tatep Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Just received my new Ultra 339. Looks beautiful but soon after plugging in and tuning the fret buzz on strings 5 (A) and 6 (E) was noticeable. Adding any overdrive or gain and it becomes quite annoying. Any idea what is causing this and how to fix it? It is present on all pickup selections including the nanomag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dagwood Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Just received my new Ultra 339. Looks beautiful but soon after plugging in and tuning the fret buzz on strings 5 (A) and 6 (E) was noticeable. Adding any overdrive or gain and it becomes quite annoying. Any idea what is causing this and how to fix it? It is present on all pickup selections including the nanomag. Fret Buzz: one answer // a proper setup. Probably need the truss rod tweaked just a smidge to get rid of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemans335 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Yes, sounds like a truss rod adjustment may be needed, only takes a few minutes. Seasonal changes in temp and humidity make the neck expand and contract a little throughout the year. They come from the factory with an allen wrench for that reason. Typically I adjust mine to correct a slight backbow. Looking at the guitar from the headstock, I give the truss rod about 1/2 turn or so to the left. That will either straighten it out, or give it a slight inbow (which is actually preferrable). Other thing may be the action is too low, espescially if you're using thick strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwhi2001 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Common complaint with Epi 339s. Join the club. A good set up will reduce it but may not eliminate it. I'm very experienced at doing my own set ups, but couldn't eliminate the buzz. Took it back to the dealer, they were able to get it down to an acceptable level. I've had fret buzz issues with most of the Epis I've owned, and none of the Gibsons. I usually accept it as part of the (lower-cost) package, but was unhappy with my 339 because it cost £539 new. Not cheap for a Chinese Epi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemans335 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Common complaint with Epi 339s. Join the club. A good set up will reduce it but may not eliminate it. I'm very experienced at doing my own set ups, but couldn't eliminate the buzz. Took it back to the dealer, they were able to get it down to an acceptable level. I've had fret buzz issues with most of the Epis I've owned, and none of the Gibsons. I usually accept it as part of the (lower-cost) package, but was unhappy with my 339 because it cost £539 new. Not cheap for a Chinese Epi. I've owned dozens of Epi's over the years and 1) like the current Chinese ones best, and 2) never have ongoing problems with fret buzz. I'm always able to adjust the truss rod enough, which I usually didn't have to at all on most of them. I also have a relatively high action because I play blues and bend strings alot. Plus strings resonate better when they're raised a bit, which helps tone quality and sustain. If you have low actions, fret buzz is going to be a more common issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgruff Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 If the fretwork is good, ie nice and level along the neck, setting the right amount of neck relief should fix the buzz. Take it slow until you get a feel for how the neck responds to truss rod adjustments: a half turn or so at a time and check what's happening by taking measurements with a with feeler guage. Some people recommend leaving the guitar overnight after each adjustment to allow the neck to settle. I was asking about this myself recently - some useful tips here. One odd thing on my guitar was that the truss rod went slack after a turn or so (with the neck still quite flat) and I thought I'd run out of adjustment. I was a bit worried about unscrewing the nut right off the thread (don't actually know if you can do that) but I kept going, started to get some resistance again and after a few more turns managed to put some curve in the neck. Weird. Someone else mentioned the same thing recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tatep Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Thanks everyone for the responses. Looks like this is a fairly common issue with the ultra 339. I'll take a closer look at the setup and see if I can see an issue. I know the buzz is not caused by low strings but I have not checked the neck bow one way or the other. How can you tell if there is an issue with the nut being cut wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgruff Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 A good nut isn't just a piece of bone or plastic - or even fossilised walrus - with grooves hacked out of it: it's a piece of precision engineering. The edge of the string slots have to be at exactly the right distance from the first fret otherwise the intonation of the open strings will be out. It's quite easy to introduce some forward or backward lean if you don't file a nut with a perfectly flat bottom, or if the headstock has lumps of glue left from an old nut. There's an