I can do now. I don't want any professional help, partly because of the cost (the instrument only cost me £145 anyway) and partly because of the satisfaction of doing things myself.

I get the impression the action is still a bit high but I've taken some measurements and I have between 2mm and 3mm clearance over the last fret and between 2 and 2.5 mm clearance over the 12th fret. And I have no buzzing at all providing I place my fingers anywhere in the last half of the fret, if you know what I mean.

I'm going to leave it at that for a while and see if it bothers me at all in the future. I must say its very tempting to blame the guitar and use it as an excuse to start looking for a new one. Hmmm I'll bet a new Gibson would sound good  :-)  Nah! I'm not ready for that yet  LOL

Thanks for all the help and encouragement chaps.