Guitars and "Buzz"

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

Been down this road hundreds of times.

Any guitar, with any action, with any frets can be made to buzz.

On other guitars that don’t buzz as much, have the customer bring that guitar in. Have them bring the guitar in for inspection. No one has ever brought the other guitar in when I offer to replicate the set up. I suspect, they test it to make sure and realize it’s the same. If they do, here are some under appreciated factors in fret buzz and why some seemingly similar guitars may have more or less fret buzz.

Scale length / actual length of string

Say you have two locking nut guitars with different scale lengths. The longer scale length guitar will have higher tension to achieve the same pitch. This means that the strings will not vibrate as widely under the same input leading to less perceived fret buzz.

Now take two guitars with identical scale length, one with a locked nut and one with strings free to the tuners. The guitar with the nut locked down will carry more tension in the strings and play with less perceived fret buzz. This isn’t because of the nut is creating tension. It’s because the tension of the string is reduced by being distributed to the amount behind the nut that is carried to the tuners. It’s why a 25.5″ Gretsch will play way looser than a 25.5″ Fender. Sharp break at the bridge on a Fender as opposed a ton of string between the bridge and the tail piece on the Gretsch. Also less string and sharper angle on A Fender peghead.

Radius of the Fretboard

Im attaching a picture of a string vibrating on a guitar to show how much lateral movement is involved in string vibration. Most example of string vibration show the vibration from the side, as though the pick force is from the top down. The pick force is from the side. A steeper radius will produce more fret buzz.

Some Woods will Exacerbate Fret Buzz

Maple acoustics for sure will really put those fret buzzes out there. Im sure the same is true for certain hardware, fret alloys etc.

One thing to remember is that all Electric fret buzz is to be determined with the guitar plugged into an amp.

Hope this helps.

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

@guitarspecialistinc this might be a good one for you to take a look at.

[David Ross David Ross Musical Instruments]

Hey Ian, thanks for the response. What you said makes a lot of sense and I’m glad I’m not the only one who has been thinking about this type of thing.

-David

[Doug Proper Guitar Specialist]

Hi David,

Ian suggested I chime in on this – and I am happy to do so. Although it may not wind up being the response you expected.

First of all – yes – we all deal with this issue from time to time – sometimes, unnervingly often.

I will start by saying that everything Ian said about strings, scale length, fingerboard radius, woods, string excursion and all of that is correct and I agree with wholeheartedly – there’s no reason to add to that.

My take on this is ….. It’s your fault (the luthier’s fault).

That sounds harsh – and it is.

The simple fact of the matter is that most guitarists don’t know how to play the guitar. They aren’t trained and their technique stinks. To go further – most guitarists never learned how to use a plectrum (we call it a guitar pick is modern nomenclature).

The act of striking a string with a pick (or the fingers for that matter), is an act that introduces a cylindrical force to the cavitation of a string that results in an elliptical pattern to the strings. If someone has good technique, and most don’t, then the guitar will rarely, if ever buzz – even with the lowest of actions. If the guitarist leans into the string with the pick, forcing the string toward the fingerboard – and the string dips below the pick in order to escape the trajectory of the pick – then the elliptical pattern of the string’s cavitation will then be perpendicular to the fingerboard and frets – an will always be at risk of producing “fret buzz”

Guess what – it is still your fault (the luthier’s fault).

When we start suggesting to our customers that there is some inherent “vibration of the string” or the “natural mechanics” of the guitar, or that “such and such scale length is inherently …” you’ve already lost the customer, because to them it sounds like you are making excuses. When a customer hears us suggesting to them that “new guitar strings tend to be lively” or some other such opinion as to why their guitar is buzzing – they only hear excuses as to why we can’t accommodate their desires and we must somehow be an incompetent luthier.

Any guitar can be set up to play buzz free – but it takes a change in how you handle the customer – not the guitar.

Let me detour into a little cul-de-sac. I am a guitarist first. always have been. It may sound conceited – but I am a better player than 90 percent of my customers. As a young musician I studied classical guitar and later got bitten by the jazz bug. I have had the honor of studying with countless incredible masters in both the classical and jazz world and had the good fortune to share the bandstand with many of my jazz heroes. For a several year period as a young adult I practiced my instrument and technique for 8 to 10 hours a day.

Back to fret buzz

When a customer comes in complaining about fret buzz. you should turn your attention to the customer and away from the guitar. Every guitar is different as is every guitarist. I play a D-28 differently than I play a Les Paul, Strat or an ES-175.

When the complaint from a customer bringing in a guitar is about fret buzz – I always train my eyes and ears toward the customer. Not as a target to “lay the blame” but to learn how to set up a guitar for that customer.

This is one of the reasons why I call the front counter area and our “customer lounge” (where the customer can sit and play their guitar when they pick it up) the most important areas of our shop.

I explain to my customers that their guitars need to be set up for them. How they play is as important as any other factor in setting up a guitar. Yes, the frets need to be level and they need to be crowned well – yes, the nut needs to be cut well and so forth. Yes, some guitars with a steeper FB radius needs a higher action so the string doesn’t choke when bending in the upper register – and a hundred other factors.

Some players need a bit more relief than others. Some need a heavier gauge string to help cut down on string excursion with a heavy picking attack. Others need to change the weight of their pick. Many customers are surprised to hear than the suggestion I might have for getting rid of their fret buzz is to change to a heavier string. The simple fact is that there is less excursion to a heavier string which is at a higher tension at the same pitch than a lighter string – as a result, I can achieve a lower action (buzz free) with heavier set of strings than a lighter set.

When a customer tells me that “I like such-n-such gauge strings”, my usual retort is, “while that may be true, let’s find out which gauge strings like you!”

We all joke about customer’s desires for an action that is “as low as possible without buzzing” but there is a very important word that gets short-changed in that phrase. What is “possible” for one guitarist – or guitar for that matter can change from guitarist to guitarist and sometimes from guitar to guitar.

learn how to set the expectations of your customer and begin teaching them what part of keeping a guitar “buzz free” is the luthier’s responsibility and how much of it is theirs. And guess what – it is all your responsibility. This is what it means for a musician to work with a luthier to help solve their guitar’s playability issues. Sometimes we need to work on the customer as much as we need to work on the guitar. Not to find excuses, but to discover how they need their particular guitar set up, and of course make suggestions as to how their particular guitar can be adjusted, setup, and maintained in order to accommodate them.

I will say that once I began approaching every customer’s setup in this fashion, any anxiety about string buzz has all but disappeared.

I hope this offers a different perspective on the issue.

[David Ross David Ross Musical Instruments]

@guitarspecialistinc
Hey Doug, that’s an interesting perspective on the issue, especially the part about focusing more on the customer and how they play and less on the guitar itself. I’ve often found that customers seem a bit sheepish when it comes to playing their guitars in front on me, perhaps because of the anxiety that comes from playing in front of others in general. I think a lesson to be learned here for me is to be a bit more forward in asking them to play so that I can see exactly how they interact with the instrument.

As far following up with the customer, what I ended up doing was speaking with them in person for quite some time and going over several things including string gauge. I’ve often felt that the more knowledgeable the customer is about their guitar, the easier my job is. I think making an effort towards educating my customers will be more of an emphasis for me moving forwards. The customer is intending to bring a bass to my shop and have me work on that and I’ll keep all of this in mind for the future. Thank you!

-David