interesting idea from Earvana who make a special kind of compensated nut to get the optimum position for each string. Never tried them myself. Slots have to be wide enough for the string guage - obviously. Too narrow and the strings will stick. Too wide and they can slop around from side to side, possibly affecting intonation. Slots should be shaped with a rounded bottom (there are special files for that). A V shape might cause the string to stick. A wide square shape will allow the string to slip from side to side. Slots shouldn't be cut too deep. It's not the best photo but you can maybe see here how the string isn't buried deep in the nut but sits in a groove. It's less prone to sticking that way. A badly cut nut can be a cause of intonation problems. Slots should angle down slightly towards the back of the nut, at an angle slightly greater than the string angle behind the nut. If not, the string won't sit nicely on the front slot edge. The height of the slots (measured from the fretboard to the bottom of the nut slot) is very important to the feel of the guitar at the first few frets. Too high and it's hard to play notes here compared to higher up the fretboard. If it's too low, you'll get buzzing on the first fret even if the rest of the setup is good. The slots define the string spacing and radius of curvature at the nut, both of which have to be carefully matched to the fretboard. Cutting the slots is quite a skilled job for which you really need special luthier's nut files. There are lots of ways to get it wrong most of which can create problems with intonation. However, if you can find a pre-slotted nut with the correct string spacing and radius, all the really hard work has been done for you. I had good success on my dot with this pre-slotted nut. Frets.com is worth a look for a great source of technical information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tatep Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 Well spent quite a few hours this weekend working on the setup starting on Friday late afternoon. The neck had very little if any back bow in it. So I started to loosen the truss rod. I ran into the same thing as others the rod went slack then resistance came back a little further adjusting to the left. I let the guitar set overnight and tuned it up the next morning. It was better but the 6th string still had a lot of buzz. Another concern of mine the action was very high all the way across the neck. Maybe thats how the shop reduced the buzz a little before shipping it. So, Saturday afternoon I removed the stock strings. Turned the truss rod a little more to the left. Lowered the bridge even though I understand this would not help the buzz but since I was not going to use a slide on this guitar I had to do something. I then installed a set of Ernie Ball skinny top, heavy bottom hoping the heavier strings would help on the 5th and 6th strings and sit up in the nut a little more. Then I set the pickup height to balance the neck and bridge pickups. Finally I tuned it and set the intonation. I was surprised the intonation dialed in pretty nicely. After all this work it is now much much better. There is still slight buzz on the 6th string but it isn't that bad. The nanomag acoustic pickup exaggerates the buzz the most. Something else I have noticed is these new epi made humbuckers are quite sensitive to the volume pot. I tend to pick rather agressively so when the volume is all the way up the pickups break up from the get go. If I strum lightly they sound much smoother. If I turn the volume down to the 6 to 7 range they don't breakup that much. Using the volume knob to tweak the amount of fuzz that is produced is rather new territory for me. My fender tele and strat don't do that. So, I will play it a little while longer to see if the 6th string buzz still bothers me. If it does I guess I'll have to see if I can send it back to Sweetwater. tatep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dagwood Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 On my Pro, I've had few problems, well issues not really problems. My first issue was just like yours. Mine had no relief at all. I put 11's on it and still had to adjust the truss rod a little bit. I was able to lower the bridge a little bit to bring the action down. My other problem is from the bridge. That stupid retaining wire that runs across the bridge to keep the saddles in place would hum at certain frequencies and it drove me nuts. I was, still am, thinking about a new bridge, one with out that wire. For a quick fix I put a few dabs of elmers glue in between the saddles on the side where the wire is, to hold it more secure, seems to work for now. The biggest issue for me was, I don't know, intonation? But only at the first position, mostly that damn G String. When making a D chord, for example, its all out of wack. I first thought I was giving it kung-fu grip but nope. I would fret that note, as softly as I could (an "A") and watch it go to Sh!t even though the intonation on that G String is perfect (open, fretted 12th, and 12th harmonic). So I talked to my tech and he suggested the slots may not be cut right. So long story short, I put mine in the shop on Friday to get a new nut fitted. I'm going with a bone nut and my tech will cut new grooves