BUZZING BRIDGE

[Wild Bill 212]

Hi GUYS/Dolls, I have recently gone out and bought a 2016 Les Paul STUDIO FADED, GREAT GUITAR,HEAVY SOUND and got a great deal on it at G.C. Of course, when I looked at the bridge plate the strings were hitting the back of it and I proceeded to change strings and do the OVER-WRAP method of stringing up and then set the guitar up to GIBSON SPECS. All went well but there was severe buzzing coming from the bridge area. So I changed the over wrap back to the regular method of stringing the guitar up and just raised the STOP-TAIL just enough so the strings were not hitting the back of the bridge plate and setup the guitar once again to GIBSON SPECS,of course.All but the relief was done.The guitar is intonated perfectly and the string height is spot on and all is setup correctly w/stop-tail raised just enough so the strings are clearing the back of the bridge plate.

 

The problem is that although 90% (maybe 95%) of the buzzing went away, BUT there remains some buzzing on the 'A' string when hitting bar chords starting around the 11TH fret. I have checked everything on the guitar to make sure that all is properly tightened(pickguard,pickup covers,everything) and still the annoying BUZZING. Is this just the BEAUTY-OF-THE-BEAST? Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I have a 1979 WALNUT 'SG'(The 'SG') a new 2016 'SG' Faded and a 1994 NIGHTHAWK and have setup these guitars many times for decades and have yet to run into this problem, even the over-wrap on the 2016 'SG' doesn't produce the BUZZING I am hearing on the new Les Paul STUDIO.The 2016 'SG' Faded is over-wrapped and has no buzzing issues what-so-ever, NONE.I do not mind jacking up the STOP-TAIL as long as the BUZZING goes away but still a little has not been removed by jacking up the stop-tail so the strings just clear the back of the bridge plate.I don't get why this is happening.

 

Does anyone else have this issue? IF SO, What did you do? I really do not want to bring the guitar back to where I bought it as I just got it and am enjoying playing it, BUT IF I HAVE TO......

 

THANKS for any help anyone may offer ,

 

WB

[Mr. C.O. Jones]

Hi GUYS/Dolls, I have recently gone out and bought a 2016 Les Paul STUDIO FADED, GREAT GUITAR,HEAVY SOUND and got a great deal on it at G.C. Of course, when I looked at the bridge plate the strings were hitting the back of it and I proceeded to change strings and do the OVER-WRAP method of stringing up and then set the guitar up to GIBSON SPECS. All went well but there was severe buzzing coming from the bridge area. So I changed the over wrap back to the regular method of stringing the guitar up and just raised the STOP-TAIL just enough so the strings were not hitting the back of the bridge plate and setup the guitar once again to GIBSON SPECS,of course.All but the relief was done.The guitar is intonated perfectly and the string height is spot on and all is setup correctly w/stop-tail raised just enough so the strings are clearing the back of the bridge plate.

 

The problem is that although 90% (maybe 95%) of the buzzing went away, BUT there remains some buzzing on the 'A' string when hitting bar chords starting around the 11TH fret. I have checked everything on the guitar to make sure that all is properly tightened(pickguard,pickup covers,everything) and still the annoying BUZZING. Is this just the BEAUTY-OF-THE-BEAST? Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I have a 1979 WALNUT 'SG'(The 'SG') a new 2016 'SG' Faded and a 1994 NIGHTHAWK and have setup these guitars many times for decades and have yet to run into this problem, even the over-wrap on the 2016 'SG' doesn't produce the BUZZING I am hearing on the new Les Paul STUDIO.The 2016 'SG' Faded is over-wrapped and has no buzzing issues what-so-ever, NONE.I do not mind jacking up the STOP-TAIL as long as the BUZZING goes away but still a little has not been removed by jacking up the stop-tail so the strings just clear the back of the bridge plate.I don't get why this is happening.

 

Does anyone else have this issue? IF SO, What did you do? I really do not want to bring the guitar back to where I bought it as I just got it and am enjoying playing it, BUT IF I HAVE TO......

 

THANKS for any help anyone may offer ,

 

WB

 

Sounds strange, are you 100% sure it's the bridges fault?

I had a buzzing bridge problem once but that was with an Epiphone ABR style bridge.

 

That shouln't happen with a Nashville T.O.M. like the one on your Studio.

You should check the pickup springs, I had one that caused a little rattling sound once, but it disappeared as soon as I did set up the guitar to my liking.

