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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.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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.
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.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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.
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.