for the 11's. I pretty much use D'addario Nickel 11's on this and 10's on my other guitars. He'll also check the fret level and adjust anything there as well. So yeah... Good luck with yours D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgruff Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 It sounds like adding some neck relief helped. I don't know if you're at the optimum amount yet - see here for some advice on the amount of relief you need to dial in. Maybe you just need to raise the bridge on the bass side a little bit? If the bridge is old and the saddle grooves have been ground down over the years, it could be that the string radius is out of whack with the fretboard radius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgruff Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 My other problem is from the bridge. That stupid retaining wire that runs across the bridge to keep the saddles in place would hum at certain frequencies and it drove me nuts. I just took mine off. Saddles will fall out easily when you change strings so watch out for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tatep Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Man I just experimented with the limits of my ultra 339 and fell in love with it even though there may still be some buzz on the 6th string. I routed the nanomag output into my pedal board. Dialed in a healthy amount of delay with my Strymon El Capiston (love that pedal) and then into a Fender twin. I then ran the seperate humbucker output directly into a Mesa mini rectifier set to the push clean channel; gain about 1/2 way up. Holy crap what a wall of sound resulted. It sounds GREAT! In this setup I get some dirt sustain from the humbuckers through the Mesa that becomes wrapped in the acoustic higher frequency Fender clean delay notes. I am definately in love with it now. The ultra 339 is a keeper now just because of the tech advantages open to the remaining 5 strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgruff Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 :) They're nice guitars, for sure, and very versatile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tmack5 Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 In case any ones interested. I got rid of the frett buzz by having a professional guitar tech who is a player remove the plastic nut and replace it with a properly cut nut. Had it over a year now with 10s on it fairly low action and no buzz. The key is professional guitar tech who has the right files to cut the nut and set up th guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpalomino Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 In case any ones interested. I got rid of the frett buzz by having a professional guitar tech who is a player remove the plastic nut and replace it with a properly cut nut. Had it over a year now with 10s on it fairly low action and no buzz. The key is professional guitar tech who has the right files to cut the nut and set up th guitar. Are you talking about the Ultra 339 or the Pro? I have the ultra 339 and it has the buzzing also. If I just ask my guitar tech to replace the nut, no more buzzing? Any issues with the nanomag causing the buzz? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Are you talking about the Ultra 339 or the Pro? I have the ultra 339 and it has the buzzing also. If I just ask my guitar tech to replace the nut, no more buzzing? Any issues with the nanomag causing the buzz? Thanks. I think it was the setup that cured the buzz. I don't see how a nut can cause a fretted note to buzz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dporto Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 As many others have said, it's all about the setup... It sounds like you've gotten it pretty close to where you want it - the "sixth fret buzz" issue is probably just a high fret (6th or seventh depending on where you're actually fretting the note 5th or 6th...obviously it's the first fret higher up the neck than the fretted note that's causing the buzz) just file it a bit (work slowly with a very fine file then polish it off with some super fine paper)... The "dirty pickup sound" is probably caused by the pickups being adjusted too close to the strings - common problem...Drop them down (counterclockwise on the two screws in the pickup ring) until they sound clean with strong picking - I've found they usually sound best (cleanest) at about 1/4" below the strings - I gladly give up a little output for clarity. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filthypit Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 a set-up might fix it ~ HOWEVER, its not unusual for the chinese-made guitars to arrive w/ significant flaws. they tend to use poor quality metals & often come in w/ a pretty crappy fret job. a new Epi is guaranteed and your complaint is legitimate. i wouldn't hesitate to bring it back to place of purchase & see what they'll do about it. most stores will give you a free set-up on new guitars (esp w/ the problem(s) you've described), during which they'll be able to examine the instrument closely. their shop expert deems necessary, they can replace it. good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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