The relief on my Gibson 339 had increased to the point where I wasn't enjoying playing it, so I adjusted the truss rod this morning. That gave me a bit of buzz on the higher strings but I raised the bridge a bit and got an action/feel I was much happier with.
Except - the open B string is still buzzing. Everything else is fine all the way up the neck. It's not a slight buzz that you can't hear through an amp, everything sounds good except one note that sounds like a sitar.
The guitar's playing so much better now that I'm reluctant to raise the action/increase the relief for the sake of one note.
Anyone any suggestions for a fix? Do I need a new nut? Putting a new one on would be beyond my skill level and the guy I like to use for this sort of work means longish round trips to drop off the guitar and pick it up again.
“To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
Comments
Fret the B string at the 3rd fret - now look at the gap at the 1st fret - Can you see any gap at all - Suspect not, in which case nut slot to low - If you want at this stage, just to prove a point, put a piece of paper, folded over once or twice in the slot and see if the buzz goes - If it does then that just confirms a low nut
You can avoid the new nut issue by dropping a touch of Supaglue in the nut slot - mask of either side of the nut first - Make sure it goes deep in the slot (use the cut of part of an e-string in the slot to ensure this) - Leave for 24 hours - Now I have to assume you have a set of nut files - Recut the slot, carefully with a .13 gauge file - Do a bit and check - Fret at the 3rd and look for the gap to nearly disappear - This is now the correct depth - Nut needs to be cut at a slight angle - So the top of the 'hill' is at the fingerboard and the 'bottom' of the hill is the headstock - Hope that makes sense
There's very little sweet spot between too high and broken. A chancer repairman who isn't highly skilled may well leave it higher than is optimal to avoid potentially spoiling the nut.
If it's too high it can be less comfortable to fret and can cause the notes on the first few frets to be sharp.