I heard of people using surgical tubing instead of the springs to avoid this problem.

 

 

 

[Rabs]

Hmm.. Im thinking from what you are saying that the truss rod needs a small tweak.....

[Wild Bill 212]

Sounds strange, are you 100% sure it's the bridges fault?

I had a buzzing bridge problem once but that was with an Epiphone ABR style bridge.

 

That shouln't happen with a Nashville T.O.M. like the one on your Studio.

You should check the pickup springs, I had one that caused a little rattling sound once, but it disappeared as soon as I did set up the guitar to my liking.

I heard of people using surgical tubing instead of the springs to avoid this problem.

 

 

THANK YOU for the idea as I had not thought of that !!! I will investigate upon next string change in a few days! Smart thinking there ! and it is a Nashville Tune-o-matic, oh yes indeed it is. U kno, thing is, most of the buzzing went away when I undid the over-wrap.

[capmaster]

More than three years ago my then new Custom Shop Les Paul Standard had a buzz problem at certain notes. I found out that the treble-sided spring of the neck pickup was the culprit. Exchanging the two springs with each other solved the problem.

[Wild Bill 212]

Hmm.. Im thinking from what you are saying that the truss rod needs a small tweak.....

 

Thanks Rabs,(are you the guy from Andertons?)

When I got it home the day I bought it I put .42-09 Super-Slinky's on it immediately, set it up to specs, as it was a floor model and had been sitting in GC for a few months waiting for me. Then when I did that, I heard some metallic fret noise on 'G' in the 14Th Fret area and I got out the magnifying glass and it was close but the strings were not touching anything so I changed back to the .46-.09 as the owner's manual states the guitar is built for. I set the relief at .15 and then did the over-wrap and set the 12TH Fret action to 5.5/64ths - 4/64ths Low 'E' to High 'E' (Gibson has published both 5/64THS & ^/64THS for Low 'E' and 3/64THS & 4/64THS for High 'E' @ 12TH Fret, so I tend to go with the higher action to avoid Fret Buzz), thats when the buzzing was intolerable. So back to the standard string up and setting up to specs again @ 12TH fret action but I did not reset the relief as I figured it's set already, NO? N E Way, that is where it is at right now w/the majority(90%+/-) of the buzz gone but all of it should be absent/not present/GONE !!! Its a Les Paul FFS !!! LOL.

 

BOTH you and the other Gentleman have made excellent suggestions and I will be checking into both suggestions in the VERY near future.BTW GIBSON's 'TECH-TIPs' page on 'Basic Guitar Set-up' doesn't give a specific height to set the relief at nor does the page state which fret to set it at either. The Gibson Tech-Tip page states that after the neck is straight as possible to turn counter-clockwise 1/4 turn to set the 'relief'. The 'YOUTUBE' Gibson Tech 'EXPERTS' state that relief should be set @ the 8TH Fret @ .12 inches and since I heard the mild metallic sound on the frets I went 3/100ths of an inch higher to .15" (inches), it is a minute difference but could be the perp? IDK, but I WILL find out.

 

I will let you guys know how it goes and THANK YOU for your TIME/Suggestions !!!

 

WB

[Rabs]

Thanks Rabs,(are you the guy from Andertons?)

 

You mean Rabea Massaad... NOOOoo... Definitely not.... I wouldn't mind being able to play like him though.... :)

 

Its funny the things that can effect a guitar..

 

I had a guitar I was setting up and the low E string had a buzz, sort of sounded like a sitar.... I checked everything I knew how to (bridge and nut slots and string height) and couldn't find anything wrong...

 

After a while some how it dawned on me the only other thing it could be and it turned out the bridge pickup on that end was just a tad too high and pulling on the string.. so two turns of a screwdriver to lower the pickup height and it was sorted ... duhhhhh :)

[capmaster]

My way of checking/adjusting the neck relief is capoing at the 1st fret and fretting at the fret closest to the neck heel, that is the 14th on a Les Paul, effectively fretting the string between 1st and 13th fret. Then I adjust to .1 mm resp. .004" relief at the 6th fret.

 

For a procedure on the fly I do without a capo and use an 80 g/m² piece of paper that has the appropriate thickness.

 

Bass guitars will need lots more relief since otherwise the heavier strings with multiple wounds will buzz between 5th resp. 7th fret and nut when played fretted at 6th resp. 8th fret. Sympathetic notes do this because the attack propagates through the string core as well as the buzz invades back into the attacked string portion.

[Wild Bill 212]

You mean Rabea Massaad... NOOOoo... Definitely not.... I wouldn't mind being able to play like him though.... :)

 

Its funny the things that can effect a guitar..

 

I had a guitar I was setting up and the low E string had a buzz, sort of sounded like a sitar.... I checked everything I knew how to (bridge and nut slots and string height) and couldn't find anything wrong...

 

After a while some how it dawned on me the only other thing it could be and it turned out the bridge pickup on that end was just a tad too high and pulling on the string.. so two turns of a screwdriver to lower the pickup height and it was sorted ... duhhhhh :)

 

 

Yes ,thats the guy I meant,HE SHREDS! I C him eslewhere on the 'net and figured MAYBE he is here too.

 

BTW, I did the pickup height adjustment, first thing, and no luck. BUT THEN, I backed off 3/8THS of a turn on the truss rod so the relief is .018 and it has cleared the Buzzing up.IDK if its ever possible to get rid of 100% of all buzzing,strings vibrating and all, but this problem was severe and has been corrcted(the buzzing with the wrap-over surprised me, doin it on my 'SG' is fine. BUT no more of that on this guitar). The amount of relief it needed I thought was a bit much,BUT what do I know?....and checking the relief is done differently by different people too.I capo'd the 1st fret held the 22nd fret down and checked the Low 'E' string distance between the fret and botton of string.At .018(not the .012 published height) that setting did the trick.

 

THANKS AGAIN!

[Wild Bill 212]

My way of checking/adjusting the neck relief is capoing at the 1st fret and fretting at the fret closest to the neck heel, that is the 14th on a Les Paul, effectively fretting the string between 1st and 13th fret. Then I adjust to .1 mm resp. .004" relief at the 6th fret.

 

For a procedure on the fly I do without a capo and use an 80 g/m² piece of paper that has the appropriate thickness.

 

Bass guitars will need lots more relief since otherwise the heavier strings with multiple wounds will buzz between 5th resp. 7th fret and nut when played fretted at 6th resp. 8th fret. Sympathetic notes do this because the attack propagates through the string core as well as the buzz invades back into the attacked string portion.

 

 

Hi, Thanks for the reply. as I mentioned in another reply. I set the relief by fretting 1ST and 22ND FRETS and checking the 8TH fret and setting it to .018"(instead of published .012") did the trick.Interestingly enough, after it was set I did the fretting as you suggestted and the measurement was .004" @ the 6TH Fret, just as you mentioned. So it seems both methods produce the same result.

 

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME ! :)

[Rabs]

Yes ,thats the guy I meant,HE SHREDS! I C him eslewhere on the 'net and figured MAYBE he is here too.

 

BTW, I did the pickup height adjustment, first thing, and no luck. BUT THEN, I backed off 3/8THS of a turn on the truss rod so the relief is .018 and it has cleared the Buzzing up.IDK if its ever possible to get rid of 100% of all buzzing,strings vibrating and all, but this problem was severe and has been corrcted(the buzzing with the wrap-over surprised me, doin it on my 'SG' is fine. BUT no more of that on this guitar). The amount of relief it needed I thought was a bit much,BUT what do I know?....and checking the relief is done differently by different people too.I capo'd the 1st fret held the 22nd fret down and checked the Low 'E' string distance between the fret and botton of string.At .018(not the .012 published height) that setting did the trick.

 

THANKS AGAIN!

Sweet... Glad to help..

 

I think a lot of the time in these cases its down to environment changes.. So if its really dry or really humid where you are that can effect the wood a bit... And then theres just time.. A guitar will change and settle a bit over time and small adjustments need to be made to compensate for that.

 

This is why there are no real standard settings.. Its all down to where they are kept and what the users preferences are and even how you play it (some people play really heavy)... So while it can be useful to use the standard Gibson settings as a starting place most (if not all) guitars need to be set up to the players preferences... Sometimes you might get lucky though as the person setting it up from the factory or shop has similar taste to you.

 

Its like getting a new car.. You have to put the seats and mirrors where they work for you. Theres no standard...

[L96A1]

I came across a strange buzz like yours before, turned out to be a loose saddle.

I ended up reaplacing a new bridge.

so I always prefer wired bridge.